Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Turnstones doing what Turnstones do best!

What a beautiful day in which to cycle into Yarmouth along the estuary path and take the school assembly! Afterwards, I came home via Fort Victoria where I caught up with these 2 Turnstones I love the way these tortoiseshell birds use their bills to flick such big stones out of the way in order to get at the sandhoppers and other invertebrates underneath. Their neck muscles must be pretty impressive, too!! I watched them for 20 minutes or so from just over a metre or so away!
I also searched for Adders in the sunshine and was surprised not to find any in such ideal habitat in the scrub alongside the sea shore. But I did find something else:
What a wonderful piece of wood. It's probably come loose from some old wreck and been washed ashore. I'm going to collect it later and find something useful to do with it! On the way back to Freshwater I couldn't help but smile when I came across the following sign just out of Yarmouth:
Very appropriate!

4 comments:

  1. Hi Steve,
    Im having trouble adding your blog to my reading list. I add your site, then when I log on again its disappeared! I can get to it via my blog though but its just a nuisance.
    Excellent blog by the way.
    Dave

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  2. Hi Dave,
    Sounds weird!
    I was visiting someone in Freshwater Bay this morning....I popped to the shore while I was there and thought I'd got some brilliant footage of 2 Rock Pipits....turned out I had the video on camera shot setting and hadn't taken any video at all! :-)
    Best wishes,
    Steve.

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  3. He he, my usual trick with a video camera is, when I think im pressing record, but the cam was already on and im actually stopping it, if you know what I mean! I filmed the red arrows display in sandown a few years ago, the film was ok for a while then I got mixed up and ended up with lots of film of my feet!!
    Im quite new to birding been doing it for just over a year, so I have lots to learn, but I love going birding, especially with my wife Carol, she is my chief spotter, she can spot a wren at 100yds!!
    Take care,
    Dave

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  4. If my Carole was really interested in birds and other wildlife, then I would have the perfect marriage!! :-) She loves walking in the countryside but gets frustrated with me stopping every 20m to look at something or other!! She's very long-suffering....and I love her for it!!
    Best wishes,
    Steve.

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