Enjoyed a bird-filled morning down Black Hole Marsh this morning, with the bonus of some lovely weather. And there was an Axe first.... three Mr Waite's on the platform at once...
My totals for the visit were;
2 Wigeon (first of the autumn - bang on cue)
3 Teal
14+ Ringed Plover (maybe 19 as had five high west over Colyford Common)
70 Dunlin
68 Black-tailed Godwit
3 Whimbrel
6 Greenshank (a good Axe count, and included my first juvs of the year)
1 Yellow Wagtail
5 Willow Warbler
There's just so many wading birds on Black Hole Marsh at the moment, with many of them showing really close to the Island Hide. A photographers dream...
I have been meaning to post this video up here for a while now, but today being the 'Glorious Twelfth' (the first day of the Red Grouse shooting season) has reminded me to do so.
I have seen this several times on social media, but realised that if you're not social media savvy (which I think many of my readers aren't) you wouldn't know anything about it at all. Typically it received zero coverage (at least that I saw) on TV, radio and the newspapers.
In June 2013 on a shooting estate in Scotland, a camera placed by the RSPB to monitor a Hen Harrier nest filmed this. It's upsetting but not overly graphic...
As you can see this video shows someone with a very large gun (and undoubtedly a very small *****) flush a female Hen Harrier from its nest, before shooting it then collecting its life-less body and the inevitable scattering of feathers. Good solid evidence.... you'd think!
This case was subject to a prolonged Police investigation, and nine separate court hearings. But a matter of weeks before the trial was due to take place earlier this year, the Crown Office informed all parties the case was to be dropped and the prosecution to be abandoned.
Obviously the RSPB went completely mental, but in reality there was nothing they could do. And the pathetic reason given was basically "because the shooter didn't know he was being filmed". The Crown Office alleged the camera had been deliberately placed there on private land to film exactly this, but actually RSPB insists it was simply there to monitor the nest (how many young fledge, how many feeding visits by the adults, etc).
But does it really matter why the camera was there!? You can't get more solid evidence of illegal raptor persecution than this! And if this is apparently not good enough, then oh dear we have serious problems.
It just shows how hard us conservationists need to work to save our birds. Especially our birds of prey. They really are in serious trouble.
Only time for a short update. The last few and the next few days have been and will be a bit hectic for a variety of reasons. I have managed a bit of time out though which I'll summarise here...
A morning wander around Black Hole Marsh last Friday showed the bushes were the busiest they've been so far this autumn. The highlight was a cracking juv Lesser Whitethroat along the track to the Tower Hide, but the ten Willow Warblers were just as exciting to see...
Autumn Willow Warbler - hope I get to ring some soon!
The marsh itself revealed a Greenshank, c18 Dunlin and two Cattle Egrets.
Saturday gave me less than above, although three Green Sands showed well. In the afternoon I saw my first settled Yellow Wagtail of the autumn (but my third of the season) on Seaton Marshes.
Green Sandpiper
And that's about all the bird news from me, although there has been a few other bits and bobs about. The six Goosander are still around, as are at least two Cattle Egret. And this afternoon Dad had a juv Little Ringed Plover on Black Hole which was new in.
Lastly I have been showing my (annual) love for juvenile Black-tailed Godwits on Twitter over the past few days. I saw my first on Wednesday 2nd which showed really well in front of Island Hide...
Juvenile Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit
This dull photo doesn't really do it justice. They are the most beautiful colour, with soft yet crisp plumage and amazing patterning on their scapulars and tertials. Despite the gloomy weather, a nearby adult meant I was able to take a nice adult vs juv comparison shot...
There are so many differences visible and I would happily go through them all...but that would be boring so I won't. All I will say is just look at how different they appear, the adult is a tatty worn looking bird, whereas the juvenile is so so fresh - you can just tell all those feathers are new. Such smart birds.
It wasn't just teeming with rain at Black Hole Marsh this morning - it was teeming with wading birds too!
I've lost count at the number of times I've praised rain on this blog, but it really does makes all the difference. There was a perfect example of this this morning, at 06:15 there were 35 Dunlin on Black Hole Marsh, five hours later there were at least double that! And they were feeding all over the place, not just in one or two tight flocks - looked amazing!
My reason for the second visit was because Mr White spied our first Curlew Sandpiper of the year drop in at around 8am. We often don't see them here til September when the juveniles arrive, although saying that the epic flock of 15 in 2013 arrived in August (right at the end of it though). Tim also reported four Turnstone and a Sanderling - the latter our first of the autumn.
Being early August I was expecting to see a nice red Curlew Sandpiper, but it was surprisingly pale with only slight remnants of summer plumage...
A Greenshank, two Cattle Egrets and six redhead Goosander (first seen yesterday morning by Ian Mc) were also on Black Hole Marsh at 06:15.
It's also worth mentioning that today is the one year anniversary of the Least Sandpiper! Well not for me, that's tomorrow, but Tim Wright first found it on the 2nd. I wonder what this year's autumn Black Hole rarity/ies will be...
