Patchwork Challenge 2023

2022 was without doubt my leanest birding year since I started birding.  And that doesn't make for a happy Steve.

So, Patchwork Challenge 2023 it is then!  Patchwork Challenge is a national (well international now!) patch birding community, enabling comparisons of a vast array of different patches. Each species of bird earns the patch worker points, the amount of points depends on the species rarity status and whether it was self-found. More details can be found HERE.

For me in 2022, work and family just had to take the priority - which left me with very little time to bird.  And on the occasions I did have the time, if I had the desire to go out it was rarely fulfilling (mostly due to the lack of birds).  I am thinking Patchwork Challenge is just the kick up the bum I need.

For one, the chance of a year-tick can often be that added incentive to get up and go birding, it has worked well for me in the past.  But  the biggest reason why I wanted to sign up was to overcome the problem of our patch size and try something a little different.

The Axe patch is massive.  A 5km radius from Axmouth Bridge (near the mouth of the Axe Estuary) which covers most of the Axmouth - Lyme Regis Undercliff, as far inland as Musbury and Colyton, and then out to the west as far as Branscombe - it's huge! Don't get me wrong I wouldn't change it for the world as the mix of habitat is great, but having such a mix of sites often presents the "where do I go?" problem. It also gives us patch birders a heck of a lot of ground to cover!

The most productive patches are often ones that are absolutely hammered, the same fields and bushes, scrapes and lakes birded over and over again, day in day out so that nothing slips through the net.  And this is why the 3km2 max limit of a Patchwork Challenge patch may well work in my favour and hopefully means spending more time in a smaller area actually reveals more birds!  So let me introduce you to my Patchwork Challenge 2023 patch...

3km2 almost to the cm! Naturist beach not included.

What I have done is created a patch that includes the entirety of the Axe Estuary and Seaton Wetlands, as well as all the places I spend most of my time.  My office and work is within this patch, as well as my walk to work.  I have included my house (that little arm half way up on the left) as well as my 'don't have time to give the dog a proper walk so will just take her around the block' route!  The little extra block in the top right corner covers Lower Bruckland Ponds, included for its fresh water and simply because it is somewhere I love to visit throughout the year.

Once I had completed v1 of the above, I was disappointed by the lack of vis mig opportunities with it all being low ground.  I love Axe Cliff which is my favoured site for vis migging, but that is too far away to be included and defies the point of reducing the amount of ground to cover. So for v2 I added that narrow foot coming out of the bottom left corner.  This allows me to include Cliff Field Gardens, a site I have vis migged from in the past (had Crossbill and Woodlark from here!) due to its elevation above Seaton.  Nice easy access too and good potential for sea watching. 

Am really looking forward to getting stuck into this.  It should increase my blog activity too which has been woefully poor in 2022 and once again I apologies for this.  Be sure to check back soon to see my progress. 

Happy New Year everyone and may I wish all fellow Patchwork Challenge 2023 participants the very best of luck!

Isabelline Wheatear Colyford Common

Well what a turn up for the books!  The first BBRC rarity on patch since American Herring Gull on 14th Feb 2020, and it is a BBRC rarity that is extremely rare on south west mainland! Only Devon's second ever record (first on Lundy as recently as 18th Oct 2019!) with no records at all in neighbouring Dorset.  

This is the third Isabelline Wheatear to have been found in the UK this year, with a fourth record from Ireland.  What a fantastic mid-winter treat...

I find that head/eye so endearing!

 

Although I saw the first messages yesterday morning about a Wheatear on Colyford Common, frustratingly there was nothing I could do about it as am getting over a really nasty chest infection - I would usually be all over a late Wheatear! The next thing I know I am woken by a phonecall from Phil asking if I had seen his pics as the word Isabelline had been uttered. So I dragged myself up, spent about five minutes with the bird then went home back to bed!  ID had been sorted by the time I got to the bird - which was handy.

I've always hoped my first Izzy Wheatear would look tall and leggy...this one really didn't! But the bird was a lovely colour, a mix of sandy browns, buffs and off-whites, reminding me of a female Desert Wheatear more than a Northern. Really loved that subtle but distinctive face pattern too.

A pale lump

Such a concolorous bird, with just a bit of black in the wing and that famous alula!  Note its short-winged appearance too, primary tips falling way short of the tail-tip. 

A better view of its wing (and the alula!) but check out that face pattern! Eye and black bill connected by dark lores forming a dark line, with a neat pale supercillium above extending from behind eye to over bill base.

The only photo I managed of it standing taller.   Doesn't that face pattern look great from the front! At some angles the bird showed a lovely warm buff wash to its upper breast contrasting with a paler lower breast/belly, as shown in this pic.

 

So this is the second Wheatear I have seen on patch in the month of December, thanks to a Northern Wheatear on Seaton Marshes from 2nd - 16th Dec 2011.  There's no point comparing the above Izzy Wheatear photos with a spring male Northern Wheatear, so let's compare it with a Northern Wheatear photo taken on 7th Dec...

I remember thinking at the time this looked very Greenlandy as it was such a tall and long-winged bird

 

Isn't it so much easier when there is actually a bird to compare it with!

Looking at the above photo after looking at the photos of the Izzy Wheatear, how different is that head! Note the darker ear coverts with orange tones, the white supercillium opening up behind the eye and a grey crown.  There is so much more grey on this bird in general in fact, and look how long the wings are - primary tips overlapping the tail completely.   You can see more pics of this bird HERE. 

