Windy Weather Finally Wains

Today autumn had a chance to breathe. The wet and windy weather of late (which has produced some good birding - keep reading on for that) cleared for dawn today revealing beautifully clear skies with a light northerly wind. Ideal conditions for a bit of migration so as soon as I could (8am) I was wandering around Axe Cliff...

Lots of Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails

Try as I might I couldn't turn anything scarce up - but the volume of birds was seriously impressive.  The Golf Course looked as good as I've ever seen it, with large numbers of Meadow Pipits, Pied Wagtails and Linnets feeding on the greens...

A closer view

The bushes and fence line between this and the fields hosted a Stonechat, five Yellowhammer and three Reed Bunting...

Female Reed Bunting

In the stubble fields were 20+ Skylark and a few more Meadow Pipits and Linnets.  The bushes at first seemed quiet, but looking down into the Undercliff Chiffchaffs were almost constantly filtering through, along with a couple of Goldcrests.  The sky was also pretty busy, mostly hirundines and Meadow Pipits going over along with a few Skylark and Chaffinch.  So yes, disappointing to not score a goodie, but exciting nevertheless to be among some true autumn magic.

Spent a bit of time late morning/early afternoon hoping to see some fresh Long-tailed Blues at Axmouth Harbour, but the sunshine didn't deliver the goods.  Good to see two Tufted Ducks on the Estuary though, Gav saw them earlier from the same spot...

We don't see many diving ducks on this Estuary!

There's been a Cattle Egret hanging around recently, and I was lucky enough to see it on Colyford Common early Saturday morning...

However common these become I will always enjoy seeing them! Am pretty sure it's an adult although they are tricky to age.

I often find Cattle Egrets strike unusual poses and postures compared to Little Egrets!

Size difference with a Little

On Sunday afternoon a wander around the Wetlands with Jess' family showed singles of Ruff and Green Sandpiper on Black Hole Marsh, but sadly not the Spotted Crake that I've been hoping to jam in on! 

Green Sandpiper

And now to the sea.  Following the record breaking Balearic Shearwater day as detailed in my last post, I've enjoyed some more time looking at the sea.  We've had a few really lean sea watching years here, so it's been nice to be blessed with not only the right weather, but actually some birds too.

On Sunday morning (29th) I shared the Beer shelter with Ian Mc and Phil from 07:15 - 09:00 and it was excellent!  My totals were (all west);

2 Red-throated Diver

48 Common Scoter

3 Great Skua 

3 Arctic Skua

22 Kittiwake

2 Golden Plover (in-off)

1 small wader sp. 

12 auk sp.

Flock of Common Scoter flying west

I didn't count the Gannets but they really were plentiful. The six skuas were easily the highlight for me, and as usual injected a good amount of adrenaline into the watch.  Four of them (two each of Arctic and Great) passed at fairly close range - just brilliant to watch. Good fun ageing them too!

My other sea watch was on Tuesday 1st from Spot On Kiosk in Seaton 07:15 - 08:45 and showed (all west);

350+ Gannet

9 Balearic Shearwater

2 Shearwater sp.

12 Common Scoter

1 Arctic Skua (pale-phased)

3 Kittwake

6 auk sp.

So all good.  And I suppose if there was a moral to this blog post, it's you don't need to see a rarity to have a good time out birding!

Mipits are Go

Managed to spend the first few hours of today on Axe Cliff, which was nice.  As I've not been able to get out much during the mornings so far this autumn, Axe Cliff has been frustratingly under watched - well not watched at all as far as I'm aware.  But still, better late than never...

Looking west.  I took this photo from the spot I did most the 'vis migging' from today.

