Stewchat...

Female Blackcap.

After a bit of a blogging break, I thought it high time I got back 'into the saddle'. Last week, despite having a good Sunday out with Hooded Crow, Great Northern Diver, Slavonian Grebes, Long tailed Ducks, Barnacle Geese and Greenshank, I just couldn't get motivated to write about it. It was a dull cold day, and I didnt get any photos or any sketches so I just left it at that.

Today turned out much nicer. An icing sugar coat of snow, plus a clear blue sky and some warmth in the sun raising the temperature to 7 degrees placed springtime at the end of the tunnel.

A walk from home down to the burn moth and back via the coast turned up a good few patch year ticks.Mostly just day to day stuff that remained elusive but my first Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtail of the year ( another portent of spring days), a female Blackcap on the feeders all weekend, a ridiculously tame Pale bellied Brent Goose grazing on the Rumbling Kern cliff top were all well appreciated.

7 Lesser Redpolls, 3 Grey Plovers, 1 Bar tailed Godwit and 9 Purple Sandpipers also made a worthwhile day on the district. 

PB Brent.

A Grey Seal pup lying on some barely accessible rocks looked at first as if it might have some net tangled on it, but closer investigation showed it just to be sleeping in the sun. Down to four feet it looked in a shabby way, only breathing shallowly, and I thought it was to become Great black back fodder. As I kneeled to take the pic below, one eye opened, then the other and the startled youngster barked his disdain at being woken up at the ungodly hour of 11am on a Sunday morning. Not wanting to face the teenage wrath further I left him to go back to kip until the tide rose...

Now, if that is the end of the snow, my first crocuses and narcissus have just opened in the garden so can we just let spring get on with it...please.