Dusky Dipping

Well this wasn't the blog post I was expecting to write today...

I'm usually pretty early to bed every night, guess it's because I'm an early riser. But for some reason last night I was still up gone midnight, and just before I headed up to bed I had a quick look at my phone for any new posts on the blogs that I follow. I clicked on the latest post on the Axe Estuary Ringing Group blog - detailing their captures during their most recent catch on Tuesday of this week - and honestly I thought I was suffering with some sort of sleep deprivation, or that I'd just gone delusional. In front of me was a photo of a Dusky Warbler, the first Dusky Warbler ever recorded on patch!

Here's the pic that was posted, thanks very much to Doug Rudge for a copy of it...

Here's the same pic, but with a few notes pointing out the features that make it the rare that it is (click on the photo to make it and the writing bigger)...

The short primary projection really is striking, although Chiffchaffs have shorter wings than Willow Warblers, they never look this short.

Doug Rudge kindly sent me another photo today, sadly still no legs on show but it's nice to see the bird in different light... 

What a thoroughly gripping photo. Naturally this morning I was out on Stafford Marsh hoping and hearing, but it was so windy I wasn't expecting any joy, and I didn't have any. Whilst out there though I did find out exactly where it had been caught, in this net ride (between two small reed beds)...

There is every chance it is still around, we just need a day of calm weather so we can have a proper look.

This morning actually felt good, the first morning this month with some decent passage. I only gave the dog a quick walk along the beach, but in that time I had four Pintail, four Wigeon and two Starling in off the sea, with four different ultra distant duck flocks flying past and a constant stream of gulls on the move. If I didn't have a Dusky Warbler to look for I would have set my scope up and had a proper sea watch.  Also saw the four Gadwall again this morning, they were on Black Hole Marsh. 

Well what a surprising turn of events. I have always dreamt of finding the first patch Dusky Warbler, but identifying it without seeing the bird was most certainly not in the script!

A New Blog Is Born

Well it is a rough old day out there....I love it!

Am very impressed with the Pom counts coming from south Devon - this morning though a sea watch showed very little was passing Seaton!

I've also had a couple of looks along the Estuary today. I couldn't see Ian Mcs Avocet, but did have a drake Pochard floating about north of Coronation Corner, and waders on show included five Barwits and three Dunlin.

Now time to rewind to Saturday, and I'll start with the moths in my trap. It was a very poor catch, with only 11 moths of 8 species. But one of them was my second ever Clancy's Rustic...

Pleasingly I knew what it was as soon as I turned over the egg box

I then spent the morning with the Axe Estuary Ringing Group - and this is where the new blog comes in! I have set up a brand spanking new blog for the group, there's a link to it to the right of this post, but here's a link too... axeestuaryringinggroup.blogspot.com

You'll find the details about what we caught on there, but I was very pleased when I flushed a Jack Snipe from the wet area at the north end of Colyford Common, there were at least seven Snipe in there too. I got excellent flight views of the Jack - they really are small aren't they!!?

A Few More Waders

There was a ringing session at Colyford Common today, I couldn't make the 5am start time, but didn't think parking up in the car park at 06:45 was too poor an effort.

A scan over Blackhole Marsh on way to the rendezvous point revealed our first Little Ringed Plover of the 'autumn', an adult...

A very bright-legged individual

There were a few other waders about too; my first autumn Green Sandpiper on the southern end of Colyford Marsh, eight Common Sands on the Estuary and at least six Blackwits still on the Estuary.

Ringing wise, we caught the expected - a few Linnets and plenty of Reed Buntings were nice along with oodles of Reed and Sedge Warblers. Oh, that reminds me, about four weeks ago the group caught a pair of Lesser Whitethroats on Colyford Common - both adults and the female with a brood patch. Now that's good news!

In the hedgerows there were a few Willow Warblers and a Whitethroat - I haven't seen either of these species here since the spring so I presume these were returning migrants?

Right, it's now time to bring everyone up to date with ringing in my garden.... it won't take that long because in the past week or so I have only had time to set a net up in the front garden on one day - a week ago today.

