Where I'm At Now

I said I would tot my year list up at the end of January, so I have.

I will always keep THIS PAGE updated, which you can also get to it by clicking on '2013 Patch Year List' just above this post.  Here you will find mine and the patches running totals and lists, Steve's Patch Year List Competition and a little bit about the patch and previous patch year listing attempts.

For people who simply can't be bothered to view the other page, the overall patch total for 2013 is 119, and I'm on 112.  Only 88 to go.....

A Fitting Way To Go

Well a heck of a lot has happened since my last blog post!  Obviously the Green-winged Teal was fantastic, and winning the Buttons has literally made my hour, but there's been one major change in my life which comes above both of these...

My 106

I've had this car since I started driving in September 2004.  110,000 miles and eight years later the time has finally come to say bye bye.  This car has been just brilliant for me, yes I have spent money on it, but it's always kept going.  I have had a few near misses, a few bumps and prangs (as you can see!) but it's never let me down.  It was the middle of last year when my garage first advised me to start thinking about getting a new motor, so I started looking around - although I was always reluctant to let the Peugeot go because of how economical its 1.5 diesel engine is. I could drive from Seaton to Spurn (320 miles) and use only 2/3rds of a tank of fuel. And whenever bits did need replacing, they were always at the cheap end of the scale.

It has been getting more unwell within the last few months though, in fact within the last few days it hasn't let me reverse!  I actually think this was the cars way of protesting at me as it knew what was coming. 

Tuesday was my last day driving in it, and on the last 'lap' of the river, and the very last pull in, I found the Green-winged Teal.  This car has so many birding memories for me - good and bad (Pacific Swift...ouch!), so I thought this was a wonderful way of ending our time together.

So, out goes the old.  And in comes the new...

Say hello to Mr Toyota!

I have always wanted and often needed a 4x4, so I have gone with the most economical of them all - a diesel Rav4.  I've just come back from Plymouth in it, and it averaged 50.6 miles per gallon, which has really impressed me.  It's much bigger than what I'm used to, but I'll get used to it! :-)

Ok - enough about cars. Bird talk now...

I just have to start with the bird that won me chocolate yesterday.  I was only out because I'd be told about a Glaucous Gull that was seen heading our way.  Earlier in the day I had been to Colyford Common (dipping Stonechat - yes I still need it for the year!) and noticed lots of gulls on a flooded Colyford Marsh, which is why I went to the 'Farm Gate'.  I was disappointed on the gull front, but that soon turned to jubilation when I panned over to the main scrape and had a look through the Teal.  A long awaited addition to the patch list, and pleasingly one that we have (almost) all seen - hope you get it Ian and Dave!

The Green-winged Teal wasn't the only year tick yesterday, I managed another one during an hour's sea watch from Beer (08:30 - 09:30).  At 09:15 a Great Northern Diver flew close west, this is the first non-Red-throated, Diver that I've seen this year (oh, except a distant larger diver sp. on Jan 2nd), but the larger Divers have been very scarce so far this year.  The full totals of my watch were:

1 Great Northern Diver

7 Red-throated Diver (5w, 1e, 1 on sea)

14 Gannet

24 Kittiwake

6 Dunlin (flew w - unusual in a mid winter sea watch)

I will admit now, as I touched upon it earlier, that I then went to Colyford Common to twitch a Stonechat.  I found out Gav had seen one here a couple of days ago during my sea watch.  I just haven't bumped into Stonechat yet this year, and yes I know I will see one, but I was hoping to get all the easy stuff before I tot my list up at the end of the month. So I went to Colyford Common, I saw a second-winter Med Gull, but no Stonechat. Probably because of this...

Flood!!!  There was in fact a Little Grebe just the left of this picture - very odd for Coly Com!

Well you know what happened next (well after an hour at home and a half hour sea watch anyway!)... Green-winged Teal.  And it's about time I pointed you all to here: http://karenwoolley.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/green-winged-teal-on-colyford-marsh.html  Superb photos too considering the distance and weather!

So that sums up yesterday. To sum up the weekend, I had a brilliant weekend off, and even squeezed in a patch year tick thanks to Phil and Karen.  I've dipped these little critters several times this year, so was very pleased to see them feasting on alders on Sunday afternoon....

They are both in here - I think I did extremely well to ensure both were out of focus!

Monday was a day of lots of patch birding - just no birds! The six Gadwall being as good as it got.

I have very limited birding time for the rest of this week and this weekend - so nothing until next week please birders!!!

Should Have Been Better

I know Gav shared my optimism about today - with freezing temperatures over night we were hoping for some wildfowl action. 

