Some South Easterly Seawatching

The raw east wind that's been hammering us for about a week edged more southerly yesterday, and this morning we woke up to a decent south east gale.  I'm not a fan of sea watching here in south easterlies, it's almost always disappointing and every time we are completely trumped by Chesil - embarrassingly and frustratingly so!

I didn't miss much this morning from what Ian Mc and Phil reported, but tonight I was keen to give it a go after work - am dead pleased I did!  An hour at the Spot On Kiosk from 18:50 produced (all east);

2 Teal (why weren't these Garganey!!??)

54 Gannet

128 Manx Shearwater (18 the biggest single flock)

1 Arctic Skua (a sleek pale-phased adult at 19:04)

5 Common Gull

12 Sandwich Tern (6, 4 and 2)

1 Arctic Tern (flew in then over the beach, gained height but then flew back out again!)

11 Whimbrel 

5 Dunlin

So not too shabby at all by Seaton standards, with the two Arctic's being the highlights.  The Tern just kept coming closer and closer, to the point I could even see the bill detail which was nice! And as for the Skua, well this was my first Skua of the year which is always a highlight - but this one looked particularly dinky and streamline and the plumage simply stunning in front of the dull grey sea.

Although I have been at work all day, it's clear there's been a constant arrival of hirundines. Every time I have been outside small groups of Swallows/House Martins have whizzed through quickly north. This evening whilst sea watching I must have seen twenty Swallows arrive in-off too. 

No photos from today I'm afraid, but here's a dreadful photo of a female Goosander that did a lap of Bridge Marsh in front of me on Saturday evening, with 60 Sand Martins and ten Swallows also on show...

A blur which shares some similarities with a female sawbill!

More of the same please Spring 2019!

Arctic Tern Remains

Just a quick one to say the Arctic Tern was still around today, I watched it feeding off the seafront late this afternoon with Black-headed Gulls.  So 11th Nov becomes my latest date for a UK Arctic Tern!

I also noted my first Fieldfare of the autumn this morning, not far from my house - nice to hear that 'chack' again! Weeks later than I usually get my first though. 

Other news from the patch today include three Black Redstarts (one adult male) between West Walk and Seaton Hole.

Arctic Tern

Although we've had wet and windy weather for most of the last week, last night the south coast got a real battering so I was keen to spend time on the sea front this morning.  It was clear to see it had been a lively night...

Looking east from Spot On Kiosk

I wasn't expecting to see many birds passing, and I was right; just two Kittiwake and a Gannet flew by in the 45 minutes I was watching.  I was hoping more for a storm-blown Little Gull or such-like, and was encouraged by the 300+ Black-headed Gulls feeding at various points off the beach.  Sadly there was no Little Gull, but a cracking juv Arctic Tern more than made up for that!  It remained on view the whole time I was there, feeding close in between Fisherman's Gap and the mouth of the Axe.  It even came close enough to allow for some reasonable shots...

Black-headed Gull above the Arctic Tern

Arctic Tern showing off the white-trailing edge to its secondaries, this would be darker grey if it were a young Common Tern

Arctic Tern showing nice short all-dark bill and again those lovely pure white trailing edges to the secondaries

I took this when it was much further down the beach, but I wanted to show how juv Arctic Terns can look almost Sabine's-like at times - they have such contrasty wings quite unlike young Common Terns.

Later in the day, early afternoon, I was delighted to see the Arctic Tern again, but this time on the Estuary!  Only the third Arctic Tern I've ever seen on the Estuary - I've seen more Black Terns here!

Arctic Tern roosting with gulls

Arctic Tern resting on the water, lovely cute head and small bill obvious here

Arctic Tern flying down the Axe - perfect wing pattern on show here

Again, but this one is a video still. Best pic showing overall shape in flight

The wind was still quite strong early afternoon, and when it is so windy I find using 'flight-style' pretty useless when ID'ing terns, but here's a video anyway. Sorry it's so shaky...

