It felt a lot cooler this morning, and with clear blue skies when the day broke I made time for an hours vismig watch from Beer Stables at 06:50.
Basically it was all Wood Pigeons and Jackdaws again, which is great to see, but the lack of small birds is getting really concerning now. Yes I am seeing Chaffinches, other finches and Skylarks passing over during all of my recent vismig watches, but not at all in the numbers I would expect for late October. For example small birds recorded this morning were limited to just: 28 Chaffinch, 24 Goldfinch, 10 Linnet, 7 Redwing, 5 Skylark, 4 alba Wagtail, 1 Blackbird and 1 Siskin. I can only hope there are a lot more birds still to come in from Scandinavia?
I did have a very unexpected big bird come through though, on a flight path that took it directly over my head and probably over a mile in land when I lost sight of it...
My orginal thought was 'what is that!?'
It was high up as well
A Great Northern Diver! Not a species I usually have to ID from underneath here!
I recorded 17,600 Wood Pigeons by the time I left, along with 62 Stock Dove in the closer flocks and in their own little groups, with presumably many more of the latter in the distant flocks too. Flocks were passing on a broad front, but the largest flocks were just out over the sea up high. Also had 380 Jackdaws fly west.
A Wood Pigeon leading five Stock Dove
Later in the day it was nice to see a Red Kite fly high east over the town, just after 3pm. Not a regular species in any month of the autumn, so not expected today at all. Awful photo pic below...
Good binocular views confirmed it was just a Red one!
Have also heard on the local WhatsApp group that the Rose-coloured Starling roosted in the Colyford Common area again this evening (thanks Tim C) having been seen on a couple of occasions in Whitford today. Still not seen it around my house again despite looking, which makes the find feel even jammier to be honest!!
After an uneventful couple of hours on patch this morning (although the Rose-coloured Starling was seen by others at both ends of the day at Colyford Common), with today being a bonus day off I managed to convince the family on a trip to Budleigh...
To be truthful as they both love nature and Budleigh they didn't need any convincing at all!
I was keen to seen the two Snow Buntings that have been present on the beach here for a couple of weeks, although have been delaying my visit due to their popularity (as they should be mind!). I will always try and avoid the crowds if I can.
Upon arrival at the beach early afternoon there were indeed no crowds. However there were also no obvious Snow Buntings! We wandered along the lower path, but at one stage as I was looking back to see where Harry had got to, the Snow Buntings were right there practically underneath me - I must have walked right past them! They began shuffling towards me, so I sat down where I was and proceeded to have the most enjoyable half-hour with them. They spent the whole time feeding right besides me, sometimes just within a couple of feet of my feet! Thanks to Jess for this pic...
You can't actually see the birds here but they're in that weedy strip
And what fine birds they were...
They always remained together
...but would never both look the right way at the same time!
This was the paler of the two birds
And this the darker, which seemed to be slightly more confident as it would always come the closest to me out of the two of them
Whenever I see Snow Buntings I am always fascinated at the variation in plumage within the species, almost like no two ever look truly the same. And I think it is because of this that I love trying to figure out the age and sex of any Snow Buntings I come across, so that's what I tried to do!
Before I do delve deeper into these two birds, please enjoy this little video of them...
Ok, so let's look at the two birds a little closer...
And from this point on they will be known as pale bird (left) and dark bird (right)!
Sexing: Quite straightforward, or so I thought! The amount of white in the wing of both birds, visible even on the closed wing, looked vast enough to say they were males. The dark bird did the right thing and allowed me to snap his open wing, exposing all his lovely white feathers...
Except the black in the primaries, primary coverts, alula and tips of the outermost secondary or two, all white!!
The pale bird, although showing overall less white in the open wing, still appeared to show enough white to be a male for me. However some excellent photos posted on Twitter by @sharkeee after I first wrote this post have made me think again. It does show lots of white on the median and lesser coverts, as well as white on both sides of the feather shafts of the inner most one or two primary coverts, the rest of which are all dark (ok for a first-winter male) but the overall amount of white in the primaries is more what you would expect with a female. Hopefully I will get permission to use @sharkeee's photos here and update this post further. So pale bird is a slight question mark for me, although am still thinking male.
