Yellow-browed Warbler, Yellow-legged Gull and Great Vismig!

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.  

07:10 - 08:40 produced:  4,700 Wood Pigeon (my biggest flock 500), 10 Stock Dove (probably missed loads more), 110 Jackdaw, 3 Song Thrush, 6 Skylark, 2 Swallow, 82 alba Wagtail, 120+ Meadow Pipit, 90+ Linnet, 70+ Goldfinch, 62 Chaffinch, 11 Siskin, 1 Redpoll and 1 Reed Bunting.

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.