I timed my first visit of the autumn here with the first big push of Meadow Pipits, a sure sign that we have moved into (what I call) the mid-autumn period.  Flock after flock were flying low west over the field pictured above, with many staying tight to the cliff edge.  Most flocks were in the 10-20 region, but there were a couple of 30's and one of c45.  I counted up until 8am and noted the following; 

360 Meadow Pipit

7 Tree Pipit

5 pipit sp. (flew like Tree's but remained frustratingly silent)

3 alba Wagtail

2 Chaffinch

Off they go! Mipits moving west with Beer Head in the background

Despite the passage overhead it was disappointing to see all the fields so empty - often on big Mipit days many of them land and feed here, but not today. In fact there weren't many grounded migrants about at all, just one Wheatear, two Whitethroats and eight Chiffchaffs noted.

On the way home I was going to stop off at Axmouth to see if the lingering Osprey was fishing - but there was literally no space! Fingers crossed we see it on the Birdwatch Special Tram tomorrow morning.

A busy Coronation Corner!

Spring 2019 - Blink And You Missed It

This month (well this year) is going by so quickly!  I cannot believe it is already mid-May, and dare I say it, that spring 2019 is already pretty much over!?

I do though have a few snippets of interest to mention since my last blog post on 5th. As is to be expected with the month of May, this includes some Red Kites! On 6th as I was driving along Cownhayne Lane, Colyford, the sight of a Red Kite flying extremely low overhead caused me to stop dead and leap out of the car. After enjoying some excellent views of this bird, I had a quick scan around and soon picked up another five circling a long way off the east.  Sadly I couldn't stick around though to see if this was the start of a major movement. 

The following morning Axe Cliff gave me my first Lesser Whitethroats of the year, an invisible singing male plus a very much visible pair calling to each other right in front of me. Excellent views.  Still plenty of Common Whitethroats too, I counted 13.  Seems to be more Yellowhammers around this year too which is great considering their general decline.  

Some suitable sea watching weather on 8th produced nothing but disappointment.  Well, there were three each of Manx Shearwater and Kittiwake, nine auk sp. and a flock of 13 Dunlin - but considering the conditions this was pityful.  And probably the last chance of any decent spring sea watching this year. :-(

On Monday just gone a nice pulse of waders dropped in on the Axe. Sadly I missed Ian Mc's three Grey Plovers, but did see the cracking summer plumage Bar-tailed Godwit and one of the two Knot that were around. I had another Lesser Whitethroat too, this one singing at the far north end of Colyford Common.  There's been a few more waders since but I've not had chance to get among them...

I have though had chance to go up to Dartmoor for a day! And to make up for this lousy photo-less post, I look forward to blogging all about mine and Dad's Dartmoor day. I have lots of pics of nice birds to go with it too...

Axe Cliff and Surprise Crossbills

Yesterday morning, although it was clearer than I was hoping, I went up to Axe Cliff soon after dawn. After a short while I realised I was actually grateful the sun was shining, it was a real pleasure to be out with the fine weather ensuring the local breeders were showing and singing well...

Male Yellowhammer with a back drop of Lyme Bay and Beer Head

I was staggered by the numbers of Common Whitethroats around.  In recent years there's normally about six singing males in the area of Axe Cliff that I cover.  Yesterday however I noted 13 singing/displaying males, along with a 14th non-singing bird. They were all behaving like they were local breeders too - so is it simply going to prove a good summer for the species? Has anyone else noted good numbers of Whitethroats this year?  On the other side of the coin though, I usually come across one or two singing Lesser Whitethroats here, but none during this visit.

The Whitethroats were all sat out proudly and partaking in frequent song-flights

This one on a more natural perch

A lovely highlight was a Hobby that flew low east across the fields soon after I arrived, with the only definite 'grounded migrant' being my first Spotted Flycatcher of the year.  Not that it stayed grounded for long - it soon continued west along the cliff edge.

This morning during a family outing I was surprised to hear Crossbills calling from Bovey Down, then about half an hour later watched two flying around above me calling at nearby Blackbury Camp.  Presumably the date indicates local breeding?  Mid summer is usually our best time to see (or more often just hear!) Crossbills, when family groups are dispersing from their breeding grounds.  Anyone with more experience of the Crossbill breeding cycle have any thoughts on this? Could they actually be breeding here!?

