New Year... New Home!

Sorry it has been a bit quiet on here lately, but we've been a bit busy!

Having lived in Primrose Way, Seaton, for over 12 years, a move was long overdue as we had all very much out grown our first home.  The location of the house is what kept us in it longer than we planned, being just a few minutes walk from Seaton Wetlands and with views from the main bedroom over the river valley across to the hills above Axmouth.  

More details of the house and pictures can be found on the blog post I wrote back in November 2012 shortly after we moved in.

Moving day!  Many thanks Tim C and Kev for all the help loading and unloading this van.

 

It was largely due to its location that in the 12 years and one month we lived there I recorded an impressive 129 species from the house/garden.  Full list below...

 

House List
Mute Swan	Collared Dove
Canada Goose	Swift
Shelduck	Green Woodpecker
Wigeon	Great Spotted Woodpecker
Gadwall	Magpie
Teal	Jay
Mallard	Jackdaw
Shoveler	Rook
Pochard	Carrion Crow
Goosander	Raven
Red-legged Partridge	Goldcrest
Pheasant	Firecrest
Cormorant	Blue Tit
Cattle Egret	Great Tit
Little Egret	Coal Tit
Great White Egret	Skylark
Grey Heron	Sand Martin
Glossy Ibis	Swallow
Spoonbill	House Martin
Little Grebe	Cetti's Warbler (heard)
Red Kite	Long-tailed Tit
Marsh Harrier	Yellow-browed Warbler
Goshawk	Chiffchaff
Sparrowhawk	Willow Warbler
Buzzard	Blackcap
Osprey	Lesser Whitethroat (heard)
Kestrel	Whitethroat (heard)
Merlin	Grasshopper Warbler (heard)
Hobby	Sedge Warbler (heard)
Peregrine	Nuthatch
Water Rail (heard)	Treecreeper
Moorhen	Wren
Coot (heard)	Starling
Oystercatcher	Blackbird
Avocet	Fieldfare
Little Ringed Plover (heard)	Song Thrush
Ringed Plover	Redwing
Golden Plover	Mistle Thrush
Grey Plover	Spotted Flycatcher
Lapwing	Robin
Dunlin	Black Redstart
Ruff	Stonechat
Snipe	Wheatear
Black-tailed Godwit	Dunnock
Bar-tailed Godwit	House Sparrow
Whimbrel	Yellow Wagtail
Curlew	Grey Wagtail
Common Sandpiper (heard)	Pied Wagtail
Green Sandpiper	Tree Pipit
Greenshank	Meadow Pipit
Wood Sandpiper (heard)	Rock Pipit
Redshank	Chaffinch
Black-headed Gull	Brambling
Little Gull	Greenfinch
Mediterranean Gull	Goldfinch
Common Gull	Siskin
Lesser Black-backed Gull	Linnet
Herring Gull	Lesser Redpoll
Iceland Gull	Common Crossbill
Great Black-backed Gull	Bullfinch
Sandwich Tern	Hawfinch
Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon	Yellowhammer
Stock Dove	Reed Bunting
Woodpigeon

  

As you can see there are some really good birds on there, with some of the stand out sightings being an adult Little Gull feeding over a flooded Axe Estuary on 5th February 2014, three Glossy Ibis including two feeding in the field next to the house, an immature Iceland Gull flying up the valley on 30th April 2020, several sightings of Cattle and Great White Egret, numerous Red Kite, Ospreys, Marsh Harriers, Hobbies and three Goshawk sightings, two female Pochard in flight on 8th May 2023, a vis mig Hawfinch on 29th October 2021 and out of the four Yellow-browed Warblers that I have heard from the garden, one I actually saw from it (the other three I did see but not from the garden).  The dates of the Yellow-broweds were 30th October 2015, 23rd October 2016, 19th October 2017 and 14th October 2018.

The 2015 Yellow-browed Warbler. Two were in trees by a small green just down the road from our house, with the other two in trees by a small green just up the road from our house.  It just proves that good birds can be found anywhere!

 

One of the things I really loved about the house was that at night, from the garden or our bedroom with the window open, once all traffic noise had died down you could hear the water birds (and occasionally passerines) of Black Hole Marsh.  High tide was an absolute treat, especially during the autumns, with many species on the list simply because they were so vocal after dark.  

The year the Avocets bred on Black Hole Marsh (2023), although I did see them several times from the house, hearing them call most nights with a back drop of Redshank, Oystercatchers, squabbling Godwits and Black-headed Gulls and later in the season whistling Teal and calling Snipe, was absolutely magic.   Another great heard-only from the garden was a spring Grasshopper Warbler which took up territory for over a week in a very uninspiring hedge between two uninspiring fields besides the house in April 2020.

I was gutted not to have seen the October 2024 Rose-coloured Starling from the house, even though I saw it about ten paces from my front door, and where it was perched would have been viewable from my back garden.  Sadly it never did come back to Primrose Way, despite staying in East Devon for several weeks following its discovery.

I have got a 'one that got away' house story too.  On a very wet and dreary day in April 2016, I was sat in the kitchen and could not for the life of me figure out what the bird was that was flying towards the house from the direction of Black Hole Marsh/Axe Estuary.  I rushed into the garden and  just as it flew over the house the penny dropped... can only be a Stone Curlew!  I ran through the house to my car parked out the front and grabbed my binoculars from the boot, but just as I raised them to my eye I could see the bird disappear from view to the west.  As I never manage to get any plumage on it I never submitted the record, but there was simply nothing else it could have been based on structure and flight. This certainly taught me to always leave a pair of easily grabbable binoculars in the house, a lesson I will be bringing over to our new house for sure.

Time to talk about the new house now, and yes we are still 'on patch'. We are still in Seaton in fact, just a few minutes drive from Primrose Way actually. We are slightly closer to the town, but high, above all surrounding houses, giving us excellent views of the Axe Valley up to Musbury Castle, plus views towards the Tower Garage and best of all a huge sky vista.  I am really excited about the vis mig potential here - roll on spring and autumn!  

The best thing though (which my Son and Golden Retriever will certainly agree with me on) is that we actually have a garden.  Behind the house is a lovely large lawned garden with big hedges on two sides and fruit trees in the corner, so the day after we moved in of course some well-stocked bird feeders went up. Ten days later, after the expected Robins, Dunnocks, Blackbirds had discovered them, I snapped this out of the kitchen window...

A very welcome female Blackcap. Doesn't seem to be many around this winter making it even more exciting.

I do have some local bird news to catch you all up with, but will write about that in another post within the next week or so. 

To complete this post all that is left for me to say is to wish all readers of this blog, whether regular readers or one-time viewers, a very Happy New Year.  I sincerely hope for every single one of you, that 2025 is filled with happiness, good health and of course plenty of birds!