Sunshine At Last!

Just as the natural world thinks autumn is upon us, the sun comes out! Lovely it is though - finally the shorts are out!

Looking up the Estuary late last night

I've kept an eye on Black Hole Marsh over the last few days, eagerly waiting for a rare wader to drop in! No luck so far, but there is some wader passage going on.

On Saturday evening there were six Blackwits, three Dunlin, two Greenshank and this Ringed Plover on Black Hole Marsh...

A juv - it should have been a little ringed really!

And this morning, the same counts of Blackwits and Dunlin, one less Greenshank, but two Green Sands and this Whimbrel...

Dropped in all on its tod

Two of the three Dunlin

Before I start boring you with photos of dragonflies, I'll mention the colour-ringed first-winter Med Gull I saw at Black Hole Marsh last week. This one...

E325

It was ringed as a pullus near Terneuzen, Netherlands on 20/6/2011, then spent the winter in France, in the far north west of the county. It was last seen in France at Plonévez-Porzay on 25/1/2012 and there were no more sightings until mine the other day.

Ok, now for a few dragonfly pictures that I've taken today. I just had to take some photos because I have seen so few so far this year...

Southern Hawker

Four-spotted Chaser

Black-tailed Skimmer

And to end this post, a bit of 'natural art', taken this morning at Black Hole Marsh...

Should Have Stayed In Bed...

...is exactly what I was thinking as I was trudging around a very cold and bleak Beer Head this morning, 06:15 - 07:30.

One Wheatear, 46+ Yellow Wags (of which most - if not all - had been seen the evening before) and singles of over-flying Ringed Plover and Grey Wagtail where all that made it into my notebook.

Black Hole Marsh afterwards was a little better; the juvenile Little Stint found last night was still present...

Photographic conditions couldn't have been worse though!

And the two Curlew Sands of recent days had become three again! I think this was the 'new bird'...

Smart birds as always

Otherwise it was much the same with c30 Dunlin and a dozen or so Ringed Plovers.

Later on in the morning, a sweep of the Estuary revealed a few more waders, with a Bar-tailed Godwit opposite Seaton Marshes hide 'new in'. There were also eight Blackwits still. A juvenile Goosander was a surprise find north of Coronation Corner, swimming around and resting with the Mallards...

A rather scarce visitor to our patch, though we have had the occasional singleton at this time of year before

There were at least two Wigeon and 25 Teal on Colyford Marsh.

I've spent over two hours sky watching from the farm gate today, still no Osprey or Honey Buzzard to show for it....

Mid morning, I carried out my monthly woodland bird survey in a block of privately owned woods between Colyton and Southleigh. I am not the biggest fan of woodland birding, but just occasionally I do enjoy it, and this morning was one of those rare occasions...

I didn't see anything rare, or scarce even, it was just lovely... I have never seen so many Chiffchaffs at this site as I did today, some were even singing! Many were following the two Long-tailed Tit flocks that I stumbled upon. A family party of four Siskins very kindly dropped in on a tree in front of me, the stripey juvs looking very drab compared with their 'dapper' father! Finally, a nice touch were two Yellow Wags which flew low east over the wood...much better than any of the 46+ I'd seen earlier on Beer Head!!

The only photo I took in the woods was this one...

A Southern Hawker

I have got a busy few days ahead now, so don't expect this blog to be that busy! Saying that though, I'm sure I'll find the odd hour to nip out, and who knows what could be there waiting to be found...