I rarely twitch anything but a Rosy Starling not too far away seemed worthy. It turned out to be the dullest pink one (perhaps a 2cy I need to look at the ageing guide) but good enough.
Rose-coloured Starling.
I'd not noticed before how long winged this species looks in flight and a much slower wing beat than Sternus vulgaris.
I hummed and haaed and then headed north. Painted Lady flew by. Lots of Diamond-backed Moths in the grass. Sea was flat calm and grey, perfect for a bit of a seawatch. Harbour Porpoise - nice. Hundreds and hundreds of auks feeding on the sea distantly to the south. Big fins, big bodies, four Orca. Fairly decent views through the scope. They went underwater. More scanning, a couple of Harbour Porpoise. A Manx or two went by and a pile of Bonxies, with some Arctic Skuas. Scanned back and forth and kept checking the auks, sure enough, much further out this time the Orcas again. More scanning, more fins, slightly confused as these were not Orca fins I was seeing, then I realised I was looking at much closer and smaller animals, maybe eight animals, still a way off but three turned and were heading in. I lost them. Next thing I knew the Risso's Dolphins were just in front of me.
Risso's Dolphins
Risso's (very bad movie!)
Later on, someone had a very nice adult Long-tailed Skua, but that would have been spoiling me.
At home - wasp.
Tree Wasp Dolichovespula sylvestris - a very nice animal, getting wood to make a nest.
2 comments:
Lovely photographs!
Thanks Simon.
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