First Proper Spring Migrants

My first ten Sand Martins of the year flew north over the A3052 at Colyford yesterday morning, following the River Axe, at about 9am. Three days earlier than my previous earliest on patch (9th March 2024) but not really a surprise as there's been a fairly widespread earlier than usual arrival into the UK this year.

I thought they zipped straight through, however about an hour and a half later there were nine in a similar area feeding, so presumably they mostly came back.

If it wasn't for the Sand Martins I would have had to officially rename this blog as 'Gulls of the Axe' as yesterdays start bird would have been another gull!

Yellow-legged Gulls are a bit odd in that between July and October almost all Axe records of this species relate to first-calendar year birds.  But from October through to the following July, young birds make up the smallest percentage of Yellow-legged Gull records! Explain that?

So I was really pleased to clap eyes on a striking first-winter Yellow-legged Gull with the gulls north of Coronation Corner mid morning yesterday...

Fairly dark looking wings thanks to black tertials and dark greater coverts, long winged too, nice bright pink legs, pale head with a striking eye mask

 But if in doubt, wait til it flaps...

Restricted pale on inner primaries - super! Nice black greater covert bar too, similar to a Casp

Later in the day, I saw what I presumed was the lingering 'dodgy looking' third-winter Yellow-legged Gull also north of Coronation Corner.  And I read on WhatsApp that Gav had a second-winter even later in the afternoon, making it a hat-trick!  

Small gull numbers have dropped right off now, of all three of the usual species (Black-headed, Common and Med). Although there's still just enough Common Gulls to give me something to sift through ever hoping for a Ring-billed!

Thanks for reading.

 

A Little Stunner

I'm afraid it's yet another post with a gull as the main feature! Well, what else can I do if nice gulls keep flaunting themselves in front of me!?  

At least it's a completely different gull though, a much much smaller one...

Phwoar!  

 

Late Sunday afternoon a glance out my office window revealed a surprise first-winter Little Gull almost dancing in the wind with a small number of Herring and Black-headed Gulls.  I fired off some quick shots, but am pleased to say it remained until I finished work so managed some much better photos.  What an absolute corker.

Spot the little stripey one!

This was basically my first view of it - enough to immediately rule out Ross's sadly!

Such a tiny gull

Was great watching it feed almost like a Wilson's Storm Petrel at times!

What a wing pattern

It took a rest on dry land for a bit, but the rising tide soon covered its feet in water

My final pic, taken when it was at its closest to me

 

This has proved such a good Little Gull winter for us, as it has for many sites on the south coast.  The best for well over a decade for sure.  And as I missed all the younger birds Tim C had in Seaton Hole earlier in the year, was delighted to get such amazing views of this one following equally impressive views of the Seaton Bay adult.

Managed to add a nice house tick last night too.  I stepped out of my car on the driveway and could hear an unfamiliar, yet familiar call overhead, then the penny dropped - Avocet!  Not sure how many were up there but interestingly the Axe wintering birds were still present today (per Tim C) so it/they must have been passing migrants.  A welcome nocmig garden record...

 

Hopefully my next post will include some proper summer migrants, as the Axe seems to be lagging behind many other sites that have already recorded some early migrants.  I tried to find some tonight but no luck yet.

Thanks for reading!

 

Caspian Gull Yellow P:OSR

In yesterday's post I published photos of the colour-ringed Caspian Gull that I found on the Axe Estuary earlier that day, it was bearing a yellow ring with P:OSR inscribed...

As this photo suggests, a pleasantly easy read on the ring

 

As if often the case these days, I have had the history back on this bird in super quick time, thanks to an email from The Polish Bird Ringing Centre earlier today.

P:OSR was ringed as a chick on 30th May 2025 in the province of Zachodniopomorskie in north west Poland, in the province's capital which is called Szczecin.  And this particular gull was ringed on the roof of a large building at the ship yard here, where I presume it was one of many.  

Red X marks the spot!

 

So apparently I saw it 272 days after it was ringed, and 1238km from where it was ringed.  But I wasn't the first person who has seen it since ringing as it has been seen once before - also in the UK.

There's an entry on P:OSR's data sheet for Sheffield on 1st September 2025, where it was recorded just for one day. A great little piece of information on its own, but I was even happier to receive a Twitter message from Andy Deighton with this absolutely delightful photo attached...