Both Cattle Egrets are still here today. This morning they were probably no more than about 20 feet from the Tower Hide, but would have been completely invisible from there. I was watching from Axmouth and they were tucked right under the river bank with seven Little Egrets.
Enjoyed a lovely hour out late this afternoon down Black Hole Marsh with Harry, in gorgeous weather. Managed to bag two autumn firsts during the wander, a Marsh Harrier and a Yellow Wagtail. A fidgety Harry ensured I left the Tower Hide bang on cue to see all the loafing gulls flush up and a juv Marsh Harrier float around in the air above. I didn't see it close up and had to keep moving, but still it was good to see (our second of the year)...
The Yellow Wagtail was far less exciting. It flew over east calling.
The wader situation looked much the same on Black Hole itself, just a few more Dunlin (36+) and now nine Ringed Plover. Numbers will probably keep rising now as we move into August - the peak month for autumn wader passage on the Axe.
It was always matter of 'when' and not 'if' we will see some Cattle Egrets on the Axe this autumn, but nevertheless two on Black Hole Marsh this morning were a welcome addition to the site fauna. It was refreshing to finally see something a bit different here to be honest as everything so far has been rather run of the mill.
At first they were sat on posts in the middle of the Marsh, but then flew to the posts and trees in the corner near the Tower Hide where most the Little Egrets and Black-headed Gulls congregate in the early mornings...
As you may be able to tell from the lower shot of my two shoddy attempts, they are juvenile birds. I would dearly love to know where they were born, but surely it has to be either Somerset, Devon or Dorset? Phil was also in the Tower Hide and managed a much better pic of one of them, take a look at his twitter (@philabbott60). They flew off north not long after we took these pics, but they were back about an hour later and Tim Wright has seen them again late this afternoon, so they've clearly been around all day.
Also on the marsh at around 07:00;
5 Ringed Plover
27 Dunlin (though Phil had 29)
8+ Common Sandpiper
20+ Black-tailed Godwit
3 Whimbrel
In the bushes a few more juv Willow Warblers were noticeable, and there seemed to be more Sedge and Reed Warbler activity than of late. It was nice being underneath a large feeding flock of mostly House and Sand Martins whilst I was there, 200 birds present at least.
I found out via Twitter this afternoon that yesterday's Turnstone is still with us as well, lingering at the lower end of the Estuary by the Tram Sheds.
So Cattle Egret overtakes Yellow-legged Gull as my best find whilst holding the baby. I wonder what will be top of that list by the end of the autumn?
Had a really enjoyable hour and a bit in the Tower Hide with Phil and Clive this morning, oh and Harry of course who as usual slept through all the chit chat and excitement. There were lots of birds about on the rising tide, including a couple of local scarcities which was nice.
So that most of you don't switch of now I'll start with the wading birds and end with the gulls. Even if I do say so myself though, you would be a fool not to look at today's Yellow-legged Gull helpings as they are a bit good. But for now the non-gulls;
At least one of the two juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls on show was an additional bird to yesterday's four - the more distant of today's two had more pale notching on its tertial tips than the average Yellow-legged and any of yesterday's. Still within variation though and all other features ticked the right boxes...
Bird one. Classic pale ground colour to underparts, large size and hefty bill, square head shape, long pale legs, dark centered scapular and coverts and mostly black tertials just with some pale notching on tips of the upper two.
Bird one. A lovely thick set bird and looked quite long necked at times.
Bird one in flight. Pale head contrasting with darker breast streaks, pale inner primary window also visible but no tail detail on this shot sadly.
And then there was bird two, which may or may not have been one of last night's four. It was unquestionably though an absolute stunner and was almost always the closest gull to the Tower Hide...
Bird two. An even paler bird and another chunk.
Bird two. Tertials much better on this bird, all black with narrow white edging. Note the brown cast to the mantle and scapular feathers, another trait of juvenile Yellow-legged.
Bird two. This shot shows really well the classic Yellow-legged Gull (irrelevant of age) head and bill shape. This bird had a really striking dark eye mask, almost hiding the eye.
Bird two. A swimming shot - looking suitably long winged and long billed.
Bird two. Can just about see the tail here, which is really white with a neat black tail band. This bird has a little bit of extra black on at least one of the tail feathers just above the tail band.
Bird two. As with most juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls at this time of year, this bird is already starting to moult in to first-winter plumage. There are several second generation feathers coming through here, but the most obvious two are smack bang in the middle. They are more rounded feathers, not pointed, worn and brown like the juvenile ones, but white, grey and black. You can see why they are called 'anchor-shaped'.
Bird two. To complete the photos a flight shot, which was mostly ruined by the Herring Gull in the foreground! Still the pale ground colour and typical juv YLG wing pattern can be seen well.
Ok no more gull pics...well not today anyway!
Oh I almost forgot, I've heard at least four Willow Warblers today, hooet-ing from various different places on patch. Numbers of these will rapidly build up now as autumn rolls on...
