13 December 2014

Birding in a weatherbomb

Popped up to Scotland, met a 'weatherbomb' coming the other way, it was mostly lovely,...

... although changeable,...

... and sometimes just a little bit blizzardy.

Love a dose of wintry weather, especially when there's about £1,500 worth of clothing between my body and the elements.  Also helps to have a 4x4 to hand,... and a nice flask of something hot.  Of course, the billy-big-bollocks Wrens and Goldcrests knocking about in little more than a layer of feathers must have thought I was really letting the side down.  But, as I tried to explain to them, my species evolved in sub-Saharan Africa and we aren't built for this sort of shit.

Birding highlights were pretty thin on the ground, mostly finchy; Bramblings, Crossbills, Redpolls and the like.  The mammal front was a touch more exciting with a brief sighting of a Woozle or Heffalump crossing a track at dusk.  As with all observations of Woozles/Heffalumps the views were inconclusive regarding specific identification, almost definitely one or the other though.  A notoriously difficult species pair those two, someone should write an identification paper.