On This Date...

After a few years of doldrums, this very date in 2017 provided the catalyst that got some fizz back into my enthusiasm for birding. Idly - and not very attentively - strolling along the coast between Burton Bradstock and Cogden, I inadvertantly flushed this beauty...

Oof! What a flight shot! (photo by Mike Morse)

This wonderful Hoopoe went on to do the right thing and stuck around long enough that a few other local birders got to see it. I am a big fan of spring birding, and finding that Hoopoe kind of epitomises it for me - the possibility that any second now you're going to be ambushed by some garish, colourful job that takes your breath away. Super-tricky brown things are in the minority. Love it!

This spring, unfortunately, stuff like this is very unlikely to happen to me. It might, but based on the heavily-pruned list of birdy places I can visit currently...probably not. Wheatears can happen, yes, and I've had a single Whinchat, but I still haven't seen my longed-for Redstart. Or Yellow Wagtail. Or very much else really. And until this morning, I thought I'd had my chips with Grasshopper Warbler too. But not quite...

I didn't see it, but, like a nakedly-nocmigged Nightjar, you can get ample jollies from the noise alone.

Talking of nocmig...

Last night I heard absolutely nothing by the time I went indoors around 23:00, but the recording revealed several night-time visitors: Whimbrel x4, a very vocal Coot (only my third), a Barn Owl, Moorhen, Oystercatcher, and my first Fox. There were also two or three possible-this-or-that kind of occurrences too, which is all part of the charm. They are the little puzzles that you either seek help with immediately or, if you think it's something you can likely solve unaided with a bit more experience, tuck away for a later date.

Finally, a few snaps...

Not quite as obliging (or as well lit!) as the Lesser Whitethroat I met just recently, this Whitethroat was likewise giving it some welly though...

It is pretty obvious that Stonechats are specifically designed to perch on twigs and pose...

So here we are in May. Are the Wheatears mainly looking a bit different now? I think so...

Early-morning sun+stone wall+female Wheatear = warm glow

This one hopped out from behind a wall, froze for exactly one photo, and then bolted for the horizon.

May 2nd might not have produced as spectacular a bird as 2017's Hoopoe, but I'm a bit happier with the photos I get these days.

On this date... The Three Pixels of Happiness, May 2nd, 2017