I do apologise for the overload of photos of one tern, but we never do that well for any terns here really and Arctic Terns are scarce - you could easily go a year without seeing one.  So I just had to make the most of a lingering and fairly showy one, in my favourite plumage too!.  I'm pretty sure this is my latest ever Arctic Tern, but I have seen a later Common Tern here (which is unusual), with an adult on the Estuary on 13th Nov 2014 found by Tim Wright.  One day I will use these pics to do an ID post for juv Arctic vs Common - I just need to get some pics of a young Common Tern now! 

I had another look along the estuary later in the afternoon, when it was nice to get some good views of six Cattle Egret in the field just south west of Boshill Cross...

4 of the 6 Cattle Egrets

Looking where this Cattle Egret is stood I do wonder how often Cattle Egrets get pooped on!?

There weren't many gulls on the Estuary, but one of the most distant flocks contained a second-winter Yellow-legged Gull which was rather nice, not a common age here...

Third from right along the back, a nice long-winged bird

Yellow-legged Gull again with wings up showing tail pattern

Four species of gull here allowing good comparisons of mantle colours and size

Not a bad day really :-)

A Few More Spring Migrants and Pale-bellied Brents

I enjoyed an hour and a half out birding at each end of the day today, which produced a few more nice little highlights.  

A pre-dawn wander around Black Hole Marsh revealed, at last, my first Reed Warbler of the year chuntering away. I then headed down to the Spot On Kiosk for an hours sea watch from 6am, the conditions were far from perfect though with blue skies and almost no wind by the end of the watch! Still it wasn't a complete write-off, although I'm yet to decide whether it was truly worthwhile!? All west unless stated; 

34 Common Scoter

5 Manx Shearwater

3 Kittiwake (all east)

5 Whimbrel

3 small wader sp. (in off)

During a wander along Seaton Beach with the family a little later in the morning, I picked up a flock of about 40 Pale-bellied Brent Geese flying west offshore, although only just before they disappeared around Beer Head. This was at 09:38, and precisely 29 minutes later they seen off Dawlish Warren where they continued to follow the coast south, which is slightly unusual as most spring Pale-bellied flocks fly in to the Exe. 

Tonight's trip out starting very frustratingly. There was no passage over the sea this evening but there was a group of 6-8 'Commic' Terns feeding some distance out, viewing conditions though were atrocious with a blurry haze offshore.  Three of them came above the horizon in a tight group for about ten seconds, revealing a clear cut Arctic Tern with two Commons, but as for the other three or more am not sure. I did get the feeling there was more than one Arctic in there though.

Once I'd got completely fed up with straining my eyes I had a look up the river valley. Two Whimbrel and the Dark-bellied Brent Goose were on Estuary, singles of Wheatear and White Wagtail were viewable from Bridge Marsh gateway, and on Axe Marsh our first Whinchat of the year - a cracking male.  To say it was distant though is something of an understatement...

It was on the fence posts in the middle of this pic

There it is...just!

Off-patch, during a family trip to Budleigh early this afternoon, it was nice to see a Yellow Wagtail bombing around on the beach just east of the fishing boats with a couple of Pied Wags. It didn't really settle though and headed off north soon after I first noticed it.

Best Day of the Spring

Wow what a day. The best birding day of the month turned out to be the last day of the month, and that was simply because we had some different weather. A nice south easterly wind has been blowing all day (since yesterday in fact) and we've had lots of rain. And this meant birds birds birds!

Although south easterlies aren't our best wind direction for sea watching (that's south westerlies) I just had to give the sea a look - quite a long look in the end! I started the day with a four hour sea watch and then had two twenty minute glances during the afternoon, all from the Spot On Kiosk. These are the exact times, and this is what I saw (east unless stated);

05:50-09:50, 13:10-13:30, 15:10-15:30;

2 Dark-bellied Brent Goose 

110 Common Scoter (75e 35w)

5 Great Northern Diver (all singles and all west)

70+ Gannet

6 Manx Shearwater (two singles and a four)

4 Arctic Skua (ad pale-phased west at 08:40, ad pale-phased and near-ad pale-phased close east together at 09:02 and ad dark-phased west at 09:40)

3 Mediterranean Gull (all first-years)

6 Common Gull

40 Black-headed Gull (most flew in)

21 Sandwich Tern

1 Arctic Tern (so close that I think it came out of the Estuary then flew east at 08:20)

4 Dunlin (in)

3 Sanderling (one east with a flock of ten Whimbrel and later two flew in sat on beach briefly then headed off west)

72 Whimbrel (biggest single flock being 38 birds)

2 Guillemot

14 Razorbill

8 auk sp.

