I had an innocent question from Adam Whitehouse on Kent-birders today "Anything going past on the sea at St Margaret's?" At the time the wind was gusting up to 64 mph and I hadn't been outside the door, preferring to watch the wooden arches that support various climbing plants in the garden, slowly subside into crazy angle form the comfort of my study window.
When the battering reduced to gust of a mere 45mph I did take a look at the sea in the bay. I can't say it was very appealing to me but I did notice a couple of fellows getting ready to take their windsurfers out for a spin. I always thought these guys were mad, now I'm sure!
On the sea wall I notice a small passerine sheltering just behind a Black-headed Gull. At times it flattened itself as if to avoid be blown away by the ferocious wind.
A closer look showed it to be a Rock pipit, a bird seemingly quite equipped to deal with what ever nature throws at it. There can be few birds ion the UK that daily contend with harsher conditions.
The sea was foaming and there were few birds to be seem over the water. One Great Crested Grebe flew past battling into the wind. They look so strange in flight, especially in these conditions, that it took me a few minutes to recognise what I was looking at. In sure a ghostly image came by, hardly visible against the white water. How different to the etangs in the Camargue where I first saw Little Egrets.
1 comment:
Hi Tony
Glad I got you outdoors on such a gusty day - but wasn't expecting you report Little Egret!
Dramatic sea, nice post.
Adam
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