Well the 'snow' in the title absolutely deserves an '!' because we don't get much of it down here on the coast of East Devon... and it was complete chaos today!
Heavy rain overnight turned into sleety rain this morning and then for a good few hours snow. Devon County Council were clearly not at all prepared for it, with all the major roads coming to a complete standstill and not really recovering until the afternoon. Absolute mayhem.
I knew there wasn't enough of it, or that it was persistent enough to trigger any major bird movements, but the local birds seemed to go into panic mode. The unfrozen edges of ditches and scrapes were all very busy, mostly with Meadow Pipits, thrushes and Blackbirds.
My best sighting was of four Brent Geese that flew low south down the river mid-morning, and then seemed to turn east as they headed out over the beach. I will spare you my awful phone camera shot of the Brents, instead enjoy the scenery...
Looking north east towards Axmouth over the Axe Estuary
Sheep's Marsh
The Axmouth hills
This weather's timing somewhat ironic as today was the first day of our The Polar Express tram ride!
At about 1pm the sun came out, making it all look even more spectacular, although this soon did the trick melting most of it...
Relief for many stranded drivers I am sure!
The narrow green strip either side of the water had loads of Meadow Pipits and Lapwings on it all afternoon
Whenever we do get a sudden cold snap like this, I always hope it will reveal a mega that has been lurking thus far unseen in a rarely visited part of the patch, forced to relocate due to the conditions. Sadly not today though...
Stay safe all, it is going to be an icy night and presumably another dicey one tomorrow morning.
I am so glad today happened. So so glad. Axe Cliff hasn't delivered for me so far this autumn, and I've been feeling like I'd missed out on the chance of a classic autumn vismig session here this year... but today was the day.
07:10 - 08:20 at Axe Cliff was just fantastic. The clear blue skies and cooler temperatures did exactly what I was hoping for...
Such a fantastic view of the sunrise from my main vantage point
It was so good to see some passerines on the move, and although the Wood Pigeons weren't moving in the numbers we witnessed at the end of October, due to the cold northerly wind most of the flocks that were coming through were passing right in close and at times underneath the cliff edge - it is such a spectacle when they do this. The final Woody tally was not too bad, with the largest single flock containing around 1,300 birds which came through towards the end of the watch. The first few half a dozen or so flocks all numbered less than 100 birds so I didn't think I would get anywhere close to the final number that I did (see below!).
Such exhilarating birding. Yes, that is the word to describe it, exhilarating.
One of the first Pigeon flocks coming head on
On they go!
Literally passing along the edge of the cliff!
So many Pigeons!
Even more Pigeons!
Some close and some far!
Last Pigeon photo I promise
My final total for the watch were: 12,700 Wood Pigeon (with another 2,000+ during my drive home!), 240 Starling, 192 Chaffinch, 40+ Stock Dove, 37 Redwing (most north, not west like the other species), 32 Goldfinch, 18 Meadow Pipit, 9 Skylark, 5 Brambling, 4 Siskin, 4 SongThrush, 3 alba Wagtail, 2 Reed Bunting, 1 Redpoll, 1 Grey Wagtail and 1 Fieldfare.
Migrating Chaffinches
As has become the norm for me now, I had my *very basic* sound recorder running throughout the watch. And from this long recording I have clipped three small snippets and stuck them together to create the below, which captures:
1/ Redpoll - the only Redpoll of the watch passing at the same time as an alba Wagtail.
2/ Brambling - there were two birds in this flock of Chaffinches, and both call-types can be heard. This section of the sound clip ends with some nice Skylark calls too, plus some not so nice Herring Gull calls!
3/ Siskin - three birds went over together, with one even breaking into song!
I saw a further 16 Redwing in one flock at Lower Bruckland Ponds today, where there were also three Chiffchaffs. At least two Black Redstarts remain on the new Seaton Quay houses.
Well
the skies didn't clear as quickly as I was expecting this morning.
I thought I was going to wake up to a sky full of stars but it was
mostly cloudy! Two hours later and it was a lot clearer, but not early
enough for the busy morning of vismig I was hoping for.