It's a baby P:OSR! (c) Andy Deighton

  

I cannot thank David enough for sending this on to me. Really interesting to see exactly what it looked like it its younger months - a fine example of a juvenile Caspian Gull.  Incidentally David is well known in the gulling world as he found the Sheffield Audouin's Gull back in July 2018 - the most urban Audouin's recorded in the UK to date!

And for one final point of interest to complete this post, there's actually a BB paper on the rapid increase of roof nesting Caspian Gulls in Poland. Well worth a read HERE.

Hope you've found this as interesting to read as I have to write, and thanks again the bird ringers of Poland and to David!

 

 

More Good Gulls

I've always enjoyed late winter/early spring gulling on the Axe, and looking at the loafing Larids today gave me two more top quality birds as well as a couple more highlights and some decent counts.

First up, this lovely third-winter Yellow-legged Gull graced the lower Estuary for over half an hour this morning, looking so much smarter than the less obvious individual of the same age that I blogged about two days ago...

What a bird!  Almost as smart as a full adult

 

Such a silky smooth bird - I couldn't stop looking at it!

 

Later, a lunch break look through the gulls along the rest of the Estuary revealed my second Caspian Gull in three days, another first-winter but this one sporting a yellow colour-ring...

Not as smart as the previous bird, but the ring is as welcome addition!

Its bill was a bit weak with not the cleanest of underwings - but most other features looked good

 

Early indications are that it's a Polish-ringed bird, but I will update you all when I hear back.

To tie up the large gulls for today, it's been the best day for Lesser Black-backed Gulls so far this year on the Axe.  I saw 42, but Mike had 30 odd tonight which could well have been mostly additional birds to my count.  Several intermedius in my 62 too. 

Amongst the huge numbers of Common Gulls also on the Estuary today, it was nice to see some of the 30+ Med Gulls present looking absolutely pristine in full breeding plumage.  There are not many gulls in the world that look better than one of these if you ask me...

What a cracker!

 

Less stunning, but possibly more of a surprise was an adult Kittiwake resting on the salt marsh at high tide...

Shame it wasn't a Ross's!

 

Hoped to see my first Sand Martin of the year this evening, but failed despite a fairly widespread arrival across the UK this afternoon, which is unusual this early.

Maybe the next post will be less about gulls, although I can't promise that I'm afraid... 

 

 

Corking Casp

This absolutely stunning first-winter Caspian Gull was on the lower Axe Estuary for twenty minutes this morning, my fifth of 2026 but it showed a lot better than any of the previous four...

A very striking bird, with a mightily impressive bill and snow white head, neck and underparts and a tiny black eye.  Lovely solidly black tertials too.

When it perked up it showed a really domed head shape - more so than the average Casp. This made it look like an individual I had seen on social media recently - more about that below.

 

This Casp will take some beating!  

 

After posting a photo of this Casp on Bluesky, it wasn't long until I got a message from Jacob Wood who also thought he recognised this bird.  It's clearly the bird (or one of the birds) that has been hanging around Brixham Harbour for most of the last month, which is exciting...

Head shape, bill pattern and size, neck and flank streaking, greater coverts patterning and scapular moult all a perfect match from what I can see

 

A far less impressive gull that I've seen recently was this presumed 'cactus' (Caspian x Herring hybrid) on the Estuary last thing on 13th, the same night as I saw around 90 Med Gulls among the gull roost in Seaton Bay...

It's mostly a Herring Gull, but has more than a whiff of Caspian about it

 

It wasn't just plumage that had some Caspian traits - this is a very Caspian stance

 

Another gull that I've seen, well more accurately am still seeing, is a bird I first blogged about back on 27th January - a presumed third-winter argentatus Herring Gull.  Gav and I have discussed this bird a lot during its stay as we've both spent time with it, and I think we have both come to the conclusion (Gav before me) - it's probably actually a third-winter Yellow-legged Gull.  

I hadn't actually seen it for ten days or so, so was surprised to see it again yesterday...

Its legs could be yellower, but they are yellow

Top right - showing mantle shade, long wings and sturdy build

 

 

Have not seen much else of note locally recently. A Greylag tonight on Colyford Marsh with the Canada Goose flock, two Egyptian Geese on Bridge Marsh a few days ago and there's still three Avocet hanging around the Estuary which is nice.  

Even though the birding hasn't been great, it's been so nice having some brighter weather and it's great to see the nights starting to really pull out now.  'Proper migrants' incoming...