Any aythya here is a goodie; Tufted Duck is the most regular (usually get several a year), Pochard - we didn't get one last year but usually get one or two, Scaup - well the last one was at least twenty years ago, and anything else from that family would be a first for the patch!  Smew was also on my radar for today, and Goosander!!!  Bloody Goosanders.

Anyway, none of the above happened.  There did seem to be more Wigeon and Teal around today, and whilst sea watching this morning, the only slightly notable event were four Shelduck that flew in from the south and then west.

I have had several looks along the Estuary today; the wintering Bar-tailed Godwit and nine Shoveler were as good as it got. 

It's still here!

Around the top end of the river (Bridge Marsh, Boshill Cross), there's been a few Golden Plovers all day (no more than about ten), but at 15:45 there were about 800!  And an hour later, around 1,700!!! I would like to claim that epic count as mine, well 118 of them were mine - Gav counted the other 1,582!  This is easily the most I've ever seen here, they are obvious roosting or pre-roosting here.  I'll be back again tomorrow, earlier, to have a proper look through them. Caspian Plover anyone?

Had another patch walk with Jess yesterday, we went up the Coly to Colyton, then back home via Colyford. With the surrounding hills looking like this still...

 ...there were thrushes EVERYWHERE! Epic numbers, flying over and on the deck. Also several Skylark.  The alders alongside the Coly held many Goldfinches, about ten Siskins, and exactly zero Redpolls.

It's going to be freezing again tonight - hopefully this will do it! A Bittern wouldn't go a miss...

Happy New Year!

Well, I'm afraid there's no huge review post for the year of 2012. To be honest - birding wise it was mostly a bit pants.  Adding Long-eared Owl, Spotted Crake and Crane to my patch list were obviously amazing highlights, but the autumn was without doubt one of the worst birding autumn's I've ever had - in terms of numbers and rarities.  Spring though was great at times for numbers, with two of my visits to Beer Head being some of the best ever spring birding I've had here - migrants EVERYWHERE!  Missing a Kentish Plover was a massive low light but we won't dwell on that.......

Christmas 2012 was brilliant - our first in our new house.  I got some lovely presents (never too old!), and this was a real surprise from Jess.  I took a photo of a Mute Swan last year, she got hold of a copy of the photo and turned it into this amazing canvas...

It looks fab on the landing wall!

And how is the house?  It's brilliant - already feels like home. Yesterday we FINALLY got around to sorting out the last room - the room I'm sat in now.  All I need is a sign for the door that says 'Steve's Office'...

That china cat isn't mine!!

Ok, now to birds again.  I said I was going to give a 2013 year list a go if the Bewick's Swans remained. They have remained so the 2013 year list is ON!  And what do I hope to achieve from year listing I hear you ask?

My target is to see/hear 200 species on the (lesser) patch in 2013.  

This has never been done before, and will prove very hard to do, but it is ever so slightly possible. We just need to have a VERY good year, and I need to see almost all of it!  I do hope all the fellow local birders will help me in my quest.

My January tactic is going to be 'go for the goodies, and let everything else come to me'.  That is why I am not going to do any list totting 'til the end of this month.  I do have several off patch surveys to do, so could well end up missing some winter scarcities/rarities - but I hope not.

I was out at 7am this morning, didn't see any Owls or Red-legged Partridges, added the Bewick's at dawn, then headed over to Beer where no Velvet Scoters were on view.  Pants.  Few Red-throated Divers and lots of auks about though.

After breakfast, Jess and I headed over to Colyton where a wood survey gave at least five Woodcock, a Green Woodpecker, a Siskin but very little else.  

A few hours later we fancied a New Years stroll along the sea front.  There were far too many people about for my liking - and a Black Redstart felt the same way.  It wasn't in any of its usual haunts, but instead down a small cul-de-sac one road inland from the beach.

The last birding action of today was an evening stroll at Black Hole Marsh. This is where my most surprising sighting came.  We were stood on the viewing platform, where I was getting glimpses of two very vocal and mobile Cetti's Warblers, when I could suddenly hear a Dipper calling!  A very out of place looking Dipper then flew right past us, circled around (quite high) over Black Hole Marsh, before heading back NW up the Stafford Brook. So bizarre!  I had checked the more usual Dipper haunts earlier in the day, and the water levels were way too high.  I guess this is why today I saw my first ever Dipper on the Axe reserves!

I hope to have an hour or so out in the morning whilst getting a couple of new tyres. Hopefully I can add some more species to the list...