Good Riddance

In Bridport, the first day of meteorological spring was about as good as it gets. Cloudless blue sky, wall-to-wall sunshine, and old blokes faffing about cluelessly in the garden. I was in my element. Last week I blitzed the work backlog and consequently have a beautifully lightweight week ahead. The only thing missing, as I carefully prepared our little raised beds for a future of nectar-rich luxuriance, was a Red Kite or two. Still, all in good time. Meanwhile...

Beefy-looking Sparrowhawk; presumably a female.

One of three noisy, high-flying Ravens.

A yaffling Green Woodpecker, a fly-over Great Spot and Bullfinch, plus plenty of twittering Goldfinches all added to the blissful vibe. Winter is over. Definitely. And good riddance to it.

I will concede that winter has its attractions, but the short days, endless rain and finger-numbing chill are less and less palatable with each passing year. I expect it's just a function of getting older, so I probably ought not to be quite so eager to see the back of three of my ever-diminishing stock of remaining months...

I briefly skimmed through recent NQS posts to see what the winter highlights looked like. Best bird was the January 1st female Cirl Bunting that I co-found at West Bexington, and seeing it quickly become two was great. Predictably, gulls played a major role in keeping me going, with a very brief Casp video-recorded on the Axe, the mahoosive Glaucous there too, and three Yellow-legged Gulls: at West Bay, West Bex and the Axe Estuary in that order. Catching up with the elusive West Bay Purple Sandpiper was nice, and then there were a few little birds: Black Redstart at West Bay, Sibe Chiff at Kilmington - the only definite tristis I saw all winter - and single Firecrest at Colyton WTW. A pleasing collection, but far from epic.

In February I began to try nocmig recording again. Seven nights in total. Oh boy it was slow. Even so, there was one significant highlight...

February 19th at 20:37 - Grey Plover. There were actually 40 seconds between the two calls.

Grey Plover is not a common bird locally, and probably even less so over Bridport. This was my second; I had one nocmig bird in May last year. Apart from this goodie, Redwing and Moorhen featured twice each, and Song Thrush once. The local Tawny Owls are getting fruity - though I've yet to hear any with my ears - and at least one Robin gets going about 03:00 each day. Compared to nocmiggers on the east coast, or much further north, it is slim pickings here. Still, I have happy memories of spring/early summer 2020, and the jaw-dropping surprises which came my way. Let's say I am optimistic...

One sunny morning last week I went for a pre-work shingly trudge, starting out at first light...

Not even fully dressed yet, but he's belting it out. He knows. Not long now...