December Highlights

Thought it was about time I wrote something down about the snippets of interest I have mustered over the last few weeks...

Who doesn't love a goose at Christmas!? I had 13!  Since Christmas Eve there has been a sizeable influx of grey geese across the UK, thanks to cold north easterly winds and the drop in temperatures in eastern Europe.  Looking at BirdGuides it's mostly White-fronts and Beans, but mid morning on Christmas Day I could see small black and white heads poking up from the long grass on Colyford Marsh, not grey ones...

Look along the near edge of the flock

 

At first I could only see nine Barnacle Geese, but later the whole flock showed itself better and contained 13 birds.  A fabulous sight and presumably as good as Barnacle Geese could ever get here - most records relate to 'feral' birds mixed up with the local Canada Geese.  Interestingly, other than when I first found them, this flock do seem to be staying separate from the local Canada Geese, although they have been mingling with up to five Dark-bellied Brent Geese which are notable in themselves here mid-winter.

How much better does Bridge Marsh look with this flock on it!

 

A closer look at some of the Barnacle Geese in the gloom of post-sunset on Christmas Day

 

The Dark-bellied Brents

 

All 13 Barnacle Geese were still present today, but I haven't seen the Brents for a couple of days now. And still no grey geese which is disappointing, although hopefully that will change as there are still plenty at large in the UK and we have more cold weather to come apparently.

Moving to a species that is associated more with warmth, I think I set a new Axe record count a few weeks back, if not, it was certainly a new high count for me.  22 Cattle Egret flew out of Seaton Marshes roost on 11th Dec, with 21 the following morning.  They've been feeding out of the valley which is quite unusual, just to the west of Seaton either side of the A3052.

In Seaton, the area around the Bowling Green is still a hive of activity.  The two Lesser Whitethroats remain (and I have started composing my blog post on these now as I have managed enough photos), as well as the odd Blackcap and up to five Black Redstarts.  The latter often not really behaving like stereotypical Black Reds - perching deep in trees and feeding on berries...

This male is one of the birds that have been regular by the Bowling Club

 

Often found partially obscured deep in a tree!

 

These berries are what is attracting all the birds to this area

Only occasionally does it remember it's a Black Redstart and sits out in the open

 

Gull-wise, the best for me recently has been this (slightly ugly but not ugly enough to not have) third-winter Caspian Gull. It showed really well on the Lower Axe for several hours on the morning of 15th Dec.  Closer scrutiny of the pictures showed it to be the same bird that Gav found and I later saw on the Axe on 27th Nov...

Slightly darker mantle and different head and bill shape visible here, but structure wise it isn't classic

 

Eye looks pale-ish too which is also not ideal

A pretty perfect wing pattern though, with a mirror on p9 and some black on p4

 

And this well-marked and advanced first-winter Caspian Gull on the lower Estuary last thing today...

Back left - almost as white breasted and headed as the adult Herring Gull in front!  

Such a well advanced bird with plenty of clean grey on top and the older generation feathers all looking very worn and faded now

 

The below gull was another interesting looking thing.  Its overall darkness, structure, and massive Glaucous-like beak had me desperately trying to capture a spread-tail shot in case it was an American Herring Gull.  Unfortunately I didn't manage too, but I don't think it was one. Probably just a bulky (and possibly a bit Northern?) Herring Gull.

Although it has quite well marked underparts, they were a dark coffee colour, but certainly not smooth brown like our 2020 American Herring.

 

And finally - I really hope all you lovely readers had a wonderful Christmas!  Can't really believe it is already all over, but considering how quickly this year has gone it will soon be around again...

That Tern

Well I cannot be the author of a blog about the birds of the Axe Estuary area and not mention a certain Tern...

A Lesser Crested Tern has spent four days on the Exe Estuary, well today is its fifth day. A cracking rarity and not at a time of year you might expect to see one!  However, on a local level there is galling foreword to its appearance on the Exe...

