Please note that this is my own personal blog and therefore the views and opinions expressed, although in no way intended to be controversial, are not necessarily those shared by my employers Abbotsbury Tourism Ltd. and Ilchester Estates . All photos are © Steve Groves unless otherwise credited.



Monday 26 November 2012

'Blowvember'

Sorry to be a bit late with this weeks post but I'm experiencing problems with my hosts as they won't let me upload any photos! They keep saying and I quote....
 
'Whoops! You're out of space. You are currently using 100% of your 1 GB quota for photos.'
 
When this appears I usually leave it for a few hours and it it's fine but now it appears to be fatal.
 
When I follow the 'helpful' links I find this...
 
'If you've signed up for Google+' (which I have!) 'Photos up to 2048 x 2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes won't count towards your free storage. All photos uploaded in Google+ will be automatically resized to 2048 pixels (on their longest edge) and won't count towards your free storage quota. When you reach your storage limit, any new photos you upload larger than the free size limit will be automatically resized to 2048 pixels (on their longest edge).'

So how could I have possibly used up my free quota! There does however appear nothing I can do about it and as I do not want to carry on blogging without photos this will I'm afraid be my penultimate post on this blog. I do intend to start another near identical blog on Birdforum however but I need to post at least ten posts on the forums there before I can start a blog with them. As I have only recently joined Birdforum I have not yet posted the required number of posts but I shall endeavour to remedy this and start another blog asap. As soon as the new blog is up and running I will publish my last post here with a link to my new blog. Apologies for the inconvenience but I have had this forced upon me. I hope you will join me soon as regular readers on my Birdforum blog.
 
In the meantime here, without photos, is the last, (for the meantime)...

Swannery birding highlights of the week...

19th to 25th November 2012

 There was really only one day this week when it wasn't either blowing a gale or pouring with rain or more often than not both! This made birding very difficult, not just because it was virtually impossible to keep  optics dry (and find somewhere sheltered to scan the lagoon) but because all the waterfowl were sheltering over the far side of the embayment under Chester's Hill or even worse round the corner beyond Shipmoor Point. This made picking out anything unusual extremely tricky.
 
Although rather distant, the numbers and variety of ducks present were pretty much as last week (see my last post), but hopes of rediscovering the Long-tailed Duck came to nothing. There were however still at least seven Scaup most days and the first winter Common Scoter reappeared but the highlight was a Goosander (a first winter/female). A single  'Dark-bellied' Brent was the only 'wild' goose among around a hundred 'feral' Canadas and the regular Greylag.
 
 Despite the stormy conditions there were no real hoped for seabirds blown in, the only gulls of note being an adult Yellow-legged Gull and increasing numbers of 'Meds' often more abundant now than Commons and Black-headed Gulls.
 
Waders comprised of about a hundred Lapwing, several Snipe and a few Redshank and Dunlin, while the only raptor of note was again the regular male Marsh Harrier.

 The withybeds were full of calling Goldcrests along with several Chiffchaffs but in the unfavourable conditions they stayed deep in cover and trying to find anything more unusual was again a thankless task... As is trying to upload photos on this blog... And so, for now at least, that's all folks but I hope to be blogging again soon (with photos!)...
 
Best wishes,
 
Steve.
 
 
 

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