As you may or may not have read here last night, yesterday was all about Song Thrush and Blackbird. Well this morning it was Redwing and Fieldfare - which was great! Not massive numbers, but throughout the morning small groups of Redwing were zipping about all over the place. Some were going through high west with the Pigeon flocks, but most were exploding out of trees and then heading off north. I saw fewer Fieldfare, but the odd one or two were mixed in amongst the groups of Redwing. Counted 55 Redwing and 9 Fieldfare during my couple of hours out, not a single Song Thrush though!
When the weather did clear from about 8am, Wood Pigeon
flocks did start up. Most of them were 100 - 400 in size, but I had
one of 850. All flocks were flying west basically along the coast, and I
got to a total of 4,900 before I had to stop counting. As usual a few
Stock Dove were in the mix.
Have seen five different Long-tailed Tit flocks today, and sifted carefully through them all but just Goldcrests and Chiffchaffs. I really hope there are a few more wing-barred Phylloscs in 2024 for me, I will keep trying that is for sure.
Something I didn't mention in my blog post yesterday was the Silver Y moth I stumbled upon on Seaton Beach during the afternoon. This encouraged me to put a moth trap out last night, as a Silver Y is an immigrant species and could well be the forerunner of something special... well not for me!
There
was only a small number of moths in the trap at Mum and Dad's this
morning, which is to be expected at this time of year. The only
immigrants were Rusty-dot Pearls, of which there were six (with all but one of these on the wall of the house!). The non-immigrant moths in the trap were four November Moths, one Chestnut and my first Feathered Thorn for the garden, which was nice...
Not
at all rare, the fact I haven't recorded one before is likely a
reflection of my trapping habits, I very rarely trap later in the year than
September. This is also why I still need December Moth for the garden!
Might try again with the vismig in the morning, definitely will not be trying the moth trap again though. Well maybe not until I have a chance of December Moth...
Usually overnight rain in autumn just makes the grass wet and gives false hope... but not today!
Ok, thrushes weren't exactly carpeting the ground like they can during the great falls on the east coast, but this morning the Axe Valley had a heck of a lot more thrushes in it than it usually does...
Three Song Thrush in this photo
Most of them were Blackbirds and Song Thrush. I don't routinely count Blackbirds in the valley, so can only explain the increase by the fact I noticed far more Blackbirds than usual. Song Thrush however, the local population has seen such a decline that on any day I would be lucky to see one - so 14 grounded birds really is something. It was lovely to see small groups together, and all the ones I had good views of looked noticeably cold-toned and grey. Saw a few Fieldfare and Redwing too, and there's still a few Chiffchaff and multiple Goldcrests in the bushes.
The female/first-winter Black Redstarts that I have been working alongside for the last couple of weeks were joined by a lovely adult male today. It didn't show all that well though...
Looked even better from the back, just two massive white flashes!
The other birds have got used to me now and are allowing closer approach. Hopefully the male follows suit..
The are such great birds!
They really are enjoying the new Seaton Quay development!
Over on Black Hole Marsh the Little Stint is still with us, where I finally managed an ok photo of it...
Every day it is looking less juvenile and more grey!
Looks like we have finally seen the back of this cloud so I am hoping for a nice rush of visible migration in the morning. Might be a bit optimistic of me but it's got to be worth a look...
Following inconclusive views of a possible/probable Caspian Gull on the Axe early this morning, I was delighted to see that unbelievably it was still present when I checked the gulls again just before 2pm this afternoon. It was much closer and in better light...
Not quite classic, but close enough!
You can see the lovely white head, and long parallel bill which is already turning pink at the base, lovely long pink legs too! Plain coverts and lower greater coverts, all dark with pale edged tertials, plenty of grey on the scapulars and mantle, and the streaking on its nape and down its flanks. It was a big bird too, not as big as the Great Black-backed-sized male Casps I've seen, but clearly bigger, longer and taller than all surrounding Herring Gulls.
The not so classic feature is the amount of streaking on its belly, although this is still on a very white ground colour and will fade as this bird goes through it's first-winter - so it will probably look much better in its 2nd calender year. The upper greater coverts were also a little notched, but well within variation.
When it was at its closest, it gave me the opportunity for the absolute perfect 'flight shot'...
