Brixham Twitch

We (James M and I) have wanted to pay a visit to the White-billed Diver for several weeks, but work, weather and other things kept getting in the way.  Last Tuesday though, after a painfully congested drive down, through some scarily intense rain, we arrived at our destination...

Although all looks calm and tranquil, there was a pretty strong SW wind blowing

Within minutes we were shocked at the quality of birding.  Let's be honest, divers are usually 'telescope birds', but no need for a scope here for much of the time!  It was like being in a foreign country, with Great Northerns and Black-throats swimming around the harbour like its an every day occurrence! Just amazing stuff...

Great Northern Diver - one of about 25 in the harbour!

Black-throated Divers - saw about half a dozen of these

And then of course there was the star bird, which appeared just inside the entrance to the inner harbour soon after our arrival...

Next to the GBBG

It quickly (and it really could move under water!) came closer though...

 

And then EVEN closer....

What a superb bird!  I saw the Hayle bird which really was a highlight in my birding life, but this was even better!  Obviously its whopping ivory bill really is striking, but so is the whole feel and shape of the bird.  Great Northern Divers are big, but this is bigger, and chunkier, and seemed to swim and move about with real power and ease. And it really did give point blank views as it fed along this channel...

Welcome to Brixham indeed!

This photo was taken when it had swam quite some distance away from us...

Yep, that's the White-billed Diver!

With a couple of Red-throated Divers further in Torbay, it was a 'four diver day' for us!  Then there were the grebes.  Although we missed the Red-necked that was showing inside the marina, we had one just around the corner from the AstraZeneca. Also from here, a Slavonian Grebe flew in and landed close in, and later two Black-necked Grebes drifted in and then back out of the harbour...

Distant photo - but the distinctive 'fluffy bum' shape still obvious

Also from the AstraZeneca car park we saw the lingering Iceland Gull, we never got close to it but still had good views.  It's a stunning bird, but did seem a bit dim! All the other gulls were following fishermen, or swimming around just off the shore, but the Iceland Gull spent the entire time circling the same white bouy just staring at it! I guess it was feeding, but it just seemed a bit 'Tim nice but dim' to me!

Sadly we had to get a move on, as I was working in the afternoon, but we couldn't resist the Decoy Lake drake Scaup on the way home. In reality it wasn't quite as exciting as it should have been, as it spent the entire time asleep and partially hidden underneath vegetation on the far bank, next to a drake Gadwall.  Here we were also hoping to make our three grebe day into a five grebe day, and soon enough a Great Crested Grebe popped up. The hunt for Little Grebe failed to fined any, but two Black-necked Grebes were somewhat of a surprise!  I didn't manage any photos of them as they stayed on the far side, but the local attention they attracted ensured there are some photos other places, namely here... http://teignbirds.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/thanks-for-grebes-steve.html

All we wanted now was a Little Grebe. And it took a drive alongside the Axe once home to find one, and it really took some finding in the rough conditions. We managed it though, four diver species and five grebe species in a day - if only a Pied-billed Grebe was somewhere in the south west we would have had every diver and grebe species on the British list in a day! 

So another twitch - and the perfect twitch too!  Got the bird within minutes and saw a very impressive back up cast all showing really well. A very enjoyable twitch.

As always though, it's not just about the birds.  It was great to meet the White-billeds finder, Bill Macdonald, who gave a face to face account of how exciting this find was!  Thanks for the help Bill, pointing us to the right sites for the right birds.  Also thanks to Mike Langman who kindly dropped us a line as we were making our way down, helping us connect with the birds and informing us exactly where to park (and for free!). Also, thanks Mike for quickly spreading the news of the Decoy Black-necked Grebes to all interested parties on our behalf. Lastly, thanks to James M, who is officially my twitching companion, and acted as chauffeur for the day.

Gotta get out and do some patch birding now, hopefully will actually see some birds too...

A Born Again Twitcher?

A proper rarity today - I've been twitching! I'll be honest, twitching isn't my thing, I have nothing against those that do, it just isn't for me. I'm a bit of a loner birder to be truthful, and although I like driving, hours sat in a car for one bird doesn't really appeal to me.  There are two reasons though why I may overlook these negatives...

1/ Because I think the opportunity to watch the species in the field will give me some valuable experience if I was to find one in the future.

2/ Because I want to see it.

There's been two birds in the south west over the last couple of days that have been tempting me. The Brixham White-billed Diver attractive due to reason number two. I saw the Hayle bird, and that was one of the best birds I've ever seen!  What's not to like about a big Great Northern Diver with a rhino horn for a bill!