Monday of last week was absolutely shocking, especially in the afternoon with strong rain and heavy winds.  I was stuck in work, but Mike B braved the elements and was watching the pre-roosting gulls pile in to the river valley. They were all clearly reluctant to head out to sea where they usually roost due to the shocking conditions.  

At just before 4pm when it was already fairly dark, amongst a huge swirl of Black-headed Gulls over Black Hole Marsh, Mike had a few seconds glimpse of a tern sp., a large tern sp. with a large and colourful bill. I gave it some effort the following morning, looking along the Estuary and spent quite some time looking over the sea, but to no avail. 

I have to be honest, I was sure it was going to turn out to be a Royal Tern if it did reappear anywhere, Mike thought it has a reddish bill which supported that not to mention the late date, however, presumably Lesser Crested it was!  Obviously we cannot be absolutely certain, and the record will be a near-miss for the patch, however we all know what we have missed here, a truly incredible record.  Gutting.  Well done though Mike, just-reward for being out in such grim conditions!

So, what have I seen... Well lots of water in the valley yesterday, and it was good to see a bit of an increase in wintering bird numbers with more Lapwing and Wigeon around, as well as two Egyptian Geese which later became four.  I found nothing of note in the gulls that were around yesterday, but they have revealed some goodies during the previous few days...

Best of all was this lovely first-winter Caspian Gull off Coronation Corner on Friday 5th, first seen by Phil about half an hour earlier further up-river...

Well I wanted a more classic-looking Casp - and boy did I get it!

  

So white!

Such a striking secondary bar, and legs that went on forever!

A better albeit less sharp image of its upperwing. Feather-perfect.

It looked just as good on dry land as it was a big long-necked bird, standing as tall as the two Great Black-backed Gulls either side of this shot

 

There was another bird present that caught my interest, in fact it hung around all day distracting me as its ID wasn't immediately apparent.  It was a third-winter bird that was giving off Caspian-vibes at the same time as clearly not being a Caspian Gull.  Having shared the photos with other, Herring x Caspian hybrid has been suggested, and seems a good suggestion to me, although I did wonder whether Lesser Black-backed was in the mix somewhere considering its overall size and structure and leg and mantle colour...

Quite a dark mantle and very washed out pale yellow legs

The gull in the water

Some open-wing action

 

The other gull worthy of note from the previous week was this second-winter Yellow-legged Gull.  It remained distant but was a really chunky bird...

Right of the post, with Herring behind to compare mantle colour with and two Great Black-backs to the side to compare its size to!

Hard to judge mantle colour here in the bright sunshine, but structure and head and bill shape shows well.  It's the bird just to the right of the second-winter Herring Gull with the pale-tipped bill on the far left of this picture at mid-height.

At least one Lesser Whitethroat is still present in Seaton, although I wouldn't be surprised if both were still present as it's been a bit windy to get a proper handle on them lately.  I have got some nice sound clips, there are just some more photos I want to try and capture before I write a more detailed post on them. Hopefully I'll acheive this before the end of the year, but it ultimately depends on how helpful the birds prove!

 

Lesser Whitethroats and Gulls

Clive found a couple of Lesser Whitethroats yesterday morning, right in the centre of Seaton around the Bowling Green.  I was very pleased to spend some time with one of them this morning, and this post was going to be all about them, however later on today I went gulling...

The Lesser Whitethroat post will happen, and truthfully it's not just the gulls that have delayed it.  I want to spend more time with them and hopefully get some more photos and maybe even some sound recordings, before constructing a blog post. The question I want to try and answer is how far north/east have they originated from?  So do check back soon...just not too soon as I want to gather as much detail as I can.  

I managed to squeeze in a look along the Estuary at about 3pm today. Not huge numbers of gulls present but one of the first birds I saw at the southern end of the Estuary was this second-winter Caspian Gull.  On structure not a big bird at all, and any Casp lacking the usual impressive Casp stature worries me, especially when its a second-winter lacking a P10 window.  It still looked pretty smart though...

