A visit from Doris

Storm Doris has been blowing all day and I wandered down to the Bay to see what she had brought in. There were a lot of Guillemots passing and a few Great Crested Grebes bouncing around, but the most noticeable birds were the Gannets, passing far closer then Normal.Most of the birds I saw were adults, but I don't know if that has significance.

One or two Rock Pipits were feeding along the "esplanade", often using the railing posts for  shelter when the biggest gusts came along.

A few lines of Cormorants came past low over the water

Inland, at the Manure dump from the stables, there were at least seven Pied Wagtails feeding on the insects attracted there. Unfortunately they were the only birds there.

Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside

It wasn't an inviting afternoon, but I decided to have a look at St Margaret's Bay around High tide, as there are normally lots of Rock Pipits forced up there, at this time. In addition, the fact that the direct road down to the bay was closed for road works would probably mean there would be fewer people down there.

Not too much of the I do like to stroll along the Prom, Prom, Prom!  - Tiddely-om-pom-pom!

Since the car park was renovated a few years ago it does provide nice muddy pools for wintering Pied Wagtails to pick around looking for morsels to eat.

There were at least two Pied Wagtails using the puddles that were sheltered by the wall of the car park, almost as if it had been designed for them.

The search finally paid of and this Wagtail popped up with a large caterpillar. It took a while beating on the ground, but it did disappear in the end.

After such a large meal the Wagtail settled to an afternoon dose, although I suspect it would be looking for more quite quickly.

 The thoughtfully constructed fresh water lake in the car park (providing we get enough rain) was in full use by some Black-headed Gulls.

All of those present today were winter plumaged adults and disappointingly they were not joined by any more interesting Gulls.

 The Rock Pipits were active along the shingle and the walls. This particular bird spent along time on its haunches keeping out of the strong wind.

This, a second bird seemed happy running along the  wall, unperturbed by the conditions.

There were quite a few Herring Gulls around, some occasionally making use of the damp grass to look for food.

The Bay was a filled with  white foam as the waves came in and broke over the wall. After yesterdays tragedy in Kingsdown I was pleased that no one was on the beach taking risks.

The wind, spray and drizzle made a proper sea watch impossible, but I could sea a good number of Fulmars and Kittiwakes over the waves and the occasional Cormorant passing by.

A wanderer returns

Yesterday I had a short sea watch at St Margaret's Bay, late morning. Short because when the rain arrived not only was the visibility poor but it appeared all the birds disappeared, possibly they settled on the sea? In 40 minutes the passage of Kittiwakes was impressive, about 800 birds all moving S (into the wind). Just two parties of Scoter, the first 8 Common Scoter and one Velvet Scoter (m). The second 5 Common Scoter. The only other thing of interest were 9 Adult (or near adult) Med Gulls, difficult to see small back tips way over the sea, and four 1st year Med Gulls. A few Gannets were around, but they appear not to be on a definite movement, but probably feeding in the shallows. Another look at the sea today started with me approaching a small bird standing in the car park.

When I got close enough to get the sun out of my eyes I saw that it was a Robin, and not some waif or stray blown in off the sea. It was probably a local bird, making use of a lull ion the dog walkers to pick out a few crumbs dropped on the ground. the sea wasn't quite empty but with the wind moving from S to W everything was further away. The number of Kittiwakes had dropped although there were a few passing a long way out. I saw just three Common Scoter and one Great Crested Grebe on the sea. Two Skuas were chasing something a very long way out, I suspected they were Pomarine Skuas but they may well have been Arctic, which sometimes appear quite deep chested. In the Bay I had a close look at three ages of Mediterranean Gull. As it was high-tide many of the Rock Pipit that are along the shore at the bottom of the cliffs had come into the Bay and I counted at least eight (damn things wouldn't stay still). 

Only the adult Mediterranean Gull was in range for a distant photograph. The other two, a juvenile moulting into first winter and a second year moved along the Bay and I lost sight of them.

 We'd been a bit worried about our most regular Badger, "Old One Ear". We hadn't seen him for four days, and he's been regular as clockwork for a good while now. Our other three recognisable visitors had all been in, but not him. I'm happy to say last night, and again at the moment he's been back.

"Old One Ear"

 "Old One Ear"

 This is one of the younger boars who now seems a regular and he's becoming less worried about being photographed.

In fact he's quite happy to have a sit down while he eats his supper with me just a few feet away.