Subspecies: I am confident that both these birds are P. n. insulae. This is the race of Snow Bunting that breeds in Iceland (and the small population that breed in Scotland). P. n. nivalis is the other main race, breeding across Greenland and Arctic Europe and North America. One of the main differences is that males of insulae have complete black rumps in breeding plumage. This can be hard to spot in autumn, but underneath the beautiful rusty coloured rump feathers of both these birds were hints of black...
The rusty colour will wear off as the winter progresses exposing the black feather centres
Ageing: This is where what little confidence I had ends. Although I am fairly certain the pale bird is a first-winter. It has nice pointy and worn-tipped tail feathers, and the outer tertial is fairly worn and doesn't look all that rounded to me...
The best photo I got of the pale birds flight and tail feathers
The one I really couldn't decide upon is the dark bird, I kept flipping between adult (or at least 2cy in age) and first-winter, but I think I have landed on an answer...
I really felt like this bird shows more rounded tail and tertials, as well as less and even wear on all feather tips. I also cannot see any moult limit anywhere
The main reason I thought the dark bird might have been an adult was the white and black in the wing. If you scroll back up and look at the upperwing shot again there is just so much clean white, with all the black bits clearly defined and solidly black. I would expect more diffuse black and less clear white if this was a younger bird maybe? Or so I thought... The black tips to the outer most secondaries, and thick black primary covert tips (both visible on my open wing shot) probably shouldn't be there if it were an adult bird, these should be pure white, so am going to land on first-winter for this one too.
So no, I haven't worked them out at all really, especially that pale bird. But it was great fun trying, and what a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon watching, studying and photographing them, and then mulling over them in my head for the rest of the day.
To finish the post, here's some useful links when it comes to the finer details of Snow Buntings:
Well that was a bit of a shock to the system! I had taken about four steps from my front garden on my walk to work this morning when my brain couldn't quite work out with a naked eye view what the strangely pale lump was on a neighbours roof...
Thankfully my binoculars were around my neck.... it was a bloody juv/first-winter Rose-coloured Starling! All on its tod, just a Wood Pigeon perched on the other end of the roof.
After about ten seconds of excellent front and then back views, and of course just as I was lowering my rucksack off my back to retrieve my camera, it dropped off the back side of the roof and disappeared from view, and I had no way of knowing how far it went! I sent messages out and spent the next hour walking around the estate, soon joined by a few of the local birders. Things were not looking good, but then at 08:50 it flew low over mine and Clive's head trailing a Common Starling, looking just as ridiculously pale as it did when it was sat on the roof.
Not sure how much more time was given to it by other birders after my departure, and I was at work for the rest of the day, but it wasn't reported again until almost 4pm when Phil A and Tim C had on Colyford Common, which is where it then roosted with around 2,000 Starling at 5pm. I do hope it remains in the area and settles as I would love to get a photo or two of it myself. I have got Jess and Harry on high alert as we have fat balls hanging in our front garden - it was so close to be added to my house list but hopefully there is still chance!
This is our first Rose-coloured Starling on patch since the pair of stunning adults in Eyewell Green in June 2020, before that you'd have to go back to June 2012 when we all missed an adult that spent a few days in Colyford. I think this is the first juvenile/first-winter ever recorded here, which is quite surprising given the large autumn Starling flocks we get on the marshes.
Late this afternoon, a large immature gull had me scratching my head for a bit on the lower Axe Estuary, until it flashed its upperwing which looked classic Yellow-legged Gull... and that's because it was a Yellow-legged Gull!
Previously all the 2cy Yellow-legged Gulls I have seen here during the last few months of the year have been clear cut second-winters, but this bird was still in its moult from first-summer plumage to second-winter plumage, hence why it didn't look as clean as your regular second-winters. Plumage aside, size and structure spot on as it was a big meaty bird..