Thank you very much!
On this shot we can see its uppertail, with a neat black terminal band on an otherwise white tail, and then we have the wings... Underwing nice and pale which is bang on. The upperwing shows solidly dark secondaries, clear pale bar just above the secondaries formed by the tips of greater coverts, and the perfect amount of pale on the inner primaries.
It spent some time in the water too, where it looked even more obvious...
Just looks nothing like a first-winter anything else!
The brilliant white head, grey mantle, brown coverts and black tertials are such a striking combination
It was nice to see five Mediterranean Gulls on the Estuary too, four adults and a second-winter. Numbers of Common Gulls clearly on the up too.
Otherwise during the last week all I have to report is a few Chiffchaffs (up to ten in a day), several Goldcrests and Redwings and up to five Black Redstarts at the east end of Seaton. My first Fieldfare of the autumn flew over my head calling on Tuesday morning, which was a really lovely highlight.
Can see in the forecast this dull and depressing high pressure cloud is finally set to clear off. I cannot wait!
Am pleased to report the Rose-coloured Starling is still in the area, although I haven't had chance to catch up with it again myself. It is spending most of its time (during daylight hours at least) just north of the patch in Whitford, with one report from Colyton as well. I don't think it is being looked for as much in the evenings now but am sure it is still roosting on patch within the Starling roost in the vicinity of Colyford Common, as it was for the first few days of its time here.
Tim C took several photos of it when he saw it on Colyford Common, on the evening of the day I first found it in Seaton. Tim has kindly allowed me to post his photos here, so please find below two of them...
Such a striking bird even in gloomy light!
Like chalk and cheese!
And Mike B has also let me share one of his photos, taken in Whitford last week...
(c) Mike Blaver
Thankyou Tim and Mike!
A Little Stint found this morning on Black Hole Marsh meant I had to take a slight detour to work... well you just never know when it comes to late autumn peeps! However the finder was dead right with their identification as this bird was still in mostly juvenile plumage so the 'tramlines' on its back were really noticeable - helpful in ruling anything rarer out! I only had distant views but good to see it nonetheless.
Otherwise for me it's basically been all about Black Redstarts! There are at least three lingering around the east side of Seaton, spending much of their time on the new Seaton Quay site which is right next to my work...
All three look like this, first-winter birds. Am confident this one is a male due to noticeable wing patches
There still seems to be quite a few Chiffchaff about, which gives me hope for more Yellow-broweds or something rarer. I had at least eight around Stafford Marsh a couple of mornings ago, with several still along my route to work as well. It's definitely a fairly good autumn for Goldcrest too, or better than the last few autumns at least. Redwings are now a daily occurrence mostly in small numbers, but am yet to see a Fieldfare.
Seems like the vismig season has ground to a halt, after probably the best ever autumn for Wood Pigeon passage. This lingering solid grey cloud and easterly airflow is not encouraging anything to move at all in the mornings, well not here anyway.
I couldn't get out this morning so spent a good deal of time vismigging from the back garden. For the second day in a row a clear dawn soon clouded over...
Looking east, clear sky sandwiched between thick cloud and some low river mist
Over 4,600 Wood Pigeons flew south down the valley, with 30 Chaffinch, 15 Goldfinch, 10 MeadowPipit, 10 Redwing, 6 Siskin, 5 Greenfinch, 5 Pied Wag, 2 ReedBunting, 2 Skylark,1Grey Wag andmy first Brambling of the autumn also overhead.
The Brambling flew over pre-sunrise with four Chaffinch, and am pleased to say my sound recorder (which I am yet to do a blog post about, but promise I will) picked it up. Unfortunately it also picked up my size tens on our gravel garden as I picked some chives for my egg on toast! However it is thanks to my garnishing-needs that I was outside at the right time so can't complain.
Here is the Brambling, calling soon after my stomping, along with some Chaffinch calls. There's a nice low pass by two Redwing at the end of this short sound clip too...
The Rose-coloured Starling was still about today, seen in Whitford again. This is where it seems to be spending its time during the day, although it is mostly out of view in private gardens. Still not seen it again around my house!
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
