A Couple Of Hours This Evening

I spent a very pleasant couple of hours at Colyford Common and Blackhole Marsh tonight. The highlight was this lovely adult Wood Sand found earlier by Ian M...

my third of the year already!

I also saw; three Teal, one Little Ringed Plover (juv), nine Dunlin, 11 Common Sands, one Green Sand, six Blackwits, one Common Gull (my first of the autumn), several Sand Martins (most heading south) and two Whitethroat.

Might as well post this photo of a Comma here too, it's been on my camera for about a week!...

A Day (And A Post) With A Bit Of Everything

Today has been a day of a bit of everything! Gardening, visits to the local tip, shopping (well Argos anyway!), county recorder work, watching sport, birding and mothing!! I shall start with the latter...

This morning I was very pleased with my 35 moths of 6 species. This included no new species for the garden, but several (in blue) were new for the year...

22 Common Quaker
5 Twin-spotted Quaker
3 Hebrew Character
2 Oak Beauty
2 Early Grey
1 Small Quaker

Here are a couple of pics...

Oak Beauty - one of my early spring favourites :-)

Examples of the three species of Quaker, I'm sure you can work out which one is Twin-spotted and which one is Small!?

The birding today hasn't been too exciting, a first-year Med Gull on the Estuary and a drake Gadwall on Blackhole Marsh being the best it got...

Distant - but still exciting.....yeah?

I'm ashamed to say it, but yesterday was the first time I'd been to Blackhole Marsh since a whole load of work has taken place here. We have a new...

...car park

...field studies centre - very posh it is indeed!

....and track, though this won't be opened until the new hide is up and running

To make up for that shockingly bad photo of the drake Gadwall above, here's a pic of a male Wigeon taken on the Estuary yesterday. Just for interest, this is the original photo...

Good old Lumix, you just have to do what it 'says on the tin' - point and shoot!

But then, after a bit of 'playing', I can post this....

This is why I love my Lumix even more - you can crop ruthlessly and still get a decent enough image!

Since my Sand Martins the other day, there has been little more evidence of the imminent spring, although in the garden a male Blackcap has been singing well over the past couple of days - very pleasant. Whilst talking about the garden, I must mention that I've just been watching a Marsh Tit out the front room windows - a very scarce and highly irregular visitor to our garden.

This weekend it is the Grizzly race, an annual cross country run which starts and ends in Seaton. So I have been in a bit of sporty mood today, and whilst out and about this afternoon, couldn't help thinking how any one out 'being sporty' and 'fit' should be prepared as dull rain clouds were encroaching fast. So when I saw this chap cycle past...


I just couldn't help but analyse his 'gear'. I personally give this keen (and I have to say very quick!) cyclist 9/10....

If you can't read the writing, click on the image to enlarge it

And why not 10/10? Well, I think he could do with a red woolly hat ;-)

Good Weather For Ducks

Yesterday morning I had an urge to find an Aquatic Warbler, so Bun, Karen and I gave the marshes on the west side of the river a good 'bashing'....did we get one??

Well if we had found one you would have known by now! We did unearth at least 15 Sedge Warblers though so we considered it a worthwhile few hours, and it is something we will certainly do again if a few more Aquatics start appearing on the south coast.

During our wander several ones and twos of Yellow Wags flew over, along with a couple of Swifts.

Today has been a day of rain, though I was out early before it really started lashing down. Blackhole Marsh showed the same selection of birds as recent days, though the Little Stints have gone now.

Visiting birders be aware than work has started on the main hide here. The walkway is being built now, with the hide going up once this has been completed. This is the work done by the contractors on day one, not bad I suppose...

Pity it couldn't wait another month though

There were lots of hirundines feeding over the water, with this juvenile Swallow using one of the diggers to rest on...

Interestingly this bird was still being fed by one of its parents

Just as a major rain storm came over, I had a bit of surprise whilst looking out to sea. A flock of seven duck appeared, flew in off and up river - they were Pochard!

...not that you can tell that from this photo!!

Soon after they were floating on the water north of Coronation Corner, but I couldn't see them a couple of hours later. An interesting and surprising record for August!

I had the moth trap out night before last. I won't list what I caught as there was nothing new for the garden or the year. I had 44 of 12 species, with Setaceous Hebrew Character being the most numerous, and singles of Small Waved Umber and Jersey Tiger being the highlights.

Blackhole Marsh This Afternoon

The only birding I did today was a mid/late afternoon stint at Blackhole Marsh for an hour or so...

Wader numbers have gone up a little. Ringed Plover numbers looked similar, but there were another ten or so more Dunlin than when I was last here. In with them the two Little Stints still, and most notably our first Turnstone of 2010...

First spotted by Sue Smith

A Greenshank was feeding on the marsh along with a Blackwit and the Ruff still, which showed a little better today...

All birds should take a leaf out of this Ruff's book!!

Over the marsh were a nice collection of Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins with this late(ish) Swift...

After an entire summer season I've FINALLY got a half decent flight shot of a Swift!!

Workies all day tomorrow, roll on next week...

An Afternoon Tour Of The Marshes

Had a wander around Blackhole, Stafford and Colyford Marshes this afternoon - no sign of the two Wood Sands seen here last night and this morning. I did see a few bits though...

Ringed Plover numbers doubled whilst I was there, as a flock of 15 flew in from the west (making a total of at least 31). Dunlin numbers remain similar and the two Little Stints also remain. The juvenile came a little closer for me today, it's just a pity the wind was blowing my scope all over the place...

Corking little thing

A Ruff was nice to see - my second of the 'autumn' - and this is an awful flight shot of it...

I said it was awful!

Also on Blackhole three Blackwits and a few Common Sands. Colyford Common gave four Wheatear and a Greenshank, and Colyford Marsh showed four more Greenshank (with the fifth bird joining them from Colyford Common). Also a single Lapwing by the main scrape.

Earlier in the day, a sweep of the Estuary showed the Red-crested Pochard still with us...

Hanging out with two WILD Mallards! :-)

Have got a busy three days coming up, but may be able to get out birding for at least a small part of tomorrow and Saturday. I'll finish this post with this photo...

Little Egret taken with the Lumix