All that grey coming through, clearly darker than the Herring Gulls. Very pale headed although still retaining a slight dark eye smudge
Huge bird! Big square head, thick bill, long legs - a bit of a chunk really!
Almost a Casp-like border between pale head and nape. Dusky eye smudge and head shape very un-Casp-like though!
Typical immature Yellow-legged Gull tail pattern with thick black tail band
It's been a lovely blue weekend down here in Seaton, and both mornings the sky view has been littered with huge Wood Pigeon flocks. Absolutely brilliant, and fairly early too for the big movement.
Yesterday morning I watched for an hour from my back garden. I would have only recorded 3,400 Wood Pigeons flying south west down the valley if I hadn't worked out that from the bottom of the garden I could see the flocks of Wood Pigeons following the coast west through a narrow gap in nearby houses! As a result I counted 14,600 birds fly west/south west in total. There were several Stock Dove in the close flocks too. A few Jackdaw flocks flew west, along with 65 Chaffinch, 30 Linnet, 24 Redwing (going in all directions), 22 Meadow Pipit, 18 Skylark, 14 alba Wagtail, 3 Reed Bunting and 1 Song Thrush.
Today was even busier, but completely different. The view east along the coast from my chosen watch point (Beer Stables) showed there was patchy fog at various points. This I think really confused the passage and I actually did really badly for small birds. Five Redpoll over (a three and two singles) were the best, but all the usual species were in very low numbers. The bigger birds however were spectacular.
Looking east just after sunrise.
Wood Pigeons began slipping through west in small flocks on a usual line soon after dawn, however after I had recorded about 1,600 birds, larger flocks started coming through at first on the coast, and then soon way out to sea. By the end of my watch everything was so distant over the sea so I went to Seaton Hole to continue my count. There were huge flocks going through, some so distant that the flock shape was just a haze in the sky. I picked up several of the most distant flocks only because I was watching a closer flock, which happened to pass them at the time I was watching. An incredible sight, but I do wonder what makes them pass through so far out to sea! Are they just cutting the corner over Lyme Bay and heading straight for Start Point?
By the time I had stopped counting I was at 31,300 birds, however during the next few hours whilst on the birdwatching tram I saw several thousand more flying south down the Axe Valley and then west. Dan at Sidmouth who did a longer count this morning recorded over 60,000 birds, which am sure would have been similar to my count if I had given it the time and effort he did. Well done Dan!
There were some really sizeable flocks of Jackdaws migrating throughtoo, I had over 1,400 west. Whilst on the corvids, I also had two single Magpies and a Jay over, which I think were all vis migging.
A Jackdaw flock. Love how they call all the time and often swirl around before continuing on
I then spent two hours leading the birdwatch tram which was lovely, in sunshine and no wind! Best of all were a flock of seven egrets that flew in over town, three Little and four Cattle. The Cattle Egrets then spent the rest of the morning with the herd of cattle between Seaton and Black Hole Marshes.
Three of the Cattle Egrets, they were remarkably elusive in the juncus!
I have got a few days off this week, although Harry is off school on half-term so not sure how much time I will have out. Check back later in the week to find out!
This morning I stood in the same spot at Lower Bruckland Ponds for about twenty five minutes. For most of this time rain of varying intensity fell from the sky, and the trees and bushes around me were all swaying in the persistent south easterly wind.
I first stopped here as I could hear the soft contact calls of a small group of Long-tailed Tits above me, and then I was soon engulfed by these delightful little birds as it looked like three separate flocks came together at the very point I was stood.
Viewing conditions were difficult. The birds were often really elusive in the swaying trees, trying to get as much shelter as they could whilst foraging for food. The constant downfall of autumn leaves also didn't help, time and time again a movement that caught the corner of my eyes proved to be yet another golden leaf dropping from height.