A Flavour of August

As can be guessed by my subdued social media and blogging presence of late, it's been a busy few weeks! August is one of my favourite birding months of the year, so with a window of opportunity to get out towards the end of the month, I took it...

The birders who've been getting out to Beer Head this month have been well rewarded, with good numbers of common migrants (including a few Pied Flies) and a bonus Wryneck found by Bun on Wednesday 22nd.  I knew Beer Head would be busy with birders on Saturday morning, and following a glimpse of some decent vis mig during a dog walk on the edge of Colyton on Friday morning (five Tree Pipits and six Yellow Wags flew west in a ten minute period), and the fact Saturday morning saw a cloud-less dawn, Axe Cliff lured me...

The view over Seaton from Axe Cliff

I was up here 06:00-08:15 and saw; 

44 Yellow Wagtail (all west, including two groups of ten)

7 Tree Pipit (all singles, west)

1 Wheatear

1 Redstart (a cracking male)

3 Whitethroat

5 Willow Warbler

So not loads of birds by a long way, but it filled me with so much joy. The joy of autumn birding.

After this I headed down to Black Hole Marsh, another venue that has done well this month, although unlike Beer Head hasn't offered any real patch scarcities. The second Spotted Redshank of the month (with a third found today!) had been found the day before, and showed well around the Island Hide whilst I was there. Exceptionally well...

As you can see it's a juvenile - and an incredibly fresh one at that! I don't think I've ever seen one so young, rewind just a few weeks and it was probably stumbling around a damp Arctic taiga landscape peeping at its mother for food!  Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

Also on view were a couple of juvenile Little Ringed Plovers, c25 Dunlin, a Green Sand and a Greenshank.

Won't keep you waiting as long for the next blog post I promise!

When Wood Pigeons Become Cool

I'm going to kick this blog post off with a video. Make sure you turn the volume up so you can hear their wing beats...

Yesterday proved a major Wood Pigeon day for us, with James Mc seeing somewhere between 30 and 50 thousand pass through (I really must buy him a notebook!) though sadly I only managed to witness about twenty minutes of this. But today, with clear skies forecasted for the first few hours of the day, I wasn't going to miss round two. James joined me for an Axe Cliff vis mig watch 08:00 - 10:00.

There were fewer Wood Pigeons today (for us anyway) with probably about 15,000 seen flying west. Still, many of them passed really low over our heads, or just in front of us below the cliff edge. As the morning went on flocks started passing higher both out to sea and inland, so we probably missed thousands!  I tried to capture their magic on camera but it's never the same...

Although this would have proved enough excitement, there was plenty more to be seen this morning.  After three busy nights of thrush passage, it was good to finally see more about in daylight hours. There were almost constantly ones and twos of Blackbirds, Song Thrush and Redwing taking off or dropping in, along with my first three Fieldfare of the year west. Pity the four Ring Ouzel James saw here yesterday weren't still about, or some more, but hey ho.

I stupidly forgot my notebook this morning, so the higher counts are more like guesstimates, but this is roughly what would have gone into my notebook (west unless stated); 

3 Lapwing 

7 Golden Plover (a five and two singles)

15,000 Wood Pigeon

50 Stock Dove (probably a gross undercount!)

6 Rook

200 Jackdaw 

140 Starling 

70 Skylark (most of these were inland of us so we probably missed more than we saw)

70 Blackbird (total includes both settled and migrating birds)

40 Song Thrush (total includes both settled and migrating birds)

45 Redwing (flying in all directions!)

3 Fieldfare

10 alba Wagtail

50 Meadow Pipit

70 Chaffinch

3 Brambling (all singles)

80 Linnet

15 Siskin

1 Redpoll 

6 Bullfinch

25 Reed Bunting

With all these passing migrants the predators were having a field day. Two Peregrines were almost constantly having a go at the Pigeon flocks, plus we saw three different Sparrowhawk...

