At this time of year a time machine would be very handy and this morning proved the point. The choice was get up at 3 am to drive to Etal for the Bird club dawn chorus , with the added bonus of bacon butties afterwards or get up at a more reasonable hour and go to Holy Island to do some late spring birding. I decided to do the latter and was rewarded with a number of really good birds, the first was a smart looking female Bluethroat which was hopping around feeding off the turf at Chare Ends. Next a visit to the Crooked Lonnen produced a distant Dottrel, the Straight Lonnen came up trumps with 2 Pied Flycatchers and another more elusive Bluethroat, this time a male with a limited amount of blue on the throat. Finally the star of the day in the form of a very active Subalpine Warbler feeding energetically on flies in a Hawthorn, there was much debate over what form but it was finally identified as a Western Subalpine Warbler. A great end to the day which would have been even better if I could have also fitted in the Dawn Chorus, maybe next year.
Female Bluethroat
'Candle Power' is all you really need! Having gone to the 'Dawn Chorus' at Etal and enjoyed the Warblers and the Bacon Butties etc,Alison and I headed to Holy Island in the afternoon, with great views of both Bluethroats and the Subalpine Warbler, plus an even more distant view of the Dotterel as it decided to leave with its two 'buddies'(the Golden Plovers) about 10 seconds after we arrived and located it in the scope......Hey, ho that's migrants for you.
ReplyDeleteThe downside of burning the candle at both ends is that you feel pretty jaded the next day- perhaps I'll join the queue for one of your Time Machines!!!