Goldcrests and Chiffchaffs were plentiful among the tits, and a brief Coal Tit displayed what looked like a peaked rear crown and a not-that-olive mantle, but it quickly disappeared. There were small birds everywhere, and I cannot describe the buzz and excitement this brought about within me. Every new movement I spotted, which wasn't a leaf, just felt like it could so easily have been a warbler with a wingbar or better.
At the same time that I was searching through this monster tit flock, there were near constant flocks of Redwings flying over east/south east, seeping repeatedly as they swept low over the tree tops. I counted 270 birds in all, with the biggest single flock being of 70 birds. By far my biggest movement of the autumn so far.
Of course birding on the Axe patch is nothing like birding the migration hotspots of the east coasts, or the islands dotted around our little isle. But it was really quite lovely to be reminded that the joy of autumn birding and the anticipation and excitement it brings can be as real here as anywhere.
Birding is great. Autumn birding is even better.
Now back to patch basics. Bridge Marsh showed six Gadwall, a pair of Shoveler and two Cattle Egrets (the first time I have seen any this week so good to know they are still around). And on the Estuary a Greenshank and Ruff remain, as well as my first Med Gull for a while, a rather plain-faced first-winter. Despite several scans of the huge numbers of loafing large gulls there was nothing of note among them. Away from Lower Bruckland Ponds I saw and heard several more Goldcrests and Chiffchaffs this morning, it is proving a good autumn for both these species here.
Rewinding back to Wednesday... it was a frustrating morning. My walk to work was under a thin veil of valley fog, and I could read on my phone that above this many many thousands of Wood Pigeons were flying over, as well as plenty of other birds. It started to clear as I got to work so did at least see about 1,000 Wood Pigeons fly west, as well as what will probably prove to be my last Swallow of the year. But I know I missed out on so much more.
Wood Pigeons up high
Yesterday there was no fog. And although clearly not the same quanitity of Wood Pigeons were moving as the previous morning, it was still a thrill to watch. There were several big flocks taking the usual line, high above the coast heading west, but most of the birds were coming south down the Axe valley, unusally low, then turning west to join the usual line. I had several Siskin and Skylark over too but I couldn't give it the time it deserved.
That's more like it, migrating Wood Pigeons with a blue sky background
Thursday I also enjoyed a late lunchtime walk from work and was pleased to see the single Black Redstart of Monday was joined by two more, or indeed been replaced by three more! Whatever, there were three, two along Shearwater Way and one at Axe Yacht Club. All first-winters with one clearly a male.
One of the many things I really enjoy about where I work is the location of it. I have seen many good birds within a short walk of my office, but sometimes I don't even need to leave my desk...
Taken with my phone through a very dirty window!
Really excited for the next few weeks. Hawfinches seem to be passing through mainly the east of the country in good numbers, and there are still plenty of rarities turning up with more and more being found in the south west now.
I will be trying my hardest to keep the autumn magic alive that is for sure...
I'd expect to see my first Black Redstart of the autunm about now, but two visits to of one of their favoured local sites today, Axmouth Harbour, failed to show any. However walking back to work a female/1w-type didn't the decent thing and pitched up on a distant roof-top on the edge of the Tesco estate.
Excuse the phone shot taken through heras fencing...
Such a distinctive outline
My walk to work this morning showed a noticeable increase in Goldcrest numbers, as well as four Chiffchaff and five Redwing.
Also got news from Phil today that one Yellow-browed Warbler remains at Axmouth Church.
After a disappointingly quiet visit to Axe Cliff this morning, where the vismig never really got going and grounded migrants were few and far between, I had a bit of time to check a few other local spots on my way home. My first stop was Axmouth church, the location of the only patch record of Pallas's Warbler way back in October 2007.
Soon after I entered the churchyard I was stopped in my tracks by a Yellow-browed Warbler literally shouting at me as I walked past the small sycamore it was in. And boy was it noisy! I'm absolutely thrilled with the sound clip I managed to record, which is at the end of this post.
Even more surprising was that as I was watching this bird make its way through the branches, a second Yellow-browed Warbler started calling to the south of me, coming from an adjacent large garden. I was watching and filming the first bird as bird two was calling in the background!
