As Cold As Ice

Very cold out and about this morning, with lots of ice about. There was even some on the Estuary...

Not an every day sight!

I've had a couple of tours of the river valley today, but haven't seen that much really. Four Gadwall and a few Med Gulls on the Estuary being as good as it got for me.

I had to go to Axminster mid morning today, so thought I'd drive a little bit further north and look over a certain quarry pool. It's the kind of pool that you know what birds will be on it before you've even lifted your bins up....

That group of birds on the far side is surely going to include too many Canada Geese, a few Mallard, maybe the odd aytha duck and a couple of Coot, possibly even a Cormorant...

Yes I was right!

OH! Hang on a minute...

Yes you guessed it! I went to Chard Junction Gravel Pits to see these two beauts....

two stonking male Ring-necked Ducks

They were nice to see yes, but I hate their guts because they are simply refusing to fly south! Please boys - just one of you will do - you just HAVE to give Lower Bruckland Fishing Ponds a visit.....

Cold Weather At Last!

Still no white-wingers, but a bit of cold weather movement has fired me up a little...

This afternoon on patch, a nice flock of 12 Gadwall were floating about north of Coronation Corner (eight drakes), and on Bridge Marsh were these seven Golden Plover...

Can you spot them all?

Also on Bridge Marsh, 220 Wigeon. Back to the Estuary, and amongst the gulls were eight Med Gulls; seven adults (one near summer plumaged and one white-ringed) and a single second-winter bird.

Earlier in the day, I was in Exeter so popped down to Dawlish Warren to have a look at the wintering Surf Scoter. Despite the choppy conditions I soon picked it up off Langstone Rock, along with a single Slav Grebe.

I was feeling lazy, so tried to scope the American Wigeon from Cockwood. Epic fail! The Wigeon were miles away, and they were all a hazy blur! A bit of a surprise here though were two Egyptian Geese on the water's edge, near to Railway Saltmarsh. However they obviously didn't like it much, as they soon took off and flew up river. Bloody typical that I left my Lumix in the car - they flew right past me (half way between me and the wreck).

So, let's hope this cold spell continues to produce...a drake Ring-necked Duck or two would be nice :-)

White-winged Frustration!

Still no white-winged Gulls in this part of Devon!!

I had several looks along the Estuary today, where five Barwits were the highlight, and spent the late afternoon period stood on Beer Beach Pier. Lots of gulls, especially at the latter site, but not a white-winger in sight :-(

A nice treat at Beer though was this Black Redstart, it really brightening up the other wise dull and gloomy afternoon (as you can tell from the crap photo!). I think this is the only Black Red wintering on patch this year, and it is probably the most elusive Black Red known to man! Even when I saw it this afternoon, after about a minute it flew back around the corner and disappeared towards Seaton Hole!

Crossbilled Blackcap

Had a bit of time to put a net up in the garden this morning. I caught one bird, which was yet another Blackcap!

This one was a quite different from all the others though, because it had a deformed bill, and had been eating something which had made its face go very yellow....

A right weirdo!

It was light compared with my recent Blackcaps (weighing 16.4 grams - the previous five birds coming in at 18.7, 18.7, 23.0, 18.8 and 18.5), but it had a fat score of 25 and a bit of body muscle. If it was summer, and this was a Phyllosc, I would have said the yellow on its face was pollen - but it isn't - so I haven't a clue what it has been feeding on!

Had a couple of looks along the Estuary today, the mid afternoon look revealed 12 adult Med Gulls. One was well on its way to summer plumage - yummy! None of them were today, I think the white colour ringed bird the other day has already moved in.

This bird was white 31A7, and it turns out it was ringed as a third calendar year bird on 24/06/09 at Harlingen Haven, Friesland, Holland. There was an interesting re-sighting of it on 13/05/10 on the Island of Griend (also Holland), where it was seen eating a Black-headed Gull egg! Since then it has been seen only once before I spied it, this was on 20/06/11 at The Wetland Centre for Wales, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire.

Still No Time...

...for birding or blogging!

But I have just seen this on the net. Click on this link and scroll half way down to the Robin in Cumbria...

http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw/about/background/projects/plumage/gallery?dm_i=IG4,NMDQ,3CXANV,1WQEQ,1

Especially in the right hand photo - doesn't that look rare! Imagine if you glimpsed that skulking about in the bushes at your local migration hotspot!!!

Early afternoon update: I lied in the post title! I did have enough time for a sweep of the Estuary, which was nice.

The highlight was two Golden Plovers that flew in from Colyford Marsh direction and landed with Lapwing north of Coronation Corner.

Amongst the gulls were seven adult Med Gulls (including one white ringed bird, I have sent the ring details off for it), and a very dark mantled Herring Gull. It had lots of black in the primaries, was clean headed and average sized, so I think it was just a darker than average argenteus.

A Grey Chiff...

I can only apologies for how quiet this blog has been of late. I have had such little time for birding, and even less time for blogging!

Anyway, I thought it was about time I did pull my finger out, so....

Here's a few pictures I took of the grey Chiffchaff I saw in Mike Tyler's hand on Saturday morning at Colyford WTW. There is green in the mantle, which I guess alone would rule out pure/classic tristis? As you can see though, it is a very pale grey bird - the top two photos showing it alongside a collybita shows this well. Also note the lack of any yellow tones on the birds underparts.

What do you think...

All Quiet

I'm sure many of you are wondering why the Axe Estuary has been so quiet lately? No news of any decent gulls, or anything else for that matter! Well that's because it has been quiet! I've been out for at least a couple of hours every day, but I've seen almost nothing worthy of note.

Yesterday I trekked out to Weston again, and finally had good views of the Scoter flock. There were just under 200 birds, but unfortunately all were Commons.

Weston Cliffs; the furthest point is Beer Head

The gulls have been relentlessly crap. Whilst Radipole have had up to three Ring-billeds, an Iceland and a Caspian within the last few days - not to mention 350+ Med Gull - the Axe yesterday had six Med Gulls (4 unringed adults, 1st winter and 2nd winter) and that dark mantled hybrid third-winter large Gull that I photographed the other day. And that was it! Today was even worse, with just three Meds.

With some cold weather predicted, let's hope it shakes something up!