A Holiday Come Down

It was back to Plymouth on Saturday 12th February and with the following day free I planned a birding day out but the weather was dreadful with gales and rain and so I spent a quiet day at home instead. 

I did take a walk into town to buy some food supplies from Sainsbury's and on the walk home I watched a Peregrine dashing about overhead close to home and causing complete and utter panic amongst the Feral Pigeons and Herring Gulls.

Monday 14th February and the weather was much improved and so we took a quick walk around Plymouth Hoe. I was very pleased to find the 3 wintering Purple Sandpipers together for a change and feeding on the rocks with 2 Turnstones but no sooner had I found them than they were disturbed by some people nearby and promptly flew off and out of sight.

Thursday 17th February was another settled weather day and so I headed out to Wembury for a walk. The path was the usual mud fest but better than on my last visit and I had an enjoyable walk.

It was quiet bird wise with the highlights being an adult winter Mediterranean Gull amongst the roosting Gulls, a lone male Linnet along the beach and 3 Collared Doves displaying over the houses near the bus stop but the best birds were 2 Red-legged Partridge feeding in the stubble field.

Red-legged Partridge, Wembury

A sad sighting was of a Guillemot washed up dead along the beach, I checked it out and it was unringed and didn't appear to be oiled. 

Guillemot, Wembury

I kept a look out along the beach for the colour ringed Scandinavian Rock Pipit CAC seen in December last year but again there was no sign of it. I have however had some information back from the ringers in Finland, it was caught in a net and ringed on 27th July 2021 as an adult bird hatched that year in Uusikaupunki, Finland, and had travelled 1949kms in 130 days. 

CAC the Rock Pipit from Finland, seen on 4/12/21 at Wembury

And so it's now back to work after our trip away to Italy and things are no better than before I went, it continues to be a stressful and chaotic mess and one that I no longer have the patience or energy for, how this year is going to pan out is anyone's guess at the moment.