Bird one showed extremely well, really close up views in small bushes and trees. I even managed to record some video footage of it, and was pleased to be able to extract these three frames from that...
My first view of it
Showing a bit more...
That's more like it!
After several lean Yellow-browed years, these two are my third and fourth on the patch this autumn and make it my best ever autumn for Yellow-browed Warblers here.
And now for the aforementioned sound recording. Quite a bit of noise coming from passing cars, which I haven't learnt how to eradicate on Audacity yet, but am still thrilled with what I've captured. Bird two starts calling at 1:10...
With Caspian Gulls turning up just to the east and west of us over the past month and more (several on the Exe, Otter, in west Dorset, etc), it's been extremely frustrating not to have come across one on the Axe yet this autumn. However, this afternoon I put that right with an immaculate first-winter on the Estuary near Tower Hide at 14:30.
Unfortunately I wasn't in Tower Hide, I was over a quarter of a mile away on the edge of the Axmouth road scoping across. As a result my photos really do not do this bird justice, it was quite simply stunning. I couldn't actually stop watching it, it was only when I had to collect Harry from school that I left it...
Lovely long narrow bill, clean white head and breast, sloping forehead and rounded rear of head, some flank streaking, plenty of grey on mantle and scaps, lovely black greater covert bar and black centered tertials, also note bulging neck giving it the classic Caspian-shape!
This is how white-headed it actually was. Can see from this angle the flank streaking extends across breast and almost forms a breast band. The typical Caspian front heavy-look also evident in this pic
Amazingly an even worse photo, but that white head and small beady black eye was this striking!
A pic of it swimming, that white head and neck so striking, but look how long that neck is! Another great Casp feature
Managed to get this pic of some of the upper wing
...but guess whos phone decided to lose focus just when it stretched its wings! Oh well, the underwings still look blurry white
I've got a bit of off patch news today too. After a lovely breaskfast at The Hidden Oak, Jess and I took a stroll across the East Devon Commons from Four Firs. Several Skylark and Meadow Pipits went over, but at 11:35 a single Woodlark came tu-lu'ing over east to west, one of my favourite vismig sounds! Lovely.
Now this is written I just know I will be spending the rest of the evening pondering where to go in the morning. There's a load of rain coming through overnight from the west, which I think may well drop a few migrants, however the weather is clearing pre-dawn so vismig might be good...
Axe Cliff isn't great for grounded migrants but it's one of our best spots for vismigging. Beer Head has much better habitat for grounded migrants but often misses out on alot of the vismig. Hmmmm... All I do know is I'll probably get it wrong whichever one I do choose!
Yesterdays walk to work, following a night of south easterly winds and rain revealed there had been a fresh arrival of Chiffchaffs in the valley, with at least 14 where there had only been a handful over the previous few mornings.
This mornings walk to work showed only three or four Chiffs again, although the weather was pretty shocking with light rain and moderate winds. However a vocal Yellow-browed Warbler was nice to stumble upon and more than made up for the weather. I didn't have my new toy with me so below is a video I recorded on my phone. I was just trying to record the call but I have also captured me trying to get a passing birder on to the call, as well as my hopeless efforts at trying to work out where the bird actually was and my shockingly bad attempts at mimicking the call!
The Yellow-browed calls about nine times in the video, but you'll need to turn the sound up to hear it...
I never did locate it, and had to head off to work pretty soon after. So it is yet another heard only Yellow-browed for me, although at least I heard this one a lot better than Sunday's brief bird. Their call is always such an uplifting and evocative sound to hear though, so I'm not complaining about it too much.
The only other thing I have to report since my last post is my first night-time Redwings of the autumn, on Monday night over the garden. Good to hear those 'seeep's again and a fairly early date for us down here on the south coast.
I had a small window of time before work this morning. With a very light northerly wind and high cloud it just had to be Axe Cliff again...
