Well any remnants of summer have been well and true blasted away this week, with a cold north easterly wind sweeping across the patch for much of the week. Today has been the first day it has eased off, which has been nice.
I have spent much of my time out looking for and checking tit-flocks, but other than several Chiffchaffs, Goldcrests and the odd Firecrest, I still have my work cut out!
Thrushes are still around/passing over. Nothing like the numbers I blogged about at the weekend, but pretty much every trip out am seeing Redwings and the odd Fieldfare. Also had a Mistle Thrush this morning on Seaton Marshes, a species you wouldn't normally expect to see there so presumably a passing migrant.
In the garden, on the 3rd my first Blackcap of the winter could be was tacking away a couple of gardens down from us. A bird I haven't seen yet this autumn is Black Redstart, which is a huge surprise as they're usually around from mid-October but I haven't had a whiff of one yet.
Yesterday evening (5th) I spent the last bit of daylight watching the valley from Bridge Marsh. We are really lucky to have a Marsh Harrier roost here this winter, and at least three but probably four Marsh Harriers were whirling around whilst I was there (we have peaked at five - count courtesy of Mike B). It's quite a sight for us Axe birders I have to say, reminding me so much of the fantastic Stubbs Mill roost in Norfolk which I have visited several times (although they have many more birds obviously!). Our version is well worth a visit though, best viewed from Colyford Common or Tower Hide.
A nice surprise during my evening vigil was a Water Pipit, my first here for several years, that came in on to Bridge Marsh briefly before heading back out towards Colyford Marsh.
The main reason I was there was because I was hoping for an odd goose amongst the Canadas as there had been a bit of a grey goose influx into the west of the UK that day, but there was nothing obvious. However at about 4:55 I did pick up three geese in flight, flying away from me and off away down river. I didn't get much on them but knew they weren't Canadas or Greylags (too small). I thought they may have been grey geese of some kind, however the presence of three Dark-bellied Brent Geese on Colyford Marsh this morning (two ads, one juv) is surely no coincidence. Also this morning two Egyptian Geese with the Mute Swan flock near Boshill.
 |
| Three Brent Geese (juv on right) |
Other notable counts for us this week have included ten Dunlin on the estuary and eight Coot at Lower Bruckland Ponds. There's been an Avocet around for a couple of days too, but I haven't seen that one yet.
 |
| Eight Coot in shot here - a decent Axe count and presumably many of them are home grown. |
This evening I was out again at dusk as two Bean Geese flew our way over Dawlish Warren late afternoon. They didn't drop in here sadly, but hopefully some others will before the winter is out as we missed out during last winter's White-front & Bean influx.
Although it has been cold this week, on 3rd I saw two each of Clouded Yellow and Red Admiral - not sure if I will be seeing many more of the former but who knows what the weather is going to do next!?
Trying hard not to feel hard done by, reading about all the incredible birding the east coast is experiencing once again this autumn. I just have to keep reminding myself the more that arrives there, the greater chance we have here of a rarity of some description down the line. So let's hope November comes up with some nice surprises on the Axe patch, I will keep plugging away that's for sure...
No comments:
Post a Comment