Bottom right - the one with a snowball for a head!

 

That thick and dark neck shawl gave it such a striking appearance!

 

The next decent gull greeted me when I arrived at Coronation Corner.  On the near bank was an absolute stonker of an adult Yellow-legged Gull.  All adult Yellow-legged Gulls look good, but some look really good, like this one...

Come on.  What a stonker.

 

It wouldn't stop preening though, so getting photos of its head out was a bit tricky

It then went for a walk to the waters' edge...

 

Where it stayed until I left. 

 

Next up was a distant third-winter bird. Am not ashamed to say I thought this was a Yellow-legged Gull based on head and bill shape, as well as leg length. However on reflection its mantle colour (only a smidgen darker than nearby Herrings), and far more importantly Gav's much better photos of a 3w Casp he found on the Estuary a few hours earlier, have brought me to the conclusion this is the very same bird. So a third-winter Caspian Gull...

Right of centre at the near edge of the flock, the rounded soft headed slightly darker mantled bird

 

The final gull worthy of mention, other than three Med Gulls, was what I think is a Herring x Lesser Black-backed.  When I first saw the dark mantle and yellow legs I presumed I had come across a second adult Yellow-legged, but its short dull yellow legs, streaky head and the 'off' colour of the mantle meant I landed on hybrid...

Preening in the above shot, above the head of the left hand preening Herring Gull in the water in front.  Can see the short yellow-ish legs here

 

The only feature that seemed to count against Herring x LBBG was that its bill was a decent size.  I usually find these hybrids have smaller LBBG-type bills, but I guess they must vary. Weirdly it doesn't look as dark mantled in this shot as it was in real life.

 

If the gull quality continues like this throughout the winter, it's going to be a good one!  I wouldn't say no to some more classic-looking Caspian Gulls though... 

 

 

Autumn Slows But Casps Continue

After a cracking week of late autumn sunshine, the weather changed at the weekend with Saturday being a particularly grim day. So, perfect for gulls then!

Before I mention the gulls I will just round up what I saw during the period of settled weather.  Not much to be honest, with a real feeling of autumn coming to a close.  Overhead it's just been the odd Skylark and a very small number of Chaffinches, along with the last few flocks of Wood Pigeons.  No wonder Monday was so spectacular, this was clearly the final push.  There's certainly a few more Redwing around here now, but not loads, and somehow I still haven't seen a Fieldfare yet this autumn!  There's still a few Chiffchaff and plenty of Goldcrests about, however continued searching has failed to show anything better in this department which makes me feel very short-changed.

My highlight of last week came right at the end of it, well after sunset in fact on the Friday.  A family walk up Beer Head showed a surprise Woodcock, which gave lovely flight views as it flew towards Branscombe from near the look-out on Beer Head.  This is only the second Woodcock I have ever seen up here. I don't know if it was an autumn migrant that I fluked upon, or a local wintering bird coming out to feed in the open fields here, but I suspect the latter.

As I alluded to earlier in this post, Saturday was all about gulls, although a look along the river early afternoon didn't actually show that many gulls - but it did include some Casps.  It was great to catch-up with Gav who had the same idea, and he saw an additional first-winter bird to those mentioned below.  

My first Casp and my best one, was a first-winter.  Although when I say the views were dreadful, this is an understatement.  I picked it up when it was fast asleep in a gull flock on Colyford Marsh, half a kilometer away during some extremely heavy rain. It's because of these factors that my photos of it are so shoddy, nothing at all to do with the capabilities of the camera-operator of course...

Bird at the back just left of centre. I could just see clean white underparts, neck and breast, and the really plain and clean greater coverts, with neat pale tips, as well as black tertials.  

The most I could zoom in on it, but neck shawl visible here after it woke up, as well as grey on mantle and a clearer view of the wing pattern.  