1 Yellow Wagtail (flew east along beach calling).

I'm pleased to say there's four year ticks in that list; Arctic Skua and Tern, Manxie and Sanderling. I had to wait for the skuas, they only arrived once the cloud came over and just prior/during the first rain showers of the day. Although the numbers always make a sea watch for me (Whimbrel and Scoter today), and of course the skuas which are always notable birds here, my star bird of the watch was the Arctic Tern. Our 'commic's' are usually distant, but this thing virtually flew over my head! Great to be able to see all the diagnostic features, but best of all that distinctive bouncy flight and super long tail streamers. Now if I was to be a bit whingy a Black Tern would have been nice, but I'm not today - it's just been such a fab fab day!

Whimbrel flying east

Arctic Skua - just!

One of the closest Gannets of the day

With many other birders watching the coast today, there were a couple of interesting re-sightings of my birds. My four Manx Shearwaters in the afternoon flew past Sidmouth half an hour earlier (Dan), and it took my dark-phased Arctic Skua twenty minutes to fly from here to Budleigh (B Heasman) and then another forty minutes before it flew west past Teignmouth (L Allnat). Always find this kind of stuff fascinating, thanks for getting in touch folks.

Considering the amount of wading birds passing over the sea, I knew the river valley would be worth keeping an eye on today. By the end of the day on the Estuary there were; 

10 Ringed Plover

12 Dunlin

5 Bar-tailed Godwit (three sum plum males)

3 Black-tailed Godwit

36 Whimbrel (giving me a day total of well over a hundred - very notable count for the Axe)

1 Greenshank

From left to right; three Barwits, a Whimbrel and a Blackwit

Is there a finer wader? Summer plumaged male Bar-tailed Godwit

And again

And again! x2

Four of the five Barwits from today

And this wasn't it.  Wandering towards the Colyford Marsh hide early afternoon I noticed all the birds that were clearly on the main scrape on Colyford Marsh lift off and behave as though they'd just been spooked by something. Two minutes later I was watching my/our first Marsh Harrier of 2017. Year tick number five of the day...

Female Marsh Harrier

And again, but a little more zoomed in

I must just thank my wife, who's been amazing as always and was quite happy to let me fill my boots when it came to birding - she knows how much I've been longing for this weather. In my defence I did find time to build a bed today as well!

Before I sign off for the night I will quickly tie up yesterday's birding news - don't worry it won't be long as I only had about an hour out. Saying that it was a pretty good hour though! First up was an Avocet that flew in calling on the Estuary just as the tide was coming in...

Avocet and Shelduck

Then there was a new in Lesser Whitethroat singing alongside the tram line opposite Coronation Corner. And finally my forty minute wander along the beach with the dog which produced a Great Skua east and a Mute Swan and 22 Pale-bellied Brent Geese west...

Pale-bellied Brent Geese, later seen off Dawlish Warren

That's it now. Night all and roll on tomorrow...

Watching The Waves

Yesterday, although the weather wasn't quite as suitable for sea birds, I still had a couple of looks over the sea. I've been hoping for a Little Gull or two as there's been a few birds (mostly Black-headed Gulls) feeding close in off the sea front.  No Little Gull (still hoping!), but there was a lovely juv Arctic Tern.  This bird will soon be continuing on its migration to the Antartic. Incredible...

I only included the lower shot to show how close in it actually came at times!

On my first scan with my bins I saw a chunky and pale almost white wader flying very low over the sea, close in and heading for the beach - but lost it within seconds. It may well have just been a Sanderling but I would like to have known for sure. Frustrating!

The day before a group of 12 Brent Geese west and two adult Yellow-legged Gull again on Colyford Marsh were the highlights.  

Right must go, it's lunch time...

Catching Up...

In the last blog post I spoke about the two bird highlights of last week, but I didn't have chance to blog about everything else! So here it is...

