An Unusual Falcon

Today after 48 hours of intensive 'puppy therapy' I'd cheered up somewhat and was thus able to venture out in an optimistic mood. I had decided on Axe Cliff because earlier in the morning at about 9:oo am I had seen a couple of big flocks of Woodpigeons flying over town from my living room window, they looked something like this, in fact they looked exactly like this:

178-ish Woodpigeons taken from on my sofa in living room!

Once on Axe Cliff I saw several more large flocks and many smaller ones, they had more or less stopped by around 11:00 though. I estimated having seen about 2000 in total, there had probably been thousands more earlier. They weren't flying overhead but were hugging the edge of the undercliff and then swinging round into Seaton Bay and over town. Here's some just rounding the corner of Haven Cliff:

More thrilling Pigeons

Apart from these there were very few birds, just a couple of Skylarks and the odd Meadow Pipit. Still quite a few Red Admirals on the wing too.

"Yes, yes, very interesting, but what about the unusual falcon?" I hear you cry. Well I first spotted it coming around the headland from the Seaton direction, straight away I thought it looked too big for a Peregrine and the wings less rakish and pointed, they were much broader and blunt looking. The plumage was brown, with the head noticeably paler with little marking. By the time I had fumbled about in my bag for my camera, unattached the tele-converter, turned it on and zoomed in, I only managed one shot of it before it flew in front of the sun and then below the trees and out of sight. Never fear though it's a brilliant shot showing all the features I've mentioned! Yeah right! As if! Here it is though ( you can see the pale head, it's those few pixels to the top left of the blob) :

Speeding brown blob which isn't a Peregrine!

Before anyone cries wanton suppression, I was pretty sure it was either a Saker Falcon or a hybrid of some sort and I was absolutely certain it was an escapee because it was still adorned with a set of jesses!! Anyone lost a falcon?

Once back at home I was sitting on the sofa enjoying a nice cuppa when I spotted a Black Redstart waving at me from a rooftop over the road, without even leaving the comfort of my sofa I took a quick snap and yes, it's as awful as you'd expect:

"Cooee!! Yes you, the lazy git on the sofa!"

Another Kind of Twitching

On the 6^th of September at exactly 16:34 I had a text from Gav which said “You’ve just missed a Long-tailed Skua.” It was hideous and immediately went on the record as 'the worst text ever'. Gav may be pleased to know that today it was well and truly supplanted from this position by one I received at 10:17 this fine morning from Steve. It said something like:

“I really recommend the Junco Karen, which I’ve seen already because I went really early, and although I took Bun with me, I didn't call you coz I assumed you would still be snoring your head off in bed you lazy git!! It was really, really stunning! You must see it! Perhaps some other sucker will take you? Or you could even get your finger out and take yourself!!”

Obviously these aren’t his exact words, but it’s exactly what came across to me! I was gutted :(

Seriously though, I admit I could have gone on my own but quite frankly the idea of twitching a bird in a place I’ve never been to before, alone, doesn’t really appeal to me however badly I’d like to see the bird in question; because to me most of the pleasure of seeing a brilliant bird is sharing the experience with others. Perhaps that makes me weird, I don’t know….

Needless to say the only twitching I’ve done today was when my tranquilizers wore off!!

I’ve had to spend the day looking at nice soothing pictures like this one:

Aahh!..... A cute puppy, Now I feel better!

Normal service may be resumed when I find my toys…..

Some Very Small Inhabitants of Shute Woods

The only birding with intent I've managed today was an hours seawatching from the AYC first thing. It did mostly consist of watching just sea, but a couple of nice birds did eventually oblige. These were a Brent Goose and an unseasonal Balearic Shearwater. If I was to say that my attention was drawn to latter by the phrase "Hello, what's this... A Shearwater" Then you would probably be able to guess who was sewatching too?

I made an afternoon visit to Shute Woods which seemed to be completely birdless today, not to worry though because the reason for my visit was to collect some more ' Finest Shute Woods Moss' the stuff in which Water Bears are found. I've collected moss from many places over the last few weeks but upon inspection none has contained anything much of interest under the microscope. Shute Woods seem to be the only 'Water Bear Habbo' in the area! They were pretty abundant in today's sample and I didn't have to search long to find some. Here's another short video of one:

I also collected some water from a boggy pool, I haven't had time for a good look at it yet but it certainly contains lots of Desmids, including this beauty:

Micrasterias

There were lots of Rotifers in the moss sample too and I was really pleased to get a video of one feeding. It's a Bdelloidea and has an obvious twin crown of rotating cillia. In the video you can see these producing little currents and thus directing food particles to the creatures mouth. Cool! Well I think so.....