I was pleased to get Gav on this bird, and we both actually had pretty decent flight views of it as it took to the air and flew north up the valley.

The second bird in this flock I don't think I can quite claim.  I still think it's a third-winter Caspian, and have no reason to suggest it isn't, however views just weren't quite good enough for me to confirm and the photos weren't as useful as I was hoping...

Bottom left hand bird. Nice clean white head, small eye and longish looking bill with a perfect third-winter Casp dark smudge on the bill. I think I can even detect a bit of rear neck streaking but not completely certain of this.

Bottom left again.  This shot shows head shape a bit better.  Although it doesn't look it in these pics it had a slightly darker top to its mantle compared to the Herring Gulls around, but not dark enough for Yellow-legged.

 

My third Caspian-ish bird of the day, Gav and I both independently found bobbing about on the water north of Coronation Corner.

It looked ok on the water...

Not a huge bill, but lovely white head with a bit of a neck shawl - an ok looking second-winter Casp

 

But I didn't like the look of it so much on dry land.  Even if it did sport a very striking P10 mirror which is a big tick for a Caspian of this age...

Right hand bird (with juv GBBG and second-winter Herring)... quite a grubby looking head with some eye mask streaking, a short bill and very average-sized legs.  But that P10 is there for all to see.

 

I have been battling in my head about this third bird ever since I've seen it.  I want to have it, and that P10 really helps its cause, but there are so many features that hint it is more than just a little impure.  Of course many of our Caspian Gulls  these days are no doubt a little bit rough around the edges, but I think this one might just cross the line for me.  May need a few more days pondering on it. 

Let me know your thoughts, if you have any.  Hopefully my next post will be about whatever stripy warbler I am due to come across any day now...

 

Monumental Pigeon Passage

Yesterday morning, although I wasn't able to count them, in the overcast conditions I was surprised to see numerous large of flocks of Wood Pigeons flying east over Seaton, probably totalling about 10,000 birds.  Not expected at all.... but neither was what happened this morning!

Today saw a complete change in the weather, much cooler overnight temps and a starlit sky made way for a gorgeous sunny morning, albeit with a cold and noticeable northerly wind.  As dawn broke small flocks of Wood Pigeons flew over east, but as I stepped out of my car having changed my viewpoint to Seaton Hole, a single flock of 4,500 Wood Pigeons flew directly overhead and south west, a more usual Pigeon-direction.  But it wasn't until I wandered down to the sea front I could see what they were up to - they were flying out to sea!  

I simply couldn't believe what I could see. Over the sea at several different distances were long lines of Pigeons, some virtually at the limit of binable range.  My first scan revealed 12,000 birds, and over the course of the next 50 minutes I had a total of 64,000 Wood Pigeons fly out south east.  Absolutely incredible.   The most intense Pigeon passage I have ever witnessed here before.  

You'll have to open this picture up to see all the specks!

 

The different shapes of the various flocks were incredible to see

More Pigeons emerging from behind Seaton Hole

A tiny section of one of the distant long lines of birds zoomed in a little more

 

Which when counted properly shows to contain 2,400 birds.  This was part of a line of 8.5k birds.

 

It wasn't just Wood Pigeons overhead (well out to sea mostly!) but Chaffinches were again moving well, with a single Brambling and three Siskin over Seaton Hole.  Settled at Seaton Hole were a couple of Firecrest and a showy flock of four Bullfinch, unfortunately not Northern birds...

Always worth a snap - male Bullfinch

 

Also offshore were seven Common Scoter and good numbers of auks flying east, whilst at Lower Bruckland Ponds a good look through a huge Long-tailed Tit flock failed to show anything better than seven Chiffchaff and a few Goldcrest.

Yesterday morning the sea was a bit more productive for seabirds, with over 1,000 auks flying through distantly and two Brent Geese settled off the beach...

They were close inshore, just close inshore to a distant part of the beach!