Could never get bored of this view
I think I got there a bit too early, as it seemed to take an age to get light and for any passage to get going, but when it did it was fairly well concentrated along the cliff-edge which is really important for this site. Great to see Wood Pigeons step up a notch, and although no stand-out highlight overhead, numbers on the up.
The local birds of prey were having a whale of a time, with two Peregrines in view throughout most of the watch and two different Sparrowhawks attempting to cash in on this sudden influx of suitable prey.
Grounded migrants were far fewer spread than they were on Friday up here, with just five Chiffchaffs recorded compared to 25 two days before. However it was nice to finally bump into a Yellow-browed Warbler as I have been hunting high and low for one recently. When I say 'bump into' though I didn't actually see it as it was deep in The Undercliff (somewhere dead centre of the above photo!) however I half-heard it a couple of times and then thankfully confirmed its presence with a much clearer call.
Which brings me on to my new toy... I will be doing a separate blog post on what it is, how much it cost, the results, etc. But this was its first outing and I was shocked when reviewing the recording tonight (almost an hour in length!) to hear the Yellow-browed! And three more times than I heard it in the field! Time to turn your speakers up...
Gavin has kindly sent me a cleaned up version of the above audio file, and a spectrogram, however it took me so long to upload my clip I will wait to share the improved one when I have got a bit better with this audio malarkey! I was amazed to hear there were actually six calls recorded of the Yellow-browed in my recording from today, all in a ten second window, and then no further sound or any sight of it. Must have had a rapid bout of calling and then moved on. I cannot tell you how much I was grateful for my new toy, the early signs of its usefulness clear to see, and its capabilities very promising indeed.
So all in all a great morning out!
I spent the rest of the day at work, but two Cattle Egrets with the grazing cattle in a neighbouring field and a lovely first-winter Yellow-legged Gull that dropped in on the lower Estuary late afternoon ensured it was a good day at work!
Front left, compare with similar aged Herring Gull
This was actually one of the best and most striking first-winter (not juvenile) Yellow-legged Gulls I have ever seen on the Axe, probably helped by the good views I had of it. That huge white head with darker eye mask, well moulted scaps, long winged appearance, dark tertials and plain greater coverts made it look so different to all surrounding Herring Gulls. It was bloody big too!
And that brings me to the last thing that I am going to do today. Bed. Not been a bad day at all.
Well since my last post the weather has been a right mixed bag. Lots of wind and rain over the weekend, some more heavy showers during the first half of the week, with the odd clear spell, and then the last couple of days have been a bit calmer. This morning felt like proper autumn morning, being the first morning I got cold hands! Time to find the gloves!
During the clearer mornings of the last seven days, amongst the Meadow Pipits and Linnets passing over there's been several Skylarks and Siskins for the first time this autumn, but on the other end of the spectrum there's still some Swallows and HouseMartins going over too. This morning, Axe Cliff was calling me with the clear skies and light (but cold!) northerly wind. I didn't have long so didn't do a proper vismig count, but it was enjoyable nevertheless...
Looking west towards Beer Head
It was great to see Wood Pigeons on the move, with several 100+ flocks totalling in excess of 1,800 birds flying west. A few flocks of Jackdaws came through too, love how they often call to each other as they fly through. Meadow Pipits, alba Wagtails and Linnets were the most common passerines as expected, but several Siskins, Skylarks and a few Chaffinches also went through - I expect number of these three species to increase as the month progresses.
The soft mournful call of Golden Plover drew my attention to a flock of five that were flying high south. Pleasingly they circled round and dropped like a stone onto one of the neighbouring fields...
Pity one of them wasn't a bit smaller and greyer!
A closer view of three of them
When I was leaving, a sixth lone Golden Plover flew over my head calling almost frantically, and a few moments late the five came up from where I'd left them, made a flock of six and flew off east. Chiffchaffs were present in good numbers, well amazing numbers for Axe Cliff actually (which is never great for bush-based migrants). There were a few dotted around in the hedges, but in the Undercliff a flock of Long-tailed Tits moved through and were trailed but at least twenty Chiffchaffs! Quite how none of them had a pair of wing-bars I don't know, so my hunt for a wing-barred phyllosc continues.
