A Very Long Day....But Worth It!

After much 'umm'ing and 'ahh'ing ( but absolutely no 'zitt'ing) Bun and I eventually cracked and decided to head over to Guernsey to see the Zitting Cisticolas (Fan-tailed Warblers if you prefer , I do). We set out at 4.00 am in order to catch the 6.00 am high speed ferry from Weymouth, which is surprisingly inexpensive for a day trip. The boat is a massive catamaran which travels at around 40 knots and holds 750 passengers, it completes the 100 miles to Guernsey in around two and a half hours! The weather was a bit worrying with strong winds and a rough sea so I wasn't taking any chances and got myself nice and dosed up with Sturgeron. All seemed suspiciously smooth until the boat passed Portland Bill and hence left the shelter of Weymouth Bay and before you could say 'sick bag' the place was heaving and I don't mean it was crowded! I didn't feel too good but managed to survive the whole journey by spending almost the entire time out on the tiny aft deck area, eyes glued to the horizon so my poor confused brain could cope with the motion. Bun was fine and spent the time looking for interesting Shearwaters (didn't see any, just plenty of Gannets and a couple of Fulmars) and scoffing bacon rolls, still, he had survived the infamous Scilly pelagic of 2008, say no more!

Once on Guernsey we made our way to Port Soif on the north coast of the island where the Zitting Cisticolas had been since March this year. I had been given details of their exact location by the Guernsey bird recorder Mark Lawlor (if you by some chance see this Mark, Thanks :-) ) As soon as we arrived on site we heard the male 'zitting' away, then saw him in his display flight singing and diving down to the vegetation repeatedly. We 'set up camp' on a grassy knoll and watched them for several hours. Small brown jobs maybe but very endearing and entertaining little things non the less. The male had a favourite perch on a spindly bit of dead umbillifer of some sort and we got some superb scope views. (I didn't take my scope because I couldn't face lugging it around for the 14 hours we would be on the island, due to suffering from a case of tennis elbow at the moment) I couldn't get a decent image through Bun's scope (not being used to the eyepiece) so I had to try for a photo with the good old S3. It wasn't easy with the bird swinging in the strong wind on its feeble perch and me not being able to hold the camera still. I managed to get quite close at one stage though and got a couple of okay shots in the end. We really enjoyed watching them and they certainly weren't "just Wrens with big tails that go 'zit, zit,zit'" Steve! We didn't see any other noteworthy birds on the island but the scenery was stunning and could be enjoyed from one of the island's buses which run all the way round the coast road for just 60p! We stopped at Lihou Island to see if we could see the Snowy Owl which has been knocking around there but were still back in St. Peter Port about five hours before our return ferry was due to leave. A nice town but nothing much to do to kill time. After loitering in a few cafes we eventually made our way back to the terminal to find that the ferry was going to be late, and then once on board there was a further delay while divers inspected the hull!! Still I was so tired due to lack of sleep and sea-sickness pills that I was able to sleep the whole way back. We eventually arrived back in Seaton at 2.30 am. Definitely my longest twitch...to date!

Some photos

The Condor Express seen here in St. Peter Port. this was after arriving from Poole (on it's second run of the day) the crossing was so rough that the duty free shop closed because all the goods fell off the shelves and a couple of people needed an ambulance on arrival.

On the aft deck, Bun takes shelter as a heavy squall hits.

Port Soif Bay,with the tide out the bay looks a bit barren like a desert or moonscape.
The beach is in the right distance and in the left distance the sea is just visible through the gap in the rocks. Must look lovely here with the tide in.

Bun goes off to burn up the habbo, while I have forty winks.

Lihou Island, the most westerly point on the Channel Islands. You can get over to it via an ancient causeway but only at very low tides. Bun spent a fair while scoping the island hoping for a glimpse of the Snowy Owl while I erm...er.. had forty winks!


What about the ZITTING CISTICOLA PHOTOS!! That's what your thinking isn't it?
Here they are, thankyou for being patient :-) (or not if you scrolled down through the waffle straight to them)

Distant but shows the nice reddish-brown cap, a feature I wasn't expecting.
I did take a bit of video of it singing but it's almost inaudible due to the wind noise.

So this'll have to do instead...

What a big mouth!

A couple of my better efforts

PS: Before anyone says it ...Yes we know we CAN'T COUNT 'EM!!

High Brown Fritillary

A single High Brown Frtillary was showing well today at the DWT Dunsford Reserve near Dartmoor. A scarce butterfly and my first ever views of one :-) I managed to get a few photos of it too.

Very nice indeed :-)

Also saw this nice moth.

I've tentatively identified it as a Silver-ground Carpet (probably hopelessly wrong)

Later this afternoon I went to look out to sea, not in the hope of seeing passing seabirds for a change though. I was waiting to see Rob and George get safely home from a weekends sailing, as the weather had turned quite challenging with a good force 6 blow. Axmouth is a very tricky harbour entrance to negotiate in anything but ideal conditions. A small crowd had gathered at the the harbour entrance expecting disaster, they were disappointed. Our friend John who also sailed his boat in likened the reception to 'being in the Colosseum'!

Here they are reefed down and heading in.

Butterflies at Trinity Hill Woods

I haven't had much time out and about today but Rex needed his walk, so I decided to go to Trinity Hill Woods. It can be very good for butterflies at this time of year. I was hoping to see Silver-washed Fritillary because I've seen them on previous years and got decent snaps of them too. Despite the largely cloudy weather I saw ten species, including two SWFs, unfortunately they were both in territory establishing mode and didn't settle once today. I'll no doubt see them better on another of my regular visits. I pointed my camera at a few 'more willing' ( well slower) subjects instead.

A Bumble-bee.

I'm not good at bee ID, but I've 'got a book'.

I think this one may be Bombus pratorum.

Large Skipper

Small Skipper

A closer look just to make sure it's not an Essex Skipper, nope just a Small.

Red Admiral

I usually don't bother taking photos of these ( I'm not sure why), this one tempted me though.

A stunning fresh Comma

Knapweed

There was lots of this attracting the butterflies.

For some reason I cannot look at this plant without this little ditty coming into my head,

"I am Constable Knapweed, and I keep law and order,

I watch to see that all is well, around the garden border."

Too many hours watching the fantastic Micheal Bond show 'The Herbs' no doubt, both as a child and with my children, whom I selflessly bought the entire video collection for! :-) All the characters had their own little ditty but for some reason this totally uninvited intrusion of said ditty into my head on seeing a character's plant ONLY happens with Knapweed, I have no problem with Dill, Sage, Parsley, Rosemary, Basil etc, etc. Wait a minute, that's a lie, I do have the same problem with Tarragon, and in fact it's worse coz I usually find myself singing.

"I'm Tarragon the Dragon, I'd better make it clear,

That nothing's safe when I'm around, things seem to disappear!"

Don't worry, I'm going for a lie-down now...