 

 

In Flood

My word haven't we had some rain! It's rained daily at Exeter Airport since 31st Dec 2025 apparently and must be about the same for Seaton. Weather warning after weather warning, which if it were April or May I would be delighted about, but even I am getting tired of these winter wash-outs.  Hopefully there is some change on the horizon.

During all the flood days, Cattle Egrets have been remaining in the lower valley all day.  Often they just roost down here but they've been hanging around a whole lot more than usual.  Even though if on some days they have struggled to find anywhere dry to land...

Been 25 - 35 during the flood days

 

Last Wednesday the flood water on Colyford Marsh gave me my first views of a local Otter for over five years.  I watched it turn over in the water a few times, exposing its impressive tail with each roll, before sloping off into some nearby reeds.

An early morning look over Bridge and Colyford Marsh last Thursday morning finally showed a grey Goose in the Axe Valley this winter.  However, not any of the varieties I really wanted if I'm honest...

A Greylag, presumably the bird seen the previous day at Chard Reservoir

 

A little further away, this absolutely corker of a first-winter Caspian Gull was settled on Colyford Marsh. Would have loved closer views of it as it looked a right bobby dazzler!  My fourth of 2026...

Almost pure grey 1w scaps, lovely brown coverts and darker tertials, clean white head and a mightily impressive bill!

 

On Saturday morning a Coot on Seaton Marshes was probably the returning bird that's been here for several years.  Not seen any since New Year at Lower Bruckland Ponds, so it's a helpful bird for the patch year list that's for sure.

This morning, walking through Seafield Gardens showed that both (presumed) Siberian Lesser Whitethroats are still with us, as well as a couple of Black Redstarts and a Blackcap.  

The awful weather has delayed some more birds breaking into song (see last post), however over the last couple of days since it has settled down a bit I have heard my first singing Greenfinch (10th Feb), Wren and Blackcap (both 11th Feb) of 2026.  All a week or so later than last year, but as I said that's presumably simply down to the wind, rain and cloud that we've endured!

Spring is starting to show on the Estuary too, with Lapwing and Wigeon numbers well down from just a week ago, and outside my office today were 12 Lesser Black-backed Gulls in a relatively small flock of large gulls - proper spring migrants.  One of them looked quite clearly to be an intermedius too, which was nice...

An adult Herring, two graellsii Lesser Black-backed and an intermedius Lesser Black-backed on the right

 

Hopefully even more gull passage is incoming. It's not gone unnoticed that a few new Ring-billed and Iceland Gulls have turned up in the UK over the last few days. I will keep checking...

 

  

Spring Starts To Show

On Saturday evening at 5:40pm as we were driving to Exeter, I couldn't help but notice that it wasn't pitch black.  The residual light from the day was still obvious it in the western sky, and reminded me that actually we are well on our way to spring.

Bird song is also reminding me this. Last year I enjoyed logging the dates of when I heard each species break into their spring song for the first time, so am doing that again for 2026.  

As usual I can't put a date besides Robin, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove and Mistle Thrush as they were singing all winter.  Great Tit is also a bird that I heard singing during nice weather before the start of the year so no date for that one too.  But I do have dates for...

Song Thrush - 3rd January (a very persitent and keen singing male audible from my back garden)

Skylark - 16th January

Blackbird - 23rd January (this was a lone singer, but by 1st Feb several males were at it)

Dunnock - 30th January

Chaffinch - 30th January

Cirl Bunting - 30th January

Goldcrest - 1st February 

Other bird news from me is a bit patchy...

A single flock of 32 Cattle Egrets on the Axe Estuary on Sunday evening was a new patch high count for me.  This winter has been our best ever for this species as I only broke the 20 barrier for the first time here in December 2025! 

An Axe mega-flock of Cattle Egrets

 

Although I missed the five Little Gulls Tim C had in Seaton Hole last Tuesday, I did see an adult on the same day fly south down the Estuary at dusk - an office tick for me so thanks for the message Mike! Still plenty of Med Gulls about too.   The Avocet flock has got bigger again, there's now nine birds on the Estuary.

From what I have read elsewhere the two Lesser Whitethroats are also still about, as is the Cirl Bunting flock in Beer which Kev is now providing some supplementary food for. 

And finally, at the end of last week I had wonderful views of a Firecrest at a place I saw one at the start of the winter, in a large holly tree in Seaton.  They really are doing well in Devon these days (and West Dorset from what I've heard).   

Thanks for reading, and hold in there - Spring is just around the corner!