Down on the Estuary, Wigeon and Lapwing numbers are slowly increasing, Snipe numbers have shot up and there were 270 Teal together on Black Hole Marsh last Saturday. The two Ruff are still with us as are a couple of Greenshank and Common Sandpipers and at least one Green Sandpiper. Cattle Egrets have been present almost daily around Seaton Marshes, with at least five present on Monday.
During the stormy days I gave the sea as much attention as I could but returned with very little. The best was a tern that flew west past the beach on Tuesday morning at about 08:30, and then out south west towards Beer Head. My immediate feeling was Arctic due to its bouncy and erratic flight and its really dark grey underparts (yes it was an adult bird, which I thought was unusual for this late in the autumn), so I messaged the news out. However twenty minutes I reevaluated what I'd seen and decided I hadn't actually seen enough of the plumage to claim Arctic, coupled with the fact the wind strength would have probably made even a Caspian Tern (which is huge in comparison) look bouncy and wobbly in flight! So I relegated it back down to a commic tern (just very likely an Arctic).
Bird of the week for me was a cracking little Firecrest, feeding and calling in a tamarisk bush along the seafront just after 8am on Wednesday morning. I watched it for a few minutes before it flew west along the cliff-edge, making it feel very much like a fresh-in migrant. I can honestly say that however common Firecrest get, seeing one will always put a smile on my face.
This blog post was on course to be missing a main highlight to talk of from the last week, but a check of the Estuary gulls mid afternoon today changed that.
Historically October is the best month of the year for records of 'older than first-calendar year' Yellow-legged Gulls on the Axe. Previous October storms have produced multiple birds in a day, although saying that haven't seen that many at all in the last five years. So I was pretty thrilled to pick up a massive adult Yellow-legged Gull north of Coronation Corner at 2:30pm...
Photos makes it appear a shade darker mantled than it actually was, however sheer size and bright yellow legs evident even on this awful pic
Views were more distant than they had to be, which I will explain why... In the southerly wind, the main flock of resting gulls just north of the picnic site at Coronation Corner were pretty much all head-on. I really don't like gulling head-on, so moved myself to the small gateway just north of Axmouth where the views were more distant but all gulls were perfectly side-on, just how I like them. This bird proved that tactic worked for me, as I did scan through the flock a couple of times from Coronation Corner and clearly managed to scope right over this brute of a bird!
Although Yellow-legged Gull is my bird of the week, my species of the week has to be Chiffchaff. There have been migrant Chiffchaffs all over the place here, with 18 on my walk to work yesterday morning a really good total. Basically any time I've been outside I could hear at least one calling, even in the middle of town. I have been trying hard to pull a wing-barred (preferably not Yellow-browed) phyllosc out from amongst them, but nothing yet. Still, the sight and sound of so many of these olive-green fresh young Chiffs has been really lovely, and very much appreciated in an autumn that has not involved much in the way of numbers.
House Martins and Swallows have also been around in good numbers, despite their fate in the UK as a breeding species, with some decent easterly passage on a couple of days this week. Meadow Pipits have been around of course, but not in the numbers I'd expect considering the time of year.
Last night I ended a busy day at Black Hole, and it was wonderful...
Looking south from Tower Hide
Sadly I wasn't joined by any of the crake species, one of which I was hoping might appear with the four Water Rails feeding on the lagoon edge, but there were plenty of other birds around. Most of them were gulls, which is fine by me, with the small gulls including two first-winter Meds and seven first-winter Commons. There were 200+ Teal on the marsh which were fun sifting through, but wader variety disappointing with just three Snipe, two Greenshank and a Green Sand of any real value. A lone Cattle Egret spent the entire time I was there huddled down on a grassy island...
May not be the rarity it once was but I am always thrilled to see them!
Hopefully I will have a few hours out in the morning. With a strongish southerly wind forecasted am not sure where I'll be heading, but hopefully something will be waiting for me wherever I do end up...