The other bird is the Brunnich's Guillemot in Portland Harbour, this tempting for reason number one.  It is a bloody rare bird too, one I never thought I'd get the chance to see in the UK.  Anyway, it didn't take much to turn today into a part twitching/part shopping day with Jess, and at 10:30 this morning we tagged onto the the end of the large crowd of birders/twitchers/photographers on the edge of Portland Harbour.  

Within a few moments, and without knowing when and where it was last seen, it popped up right in front of us!!

Then followed the expected small stampede of a group of photographers, all wanting to understandably get in line with the bird.  This proved quite funny to watch, as the bird travelled surprisingly long distances under water, and often only surfaced for a few seconds.  This meant that often by the time the photographers had reached the Guillemots position, it had gone back under!  Jess and I just stood still, and in the ten minutes we were there it surfaced about five times right in front of us, despite at times being out of view to the left, and very distant to the right.  So my advice is, pick your spot and stay there - your time will come...

 

 

I'm not sure where it has been for the past few days, but it spent the whole time we were there along the near shore, most of the time between us and the jetty pictured here (which had several people on it - not bothering the Guillemot at all!)...

You can see in the photo below the same jetty, inside the marina, with the mass water body of the main harbour behind. Really lucky that it's feeding inside the marina, imagine finding it, and the views you'd get, if it was elsewhere in the harbour! I've previously seen a Surf Scoter in this small part of the harbour too.

And the last shot from here, our last view of the Guillemot...

Then it was Weymouth time (and lunch time -  McDonalds for two!), with shopping interrupted briefly by a couple of Mediterranean Gulls...

And an opportunity for Jess to feed her favourite water birds, Coots...

 (I really don't know why she loves Coots so much, but she really does!!)

I then managed to wangle a five minute scan from Sandsfoot Castle (along the north shore of Portland Harbour). What a worthwhile stop this was with at least two Red-necked Grebes (one really close), 17 Black-necked Grebes (one flock of 14 and a trio) and at least three Slav Grebes.  The sea grebes are all pretty scarce on patch, so this really was a treat for me!

The view from Sandsfoot Castle

If we'd had more time I would have tried for the two white-winged Gulls on offer, but we had to return home mid afternoon.

So sat here tonight, can I say it was an unforgettable experience? Well no, not really.  At the end of the day it is an auk with an extra white stripe!  I'm sorry if that offends you, but come on, how often do you look at a winter plumaged Razorbill or Guillemot and go 'ooooohh - what a stunner!'. But if I ask myself whether I'm pleased to have seen it? Well the answer is most certainly yes.  

And my next question?  When can I fit in a trip to Brixham....

Stilt Sandpiper

Rarely does a bird entice me to leave the county, but the summer plumaged Stilt Sandpiper that has been at Lodmoor, Weymouth, for a couple of days did that indeed. So much so that my alarm clock went off at 4:30 this morning...

I met James Mc in Axminster, bundled into his snazzy 4x4 thing and just under an hour later we were parking up by Overcombe Corner.

Now this was my kind of twitch, this was the scene on the raised bit of ground from where this bird is viewable ...

James Mc and my scope - we were the only people there!

We had lovely views of the Stilt Sand - which looks like no other wader in the world! Maybe Curlew Sand is the cloesest common relative I can come up with...but only structure wise (ish!). What a plumage though, with lovely barred breast, belly and flanks, and a gorgeous rufous flash below its eye. A very aptly named bird too- very leggy indeed!

Beause we were so early, the light wasn't good enough to attempt a photograph of the bird. So you will have to make do with a 'it was here' photo...

A lovely bit of 'habbo'

Other birds we saw here, and during a quick look at Radipole and Ferrybridge were four (plus) Green Sands, one Common Sand, 30 Dunlin, two Sanderling, two Med Gulls, several Common Terns, one Sandwich Tern and singles of Willow Warbler and Whitethroat.

We were back in Axminster by 08:15, and I was home soon after that. I then had a quick look through the moth trap that I threw out late last night. There were just two migrants amongst the usual critters; a Silver Y and a...

Yes it's yet another 'micro moth' featured on this blog - a female European Corn-borer

A photo I have failed to post over the past week is this one of 'The White One'. I've seen him/her (I suggest the latter as it's quite a petite bird) several times over the past few weeks...

Stands out doesn't it!!

WOOP WOOP!

YIPEEEEEE! The Solitary Sand stayed the night has been showing well all day today. I just hope it stays another week for Gav.....come on!!!!!

After I finished work at midday I had a wander down myself. I didn't take any photos of the bird - but it looked stunning in the afternoon sunlight. Soon there will be some cracking shots of it on the net though - there were plenty of big lenses pointing at it.

I did take a few photos of other things though...

The excitement of a twitch on patch is second to none!!

The only other birdie news I have is of a nice Ruff on the (still amazing looking) scrape opposite Axmouth FC. James Mc saw this bird here yesterday too.