I can't tell you how thrilled I am the Axe has finally scored with a rare Wheatear!  The least likely of the regular rare Wheatears you could say too?

Axe Gulls of 2022

Although of course 2022 is not yet done, now that my laptop is back up and running I have access to all my photos (and more importantly - Photoshop!) and my urge to tell you all about the best gulls I've seen so far this year is just too great.  So, please enjoy... 

Iceland Gull

Before I go into the Herring Gull-types, I figured I had a better chance of tempting you deeper into this post with a nice white-winger.  And this is the only one that has been seen on the Axe so far this year...

I really didn't think we were going to get a white-winged this year, having missed out during the peak months (February - April). However Ian Mc found this snow white 1st-summer Iceland Gull on the Estuary on the unusual date of 3rd June...

Harsh light but clearly a slim and petite bird

 

It always pays to take great care identifying any pure white large gull, especially if it is June! But this bird's long sleek appearance, rounded head and squat structure make this a relatively straight forward ID.    

 

Caspian Gull

There were no Caspian Gull records on the Axe during the first half of this year, which hasn't happened since 2017 highlighting nicely the increased frequency this species is now occurring here. However am pleased to have found three during autumn 2022 - all within the space of two weeks!

Bird one was the least satisfactory, offering only distant views in poor weather on Colyford Marsh on 29th Oct, a 1st-winter...

I struggled to even get this shot. But note neck shawl, advanced moult on mantle/scaps, parallel bill... not much I know but was enough for it to stand out in the flock!

 

Thankfully I got good flight and underwing views of the above bird, and Ian Mc saw it again about 20 mins later.  I would argue this is the first Axe Casp not provable by photos alone. 

Bird two on the other hand was lovely. A really big classic 1st-winter on 5th Nov, but again it didn't offer me the best views from where I was watching from.  If only I was sat in the Tower Hide the views would have been crippling!

Note the advanced 1w moult on scapulars and mantle, solidly dark tertials with white tips, very plain greater coverts with pale base, white head contrasting with neck shawl, narrow bill, full belly-appearance.

Note the grey necklace contrasting with the pale head, and the classic neck shawl

Nice white rump and tail with neat black tail band

Luckily I fluked this underwing shot, nice and clean (although the weather conditions are making it look greyer!).  Note the venetian blind effect on inner primaries and the dark greater covert bar.

 

Bird three was also always pretty distant. I actually first saw it at extreme distance in the Seaton Hole gull roost after sunset on 9th Nov, but thankfully saw it again on the Estuary two days later (11th)...

The hint of a neck shawl, darker than Herring Gull mantle and slight immaturity on the bill all indicated a possible Caspian to me but no chance of taking it further

That is more like it!  So nearly an adult but not quite... note the grey neck streaking and dark mark on the lower mandible.

Poor shot but shows bill shape well

That lovely little dark eye really does stand out!

The shot I was waiting for! Shows a huge amount of white on P10 (outer most primary) and lots of black on P5 - the most classic Caspian wing-pattern going.

I cannot tell you how frustrated I was feeling, with three minutes until I had to leave to collect Harry from school and this bird stubbornly refused to show me an open wing.  Then just when I thought it was game over it gave a big old stretch which allowing me to capture the above shot.  

Ageing the bird is not so straight forward for me though. I have already pointed out the bill and neck streaking which suggests immaturity, but if you look closely at the open wing photo you can see two small black streaks on the primary coverts of its right wing.  This absolutely confirms it is not the adult I am longing for, but I cannot make my mind up on whether it is a 3rd or 4th-winter bird!?  With such an adult-type primary pattern I am leaning more towards a 4th-winter bird (similar to THIS bird?) but comments welcome.

And that makes 28 confirmed Caspian Gulls for the Axe, as long as these three are accepted.  What a result!

Yellow-legged Gull

Well 2022 will not go down as a classic summer for juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls.  Three is all I mustered, of which two I managed to photograph...

Dreadful light but a true beast - 20th July

Another view of the 20th July juvenile - upperparts as smooth as chocolate

Much better views of a juv, taken on 24th July from a tram.  A really chunky bird and great to watch it at close range.

 

The only non-juvenile Yellow-legged Gull I have seen this year on the Axe was a brief adult through my office window on 23rd Feb. Really surprised not to see any more during Oct/Nov when stormy weather can often produce multiple sightings.  

Little Gull

I missed out on pretty much all the stormy weather this autumn, but was pleased to get in on a little bit of the action with a Little Gull west through Seaton Bay on 9th Nov, a 2nd-winter.  It was a calm day between stormy ones, but there was a steady trickle of Black-heads going through for much of the afternoon, it was mixed in with them and a joy to see!

Kittiwake

Although as I said in the Little Gull section I missed most of the stormy weather, I still managed to see more Kittiwakes this autumn than I have in any other autumn here!  Saw a few individuals on the Estuary, as well as many passing really close inshore...

Adult Kittiwake over the west walk!

Almost Gulls

I've seen very few terns on patch this year, only the two most common species and not many of either of them!  However a nice sight came through on 6th Sept when an evening Estuary vigil hoping for terns actually produced terns!  

They didn't hang around hence the awful photo!

 

These 18 Common Terns had spent the day at Chard Reservoir and I just happened to be watching when they decided to carry on with their southbound migration (19:23 down the Axe).  But did they bring with them the Black Tern they had been sharing Chard Res with ??... Did they heck!