Sadly the fields at Axe Cliff are a shadow of their former self. Since they've been ploughed, flattened and replanted this year with winter crops, they're proving completely unattractive to ground feeding birds. In past years today would have also shown hundreds of larks, pipits and finches feeding in the fields, adding another exciting element to birding here, but today absolutely nothing. I really can't believe Yellowhammers are hanging on, but they are...

After Axe Cliff I had a 15 minute look over the valley. A Great White Egret had flown west past Abbotsbury earlier in the morning, and by my reckoning was due to drop in on the Axe any minute. Sadly though, having now missed five here this year (Bob Longhorn found another on Black Hole Marsh yesterday, which stayed 45 minutes), this bird decided to completely bypass us and flew up the Exe instead. Typical! The other bird I was hopeful for was Glossy Ibis, as yesterday saw something of an influx of these into the UK. Despite checking all the visible ditches and scrapes, no luck. Guess what Sue Murphy found on Colyford Marsh late this afternoon though, yes, our first Glossy Ibis of 2017. I had the right idea - just picked the wrong time!

A few days ago it was nice to see a Cattle Egret still with us. Or was, I haven't seen it since! It was feeding with a few Little Egrets near the cattle on Bridge Marsh on Wednesday...

Am really looking forward to some more vis migging, hopefully there's a few more sessions left in this autumn. The question is though will a Hawfinch reward my efforts?  Only time will tell...

Axe Cliff Vis Migging and Harvest Moon

This blog post is a day late, but wow yesterday morning was so so enjoyable. Under beautiful blue skies and in the cool early morning autumn air it was exhilarating watching an impressive westward passage of passerines over Axe Cliff.

The view from my favourite vis migging watch point on patch

I usually count absolutely everything I see whilst vis migging, with a notebook in my pocket and clickers hanging off anything and everything they can. But yesterday morning due to the lack of wind, birds were flying past on countless different lines, which basically made counting impossible.  Although most the finches were passing just off the cliff edge, there were flocks of bird passing a quarter of a mile out to sea, and even more up to half an mile inland! There really were thousands of birds though, it was an epic watch with the most numerous species (in order) being; Meadow Pipit, Linnet, Chaffinch, alba Wagtail, Goldfinch, Skylark and Greenfinch. The species I counted included; 25 Siskin, 21 Reed Bunting, 6 Starling, 2 Grey Wagtail, 2 Dunnock and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

The Great Spotted Woodpecker should really read ex Great Spotted Woodpecker, sad but it did give me one of my vis migging life highlights. I heard a swoosh, and out of no where an adult Peregrine powered into a Great Spotted Woodpecker (that I hadn't seen previously) right in front of my face! The noise of the Peregrine stoop was incredible, but then came the thud, followed by a squawk from the Woodpecker and then a explosion of black and white feathers that slowly floated to the ground.  Amazing. Sadly though both lost out. The Peregrine dropped its prey deep into the undergrowth and could not retrieve, and the Woodpecker would not have survived.

Although overhead was super busy, the fields at Axe Cliff were unusually quiet with a couple of Stonechat and a couple of briefly grounded Reed Buntings the best.

Stonechat

There was a bit more movement down the cliff edge though, with a trickle of Goldcrests and the odd Chiffchaff making their way west through the vegetation. Sadly no Yellow-browed Warblers.

A quick look over the valley afterwards produced a lovely juvenile Marsh Harrier over Colyford Marsh that circled up and rapidly flew off north.  Today, although  I haven't been out, a Cattle Egret and an adult Yellow-legged Gull have been seen from the Tower Hide, along with a report of a Bittern. Gripping.

In a rapid change of topic, I'm sure you all are aware by now that Thursday night of last week gave us a spectacular display of the Harvest Moon. I took a few photos at around 11pm, and as I missed the moon rise, took one of the 'moon set' at Axe Cliff in the morning. All photos with the ever impressive Nikon P900...

