Nocmig Mega and Many Birds

Well. What a day. Burton Bradstock seawatch, followed by nocmig analysis, followed by afternoon walk at West Bex, followed by Cogden seawatch. I would love to write loads, but need some sleep before another early alarm call, so...

I go through a nocmig spectrogram in 28-second bites. Mostly I skip through them extremely quickly, because 99% carry nothing of interest. I'd got to almost midnight, then this...

Well, I didn't know what it was going to be...other than loud!

It was this...

Yes, that's a very close flock of Dunlin. Easily the loudest I've recorded, and my first this year. So you can guess I was already buzzing from that, but another hour's-worth of recording produced the following bunch of squiggles, and after playing it just once I was on cloud nine!

As it appeared on the screen...

...and stretched out a bit.

I'll tell you now: it's a Stone-curlew! Exactly one year, one day, 23 hours and 41 minutes after my gob-smacking first one last spring, another of these wonderful creatures flies over my nocmig tackle and gives vent to some strangled yodelling! You couldn't make it up!

Unless some prankster knows where I live, of course...

Anyway, what a coincidence, eh? Especially when you factor in Thursday's Cogden bird, which incidentally occured on exactly the same date as my 2020 nocmig bird: April 22nd!

This is what it sounds like...

Already I have used way too many exclamation marks in this post, so I'll try to keep the rest of it measured and calm. Suffice to say that the birding has been supremely acceptable, with many so-called 'common' migrants to get excited about. Here are several pics...

Whimbrel from this morning's seawatch

Almost every Gannet I've seen recently has been a white one, so this brown job got papped 'just in case'. I do not have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the world's gannets and boobies and whatnot, and these days you simply never know what might fly past, do you?

One of a pair of gorgeous Yellow Wagtails at Bex. My first this year.

Small Copper. Another 'first this year'.

Lesser Whitethroat. One of two. Again, my first this year.

Wheatear. Not my first this year.

In the background, a couple of orchids. There is no public access, but I'll bet they're Green-winged.

Mmmmmmm...

A pipit.

Just occasionally I tie myself in stupid knots over the identification of a relatively easy bird. Maybe it's an age thing. Or just incompetence. Whatever. This pipit for example. I flushed the bird off a path and it flew - silently - to this perch. As you can see, it is horribly backlit. I managed just a couple of photos before it flew - silently again of course - into the middle of a field of crops. It wasn't very close, but binocular views told me it was a Tree Pipit. The flank streaks looked very thin, and I thought I could detect the makings of an Olive-backed Pipit type ear covert spot. So I get home, load the pics on to the laptop, and immediately start fretting. Are those flank streaks actually fine enough? The bill looks pretty robust, but is it robust enough? And where's the ear covert spot? I don't see it! And of course the hind toe is hidden! The other photo...

Anyway, I settled on Tree Pipit eventually, but if anyone wants to sort me out...?

So, I've been birding forty-odd years, and look at me! Hopefully one or two readers will find it reassuring that someone with so much experience is sometimes really useless!

A lovely (but uncooperative) female Redstart. I can do Redstarts.

Right, that's about it I think. I would love to include a list of birds seen today, but time is against me...

Good night.

Sunset from the Cogden seawatch spot.