A Personal Chat.
Following a night of yet more heavy rain from the west, I arrived this morning to a sunny and calm Seafield. The dog walkers were out in force on the exposed sands, so I hurried along to the tower, where things usually get a bit quieter.
Just past the tower, the numbers of Reed Bunting are growing. Up to the stone dyke, there was nothing out of the interest, but as soon as I dropped down onto the back of Bullfinch Cove, I found three Bullfinches. It is the first time I have seen them here for a while. In fact, I have been toying with the idea of changing the name I use for the cove to something more geographical. Now however, it is settled as Bullfinch Cove, unless of course I ever find out that it has a local historical name.
At the back of Lime Kiln beach, there was a fair bit of activity in the scrub with Willow Warblers/Chiffchaff, Blue Tits, Robins, Blackbirds, Goldfinch, Wren and Yellowhammer. There were also Goldcrest. One of them had me pretty excited for a moment, as when I first viewed it, it was having a good old raking scratch of its head. As it did so, a fiery orange stripe was seen in the middle of the gold head stripe. Once the bird straightened up however, the orange disappeared below the gold, and it revealed itself to be a Goldcrest, and not the Firecrest I was willing it to be.
I turned back at the top of the Lime Kiln Rise, and nothing out of the ordinary was seen on my return journey until I started to make my down the slope that drops down to the tower. As I descended on the path, up popped a bird in the grasses to one side. The binoculars revealed it to be a favourite of mine, but a personal patch tick in the shape of a Stonechat. I rushed to pull the camera out for a record shot, but the rush was not needed, as within minutes of spotting the first bird, I had at least four of them flitting about.
Only other thing of note after the tower was a lone Sandwich Tern out on the rocks. I haven't seen any for over a week, and this one seems to have a ring on it (see photo).
A good day on the strip. Nothing exceptional, but any day I get Bullfinch and Stonechat is a good day.:t: