Friday 23 January 2009

Monday 19th January 2009

Back with the birding!

I do this every so often. Have a break from birding. So, the weekend passed with me spending some time with the family, especially as my wife had the whole weekend off. I got some chores done too. Saturday afternoon was spent following my other great love in life after my family and my birding - watching Exeter City FC! Ok so we only drew 0 - 0, but it was great to be back at the park, after our last 2 home games had been postponed due to an icy pitch. It was also good not to have it too cold to sit and watch the game. The last time I went I'm sure that when I got up from my seat, certain parts of my anatomy were left still frozen to the chair! I haven't missed a home game yet this season.
So today I popped quickly into town to do a couple of chores, then I zoomed round to the seafront and set up my telescope. I was lucky enough to see a Slavonian Grebe just offshore, which was an Exmouth yeartick. I love these little birds. Even in winter plumage they appear so clean and sharply marked. Whilst scanning around the bay, I soon found another Exmouth yeartick. This was a Great Northern Diver - an adult in winter plumage. Miraculously it stayed on the surface for quite some time, only diving occasionally and resurfacing not too far from where it had dived. Most of the diver family have an uncanny knack of getting lost from view. They dive, then pop up several hundred yards from where they disappeared, which can be frustrating when trying to put other birds on them! I had no such problems today - there was a nice obliging diver, and not another birder in sight.

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