 

On Saturday morning three Blackcap were charging around my garden, felt like new arrivals with none of the three looking very settled.  Presumably they were sorting some winter territories out before it gets cold.   

On Friday morning another seawatch revealed nothing better than 23 Med Gulls east and seven Common Scoter settled offshore.   

I have a very busy work-week this week, however I hope to get out a bit at least over the coming sunny days.  Autumn clearly still has plenty to give, and today it gave me about 32 tonnes of Wood Pigeon!

 

  

Sunny Interludes

Although 2025 will be remembered for its sunshine, warmth and lack of rain, October and November have done their best to counterbalance this.   In what has been a very grey and windy month, last Saturday (8th) was a cracker of day, with a light westerly wind and plenty of clear skies at dawn, so I headed up to Axe Cliff where I met James Mc...

We spent a couple of hours mostly watching the visible migration, which in the case of passerines seemed to be mostly happening inland of us due to the lack of wind so numbers weren't as high as expected.  However the watch still have plenty of oddities and when it came to Wood Pigeons - what a spectacle!

07:00 - 09:00 produced (west unless stated):  4 Pintail (over south), 1 Golden Plover, 1 Dunlin, 1 Green Woodpecker (heard calling from Golf Course), 30,000+ Wood Pigeon, 100+ Stock Dove, 1 Mistle Thrush, 5 Redwing, 3 Song Thrush, 450+ Starling, 45 Skylark, 1 Swallow (U-turned back east), 50+ Meadow Pipit, 4 alba Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, 90 Linnet, 30 Goldfinch, 100+ Chaffinch, 3 Brambling, 8 Redpoll, 3 Siskin, 1 Reed Bunting and 1 Cirl Bunting (female briefly perched up then west).

So although no scarcities or rarities there were still plenty of surprises.  The Pintail appeared from nowhere right above our heads and flew straight out to sea.  The Swallow was the first one I've seen for probably a month as they cleared out of here really quick this year, even though before that they and House Martins were about in excellent numbers.  Dunlin was a vismig first for me at Axe Cliff (like the Pintail!) and Mistle Thrush isn't all that frequent up here at all, with the Green Woodpecker being a site first for both James and I, although there's nothing to suggest this was not a resident bird from the village.

The Cirl Bunting was another nice highlight, being the first one I have seen up here since my first one for the patch back in April 2024, which was a lovely singing male.  I heard it calling a few times before picking it up hunkered down on the top of a small bramble hedge. The light was awful but it looked to be a well-marked female...

Presumably the same bird Gav saw up here the previous week

 

As I hinted above, the Wood Pigeon passage was absolutely incredible.  They started off mostly low and following the cliff, with many flocks unusually coming from the north east of us, but then the passage moved a little offshore and gained height.  

The size of some of the wispy snake-like lines of Pigeons were almost too large to comprehend and certainly not something that could be captured by a camera, but I always try... 

Just a few in this shot!

The lower snake of birds is almost too distant to make out in this photo, but look closely and you'll see them

Such a sight to behold

A tiny flock, but I liked the light behind these

A small part of a large flock passing one of the Golf Course flags

They were still moving in good numbers when we left, so it was no surprise that Dan over at Sidmouth had over 40k birds by the time he ended his watch much later in the morning.

Today began with another very pleasant morning, following some absolutely atrocious weather-days.  I spent the first part of the morning aimlessly and randomly walking around Seaton looking skywards hoping for a swift, seeing as the previous evening there were singles in Sidmouth and Budleigh, but no such luck.  Strangely all the Wood Pigeon flocks I saw were flying east (no more than 2,000 birds), but all the Skylarks, Meadow Pipits and Chaffinches I saw were flying west as expected.  

My highlight of the morning was a lovely young male Marsh Harrier that flew in from the north over town, then headed off west...

Novel to see it from Aldi carpark!

 

Back to rain tomorrow, well now in fact as it is lashing down outside.  Storm Claudia is passing by - it's going to be a wet one folks!