A week ago today saw my (now seemingly annual) guided bird watch around Beer Head for the East Devon branch of Devon Birds.  It was one of those days weather-wise that you didn't know what to wear, in some spots it was quite warm and still, but grey clouds overhead always suggested rain was imminent. On a couple of occasions it was more than imminent...

'The Hollow' bushes proving very useful!

There weren't loads of migrants around, but there were some.  The bushes held a couple of Whitethroat, and Blackcap, a Redstart (only seen by a couple of people) and several Chiffchaffs. On top of the headland at least five Wheatears and a Whinchat were nice to see, and the flock of 20+ Yellow Wagtails around the cattle proved very popular. Had great views of a juv Green Woodpecker too, feeding in the middle of the field - this was probably my highlight of the walk as we don't see many around here.

The next day was Caspian Gull day - but a morning seawatch showed my first Red-throated Diver of the autumn west which is certainly worth this paragraph I'd say!

Next it was Wednesday, which was Spotted Crake day! Thursday dawned and I was hoping to make it three year ticks in three days - although I had to be in Exeter for 9:30 which made that rather unlikely...

I was in Exeter to record a piece for BBC Radio Devon about the recent Lesser Yellowlegs.  Unfortunately we didn't see it as it was further down river, but I enjoyed doing it never-the-less. I think it is still on 'Listen again'. If you really want to hear it, you want Good Morning Devon on Friday 20th, and go to 23 minutes. Clips of the interview even made the half-hourly news and the whole piece was repeated towards the end of the show too!  Anyway, the actual interview was all done and dusted by 11am, so I came straight back home...

The weather  became really interesting, fairly strong southerly winds and heavy rain, and as soon as the rain stopped I headed to the sea front. I'm very pleased I did as I did indeed make it three patch year ticks in three days!  Arctic Tern was the species, there were three (two ads, one juv) lingering close in, with another two juvs west past.  After I'd seen the first three Arctic Terns, and had my first Balearic Shearwater of the watch, I sent a few texts out and was soon joined by Gav. I watched 12:40-13:50 and mustered the following (all west except the three lingering Arctic Terns):

42 Common Scoter

12 Balearic Shearwater

5 Arctic Tern

2 Sandwich Tern

5 Dunlin

1 Turnstone

Although this doesn't sound much, as we've had virtually no good seawatching this year it seemed like a bloody good seawatch! Turnstone and Arctic Tern are fairly scarce here, and Balearic's are always nice to see, Gav stayed on a bit longer and had a few more of these. Our passage of Balearic's tied in nicely with a passage off Portland that also occurred when the rain stopped, see HERE and scroll down to the 19th.

Friday came next and I fancied a walk around the marshes early morning. All was quiet until I spied an Osprey circling way down river. It disappeared around the corner towards Axe Cliff, but five minutes later  reappeared, flew all the way up river before U-turning over Black Hole Marsh and flying off south...

Not great photos - sorry! It was dull, I really should have taken a video clip

I returned home for a day of laptop work, but this was interupted by a phone call from Doug Rudge (of EDDC). Someone had phoned them with news of a dead Peregrine in Axmouth.  Soon as I heard Peregrine and dead together I knew I had to get this bird in case it was dead via sinister/illegal means.  Many thanks to the owners of Axmouth Camp Site for keeping the bird (in the freezer too!) and reporting it.  Everyone please do this when it comes to dead birds of prey.

Anyway I picked it up and although always sad to see a dead bird, I was pleased it wasn't a Peregrine. It was actually (very surprisingly!) a juv Merlin...

A stunning little bird!

A Merlin was reported from the Axe Wetlands several times last weekend, and the camp site owner said he'd seen this bird several times during the week. It was very thin so obviously couldn't catch itself any prey - maybe it left home too soon?

This morning, a look around the reserves at high tide pleasingly showed an increase in wader numbers.  Best of all were two juv Curlew Sands on Colyford Marsh with 22 Dunlin and 15 Lapwing. On Black Hole Marsh it was nice to see Redshank and Blackwits roosting again, with nine Green Sands showing there is at least some food in the mud here!

And that's me caught up. Lastly, if you're not looking forward to something coming up, just think what this Wheatear is about to do...

...fly a few thousand miles!