Thrushes, Yellow-legged Gulls and more Vis Mig

Monday didn't give that me much time out, but I did grab an hours wander along the footpath running through Allhallows (a large ex-private school in Rousdon) with Hawfinch in mind.  Looks really good for them here, but none during my visit. It was nice to see heaps of thrushes though, including ten Mistle Thrush and plenty of settled Fieldfare and Redwing...

Fieldfare

Tuesday was a completely different day. Rain, wind and more rain. This meant the Estuary gulls got my attention, and at 2pm the 300 Great Black-backed Gulls and 45+ Lesser Black-backed Gulls (including some cracking intermedius) were accompanied by two Yellow-legged Gulls, a second-winter and an adult...

Second-winter Yellow-legged Gull (middle bird)

Adult Yellow-legged Gull (on right, with a Great Black-backed)

Both Yellow-legged Gulls, the adult looks small here but it wasn't

As you can see the adult was very clean headed, and a somewhat cute-looking bird, two features that meant my initial thought was Caspian Gull when I spotted it. Sadly this didn't go beyond an initial thought as it soon became apparent it was a Yellow-legged. Oh what I would do for an adult Casp here...

This morning the sun was out again, so Axe Cliff was the obvious place to go. Richard P joined me and we spent an hour or so on the cliff-edge before the westerly passage dried up. Amazed there were no Pigeons, maybe they've all gone through now? What vis mig there was included;

1 Grey Heron

1 Mistle Thrush 

20 Skylark

3 alba Wagtail

60 Meadow Pipit

139 Chaffinch

1 Redpoll

10 Linnet

1 Greenfinch

2 Bulfinch

1 Reed Bunting

A vis mig Grey Heron!

Incoming Grey Heron with Seaton Hole as a backdrop

A Good Day On Patch

First of all, I must just thank everyone who's phoned/texted/emailed/commented/tweeted/facebooked me regarding the Nikon video. Hopefully I have got back to everyone, but your kind comments really do mean a lot. It will be interesting to see what this all leads too.

And now to the patch, and today is the first time in what seems a long long time (well the whole of this autumn!) that I feel like I've had a good day on patch. A really good day.  Although the rares I am so yearning for never came, or a Yellow-browed still, I have seen a really nice and varied selection of notable birds.  And this is how, where and when...

Black Hole Marsh for half an hour from dawn didn't show anything new, but everything that's been around was here and I noted;

65 Canada Goose

1 Barnacle Goose

3 Water Rail

2 Grey Plover

5 Dunlin

1 Curlew Sandpiper

1 Little Stint (not the pale bird from a few days ago, a new juv)
1 Ruff
1 Common Sandpiper

I know many of you would have sighed at reading Barnacle Goose in that list, but it was the first time I have seen it at such close quarters, although I wouldn't be surprised if it roosts on Black Hole Marsh every night with the Canada flock. Whatever it's origin, there's no doubt over how smart (and cute!) it is...

Beer Head after this was disappointing bird-wise (just a few Chiffs and Goldcrest, a few more Robins and Song Thrush but very little overhead), as was a walk from here to Branscombe and back with Jess and Honey late morning to mid afternoon.

A mid afternoon whistle stop tour of the Estuary was much better though, as the gull flock at the top end of the river included two Yellow-legged Gulls. Both were distant from where I was viewing, but easy to pick out nonetheless. October is the best month of the year for non first-year Yellow-legged Gulls on the Axe by a mile, a good blow usually produces a few (plus the odd Caspian Gull).

You can't see much detail on the adult Yellow-legged Gull in this photo, but you can see it's large size and heavy build, yellow legs (they were brighter than they appear in this dull photo), darker grey mantle (if you look VERY closely!) and almost clean white head.

The above second-winter Yellow-legged Gull (right in the middle of the picture) was an absolute beast. The mantle colour was a bit darker than this photo suggests, but look how big it is - and it was so long winged! Typical moult stage for a second-winter (lots of grey) and the head area looked perfect with that grey smudging around the back and sides of the neck.  This photo shows the mantle colour better...

And then this evening, the cherry on top - and what a cherry it was!  Twilight Tim has seen a Turtle Dove a couple of times in the Colyford area over the last week and a bit, but it's not been pinned down. I was at the Bridge Marsh gateway, and after checking the Egrets and ducks on the marsh, I almost didn't notice the brown lump next to me as I was walking back to my car...

I'm so glad I did! At first it was raining, so the poor thing looked a bit bedraggled...

But eventually the sun peaked through the clouds allowing it to dry up...

What a bird, and as you can see showing ridiculously well! Only my second ever on patch following my overdue patch first on 13th May 2012.  It remained here for about 25 minutes, allowing six others to get to see it which was nice -  always nice to share a good bird.  As can be seen from my pics it's a first-year bird with a mixture of juvenile (plain dull orange-brown) and adult (bright orange and black) feathers. I wonder if this is the last one I will ever see on patch though?

So nice to finally have a decent day here - lets hope the rares start flowing now...

A Spoon And A Gull

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's got this condition, but I find it impossible to drive past the Estuary without stopping and looking. Whatever I'm doing, wherever I'm going, whoevers in the car - it doesn't matter. I just can't drive between Seaton and Axmouth without stopping at least twice.  So taking this into account, it really is surprising how few birds of note I have seen on the Estuary this autumn. In fact, apart from the Caspian Gull, I can't recall anything else that's made this blog from my Estuary checks.  Thankfully though yesterday saw an injection of semi-quality.

At about 08:30 whilst I was stood at Coronation Corner this immature Spoonbill flew in and fed amongst the resting Gulls... 

Everyone see the cheeky adult Med Gull in the lower photo? Bun texted the news out on my behalf (faulty phone - thanks Kevo), but it seems this Spooner stayed only briefly as it wasn't there twenty minutes later. 

Another sweep of the Estuary early afternoon revealed something that's much more up my street (although don't get me wrong I have nothing against Spoonbills!) an absolute stunner of an adult Yellow-legged Gull...

What an absolute beast. It wasn't the biggest YLG I've ever seen, being only very slightly chunkier than the surrounding Herring Gulls, and with a not too massive beak, so I reckon it's a female. But I just love the combination of the clean white head and breast, dark grey mantle, extensive black on the primaries and bright yellow legs of this species - one of the smartest adult large gulls around I'd say. It certainly brightened up what was otherwise a dull day for me.

Not The Yellow-legged Gull I Was After...

A sweep of the Estuary this evening revealed very few large Gulls, the chances are no end of small boats, noisy kids and barking dogs have been disturbing them all day!

Anyway, I did eventually find a large gathering of Gulls - they were loafing on the quiet part of the Tesco building site...

This habbo is quite unique for us - I will be keeping an eye on it during the autumn for sure

Anyway I couldn't find the juv Yellow-legged Gull I've been after for the past week, but I was more than happy with this stonking adult...

Pretty obvious isn't it!?

It was hard to get a photo of it with its head out, it just wouldn't stop preening!

Actually adults - in fact all ages other than juv - seem to be quite scarce at this time of the year when the juvs are coming through. We seem to get most non-juvs later on in Sept/Oct or earlier in the year in spring.

This was all the birding I've done today, but several hours of ringing this morning was slowish - although I did catch four of these...

Juv Starlings

And three of these...

Cute baby House Sparrows!