A Trio Of Ticks

After a post moaning about the lack of patch year ticks - along come three!

Rewinding back to Friday, and I was just having a bite to eat before work when Fraser (our reserves warden) phoned.  He could hear Bearded Tits calling from the reeds on Stafford Marsh, and whilst on the phone saw four fly out and head for Black Hole Marsh. I was out the door and down the reserve in moments - and moments later the calls of Bearded Tits could be heard from the platform.  A minute or two later along came a tram and up went the Bearded Tits, all four, although they soon dropped straight back into the reeds. Another minute or two later and up they went again, but this time stayed low and flew over Black Hole Marsh, and east over the tram line.

Bearded Tit really is a rare bird, these were only my second ever, with my first being equally brief. Many thanks Frase for this unexpected year tick.

With all the wind and rain, I had high hopes for today. And with the sea being quiet in recent days I decided to spend my morning in the valley. The weather meant Colyford hide was the most obvious choice - from here you get a good view over the flood water on Colyford Marsh and Colyford Common.

Flood!

My most painful dips this year have been with Garganey - I managed to miss three spring birds.  I thought I'd missed my chance with this species to be honest, but on Sunday noticed a few new birds had been reported in the UK. And guess what was with the first flock of Teal I looked at this morning...

At the back in front of that Lapwing

... a Garganey! My latest ever too. I can't tell you how happy I was to see this - and it instantly made looking through hundreds and hundreds of Teal this autumn worthwhile!

I spent another hour in the hide, and there were superb numbers of birds about (particularly ducks and gulls), but I couldn't find anything else better than an adult and first-winter Med Gull. Or maybe I did...

I picked up a darkish mantled gull in a distant and very large flock of mostly Great Black-backed Gulls. I thought it was going to be a Yellow-legged, but then it showed its legs, they looked pale pink!? It had a clean white head and looked otherwise ok for this species. Then the sodding thing turned and showed its head and bill in profile - it was at this point the shakes came over me as it looked a lot like an adult Caspian Gull!!! Stupidly the only camera I had was on my phone, so I got a few very poor pics this way, but when I put my eye back to the scope it wasn't there. And that's where this story ends, as I never saw it again. So gutted.  Anyway, for what it's worth, here's the 'best' pic...

Anyone care to comment?

I said early in this post how poor the sea has been, and it really has been. I don't just mean here, look at Portland Bird Obs website. We've had gale force southerly winds, with low after low coming through - but the totals have been pathetic! Where are the Sooties and Grey Phals?  Mid afternoon I thought I would give the sea another chance though - so headed down to the Spot On...

...and it was rubbish!  There was quite literally nothing passing, and after twenty minutes I decided to give up. Wandering back to the car, one last glance at the sea with my naked eyes gave me the shock of the year - SABINE'S GULL!!!  A juv Sabine's Gull was just there, flying west close in, its distinctive wing pattern immediately obvious. I grabbed a few record shots, but pleasingly it stopped flying west and joined some feeding Black-headed Gulls. I got the news out, then legged it down to the shore to take some more pics...

I know not everyone likes gulls - but come on...

 And here's a quick (and rubbish) video...

It stayed here for about ten minutes, then drifted further out and sat on the sea. A few minutes later it took off and flew west - and we last saw it about five minutes later towards Seaton Hole. Stunning, stonking, beautiful, elegant, buoyant.... I could go on and on. WHAT A BIRD!!! Look how dark the head is, the delicately forked tail with the black band, and don't get me started on that wing pattern....

Isn't it funny how one last glance at the sea turned this sea watch from dire to incredible. If I had walked back to my car the other way (the shorter way!) I simply wouldn't have seen it, and this Sab's would have been loitering out here without any of us knowing!  This was my second Sabine's here, and quite similar to my first - stupidly close in, and there was nothing else moving over the sea.

After this excitement I had another look up the valley. The Estuary was empty, but from the farm gate I was pleased to see lots of large gulls.  Sadly my Caspian-ish thing wasn't in amongst them, but two lovely adult Yellow-legged Gulls were. I then noticed a few gulls were starting to gather on the Estuary right in front of the Tower Hide, and in amongst them was yet another Yellow-legged Gull, this one a first-winter. Even at the distance it was, still very distinctive and proved its ID nicely by flying up and down a few times.  Later Gav and Tim saw this bird and took some great photos (click on their names to see the pics).  Also from the farm gate were six Ruff with the Lapwing.

What a day!!!

 

Summer Meets Winter

Within a few minutes this morning I saw four Wigeon and a Cuckoo!  Not two species that go together very often...

Obviously the star bird of the morning was the Cuckoo. I wanted to have a good count up of all the waders at high tide today (see below for totals), but this was interrupted when Ian Mc saw a Cuckoo at Black Hole Marsh. This is a species I thought I'd blown for the year list as I missed out on calling spring birds.