 

 

What I found even more impressive came the following night, with an almost full moon lighting up a sky full of clouds. Amazingly the following photo was taken from my back door at 10:30pm...

Yellow Wagtails Galore!

It's proving to be an absolutely stonking autumn for Yellow Wagtails. We always do well for them here in late August/early September, especially at Beer Head, but this year there are stacks more than usual. 

For the last few days up to 100 have been present in the valley (they can be found wherever there's cattle or on Black Hole Marsh) and most mornings Beer Head goers have been seeing upper double figures flying west. Plus this morning I added a load more with a visit to Axe Cliff, which I will happily write about now...

Beer Head has been pretty well covered so far this autumn by the usual gang; Ian Mc, Phil A, Bun, Clive W and Dad. This gang would usually include me, but this autumn I've decided to really concentrate on Axe Cliff which usually plays second fiddle, hence why Axe Cliff is within my Patchwork Challenge patch.  I went up there a few weeks ago but it was before the autumnal rush, and for the last week Harry has been suffering with a cold so our nights have not been too good (to say the least!). Thankfully though I finally made it up there this morning for a good walk about, albeit later than I would usually visit. An hour and a half from 08:30 produced;

6 Tree Pipit (two grounded, four west)

7 Meadow Pipit (grounded - my first of the autumn)

140+ Yellow Wagtail (all grounded in the stubble fields, I reckon I would have seen 200+ had I walked more fields)

1 Wheatear

3 Whinchat

1 Stonechat

3 Blackcap

2 Whitethroat

5 Willow Warbler

The bushes never do that well at Axe Cliff, but oh my word the stubble fields were amazing. I don't think I've ever seen Yellow Wagtails like it - they were everywhere!

This is what the Axe Cliff stubble fields are looking like at the moment

If you enlarge this photo, all the dots flying above the stubble are Yellow Wags!

Two Yellow Wags - they weren't easy to photograph as they spent most their time feeding in among the stalks

One of the Whinchats

Down in the valley, Black Hole Marsh is pretty samey wader wise but it's nice to have a juvenile male Ruff with us, which has been here since the afternoon of 23rd. There are a few more Snipe (11) and Teal (25+) about as well, and I'm sure a scarcity or rarity is only a matter of days away.

Which leaves me just to say goodnight...

Tonight about twenty minutes after sunset on the lower Axe Estuary looking towards Seaton

Gotcha Gropper

It was a lovely still and cloudy dawn this morning, which got me out the door nice and early again. A quick look around Black Hole and Seaton Marshes was disappointing, but Axe Cliff beckoned as the conditions were just too good.

It was however quiet for new migrants, unlike Portland today which seems to be having another good day. My hour walk revealed just three new migrant passerines in the bushes; a Willow Warbler, a new Whitethroat (saw four this morning) and this invisible reeler...

Yes I did it - I got my Gropper! You will probably need to turn up the sound and listen carefully to the above YouTube clip, but that's all I can offer you I'm afraid as per usual for a spring migrant Grasshopper Warbler it didn't show. I am so happy to get one of these on my Patchwork Challenge year list, because if you miss out on Gropper in the spring, you have probably missed them for the year - autumn ones are hard to catch up with here.

It was nice to get some better views of the very vocal but highly elusive Lesser Whitethroat on today's visit, although a completely clear view was only just about manageable...

And here's one of the Common Whitethroats, this particular individual has been in since Wednesday...

Whilst walking through a field of Rapeseed it was a bit odd to suddenly hear some Brent Geese calling, but I couldn't see a thing. I did eventually get to see them when I arrived at the first decent viewpoint over the sea, a nice flock of eight Pale-bellied Brent Geese...

They soon swam in towards the rocks just east of the river mouth, and began feeding here...

All in all a rather pleasant morning out with a nice bit of variety. Oh I do love spring.