I spent about an hour looking for this bloody bird - but my back up plan worked in the end. It was last seen when Sue Smith saw it land in trees beside the tram way, but it immediately vanished. Knowing autumn Cuckoos are incredibly lazy I waited, and waited, and waited... for the first tram of the day to come up from Seaton.  Sure enough as the tram came through (the bright pink one too!) out popped the Cuckoo.  It flew from tree to tree in front of the tram, before flying across Colyford Common and landing (distantly) on some overhead wires...

An epic Patch Year Tick!

After a few minutes it took off and flew towards Stafford Marsh, when I lost it. As I write this it's not been seen again, but I wouldn't be surprised if it hangs around for a while - juv Cuckoos often do.

I've already mentioned the Wigeon, there were four of them on Black Hole Marsh with 6+ Teal.  We don't usually get Wigeon until late August/early September, so these can certainly be called early returners.

Now for the waders.  Black Hole Marsh is still superb for wading birds, but there were a few bits on Colyford Marsh too. Totals being; one Wood Sandpiper (Colyford), one Ruff, two Greenshank, three Little Ringed Plover (one BHM, two west over), ten Lapwing, 12 Green Sands, 20 Ringed Plover and 42 Dunlin.

Earlier today (at 5:45 to be precise!) I went up to Beer Head - I must be mad!!! Apart from half a dozen Willow Warblers my notebook remained empty, so here's another scenic shot...

My favourite one yet

The Big 250

On Tuesday Phil followed up a report of a day time churring Nightjar on patch, and was rewarded with churring and views of two birds. I immediately went up there, and just before 11pm heard a bird calling several times - but couldn't see a thing.  Last night, four of us (myself, Bun, Karen and Gav) tried our luck.  The conditions weren't great, but after some brief glimpses and hearing wing-clapping, churring and calling, a pair appeared above us, with one circling us several times before disappearing again into the darkness.

Three gloomy but very recognisably patch birders - each with their distinctive jizz

The birds are notable enough without thinking about lists and patch birding. There's got to be a very good chance they've nested here, and hopefully will do (with some more?) for many years to come. The habitat has only recently become suitable for them, and apparently they used to be here many years ago (c20 years ago) again when the habitat was suitable. Just shows if the habitat is right the birds will come.

In terms of my patch life list these Nighjars are a milestone for me, as they're my 250th bird species for the patch. Someone hire a cheap DJ, I'll sort out the trays of cheese and pineapple sticks and let's have a party!!! Yes I've made it to the quarter of a century mark, and I've STILL not seen a (live) Puffin here!  When I have a bit more time I may well do a summary blog post about these 250 birds - but I am well chuffed with the achievement. Not liking to sound like an acceptance speech, but it's only because of the superb place we live in, and the fantastic network of kind local birders we have.

My full list and the local patch league table can be found on Bubo here: http://www.bubo.org/Listing/view-all-lists.html# by searching for 'Axe Estuary'.

Nightjar was my 171st bird for the patch in 2013. Which means if I'm going to reach my 200 target I've got to see 29 more species in four months. That's a huge ask, but I guess it is possible, we just need a bloody good autumn and I basically need to see everything (which I have spectacularly failed at so far this year!). Don't forget to check my 2013 Patch Year List page which I am keeping up to date.

Since my last blog post, we've had a bit of a rarity too. On Tuesday James Mc found a Pec Sand on Black Hole Marsh. This place has been screaming out for a rarity this autumn, and a Pec is a good start (but we do want better!). I've literally lost count of how many Pec's I've seen on patch - I think this is my ninth.  I've no pics but it doesn't matter because all you have to do is look HERE, HERE and HERE.

To complete my outstanding bird news, my usual woodland bird survey near Colyton this morning showed a heck of a lot of birds. The highlight being a couple of Crossbill (seem to be annual here) - maybe one of those wing-barred ones will appear here...

Shearwater Success

My perseverance with the sea earned me a year tick this morning.

I was planning to sea watch 6-7am, but just couldn't get up. So I had to settle for a later and shorter sea watch, 08:30 - 09:00.

And the end of my very first scan three Shearwaters flew in from the east, immediately recognisably as Balearic Shearwaters. Finally!!! They flew west across the bay, and as many species do, started heading more south west when they got to straight out.  

As this had happened within the first sweep, I immediately sent a text around as I thought I'd hit on a decent passage, I was wrong! No more Shearwaters passed, and the best of the rest were singles of adult Med and first-summer Common Gulls. 

Black Hole Marsh 08:00 - 08:25 showed yet again not much new. Green Sandpipers up to four, Dunlin down to four, with 12 Common Sand, 10 Blackwits, two Greenshank, two Teal and a Lapwing. Am pleased to report the Green Sands were quite vocal, so will hopefully get them on the house list soon :-).

Won't have much/any birding time now for the rest of the week and the weekend, so roll on August!  August means the start of the main autumn passerine migration - surely it's got to be better than last year...