I have ringed 153 birds in total in the garden - 13% of that total being Bullfinches! Anyway, one of the first birds I caught on Saturday morning required me to start a new ring size...

A Chiffy - bit unexpected when the net is set beside bird feeders!

What makes it a Chiffy - the red arrow points to the clinching emarginated sixth primary

The rest of the morning was spent catching the usuals but then had to pack up and do something productive. Later in the evening though, I had a chance to put it up again - so did! I didn't catch many more birds, a couple of Greenfinches and Great Tits. The fifth bird of the evening though meant I had to start yet another new size of ring - a bloody big one too!

I looked at the mist net in disbelief as an adult Herring Gull was flapping about in it - flipping heck!!! I grabbed hold of it pretty quick...it grabbed hold of me even quicker!! Thankfully I'm pleased to report the net is still in one piece.

I wasn't expecting a beast like this, what a handful! A full adult male - bloody massive it was! Anyway, I ringed and processed it, then tried to get a photo of it and me...

... when this photo was snapped it was REALLY hurting me - I seriously thought it was going to break my hand!

I didn't want to handle it much more than I had to, so just settled with this pic...

Here he is trying to eat my ringing smock!

And that's the ringing up to date now. One day I will have to find time to write about three weeks of mothing....

A 'Proper' Celebrity Visits The Patch

It was the AERG's festive outing today - which always means loads of mince pies and stilton and crackers washed down with some lovely warm mulled wine (trust me - there's nothing better on a cold winters morning like today!). This year's knees up was even better though, with a bottle of port, sausage rolls, stollen cake, mini cheddars, cheese and pineapple on sticks, and much much more!

It's always good fun, and today there was an added bonus when Fraser joined us along with the two chaps he was showing around the marshes, one of them being....

....can you spot the TV star?

...Nick Baker!! He also enjoyed some mulled wine and a bit of stilton, before continuing on with his tour. Thanks for an enjoyable morning everyone - what a fine spread of food we had! And thanks for the photo Adrian :-)

We did do a bit of ringing (before we necked the booze I must add!), with a Treecreeper in the nets the best. Notable birds I saw that didn't end up in any of our mist nets included a Woodcock that flew out of cover just after dawn, two Siskins and a Brambling loitering in trees near to the bird feeders on Stafford Marsh, and a Green Sand flying around in search of unfrozen water.

I was home early afternoon, then headed out again mid afternoon for a quick look about. The Estuary didn't show much, but up the road I saw the Greylag Goose opposite Stedcombe for the first time. That was it though, I didn't see anything else worthy of mention - well - until I pulled up outside my house again, where this silhouetted shape greeted me....

Distinctive or what!?

Yes it was a Black Redstart - a fine male which I managed to snap again a little later...

Crap effort though I know!

It was joined by a female-type bird as well, though he kept chasing her away so I didn't manage any sort of pic of her. Durley Road is proving a good site for these now, which is weird because it never used too!

And that was my highly productive day....

Yellow Wagtail.... In December?

....oh yes!

'Bird of the day' was a pale Yellow Wagtail found by Phil this morning at Colyford WTW. I was ringing on Seaton Marshes (more on that later) so couldn't get there until early afternoon.

Phil had only had rather poor views of it, and that was what I was expecting. But a glance through the trees and fence from the footpath which runs along the northern edge of the sewage works revealed it feeding on the nearest filter bed!

It's a very interesting bird, very interesting indeed...

Hmmmmmm....

There's a few 'odd' things about it..... aside the fact it's in Devon in December!

• Very pale under parts, no yellow on throat/breast/belly/vent area. I did think I saw a touch of yellow on the feathering at the base of the tibia though (i.e. the birds trousers).

• Greyish upper parts with a slightly paler rump and subtly duller cap and nape.

• Very 'leggy' appearance - also note hind claw length (though not sure how this compares with a flavissima?).

One feature I didn't expect to see on a Yellow Wag as grey as this though was the amount of pale on the base of the bill. An all black bill would have been much better!

What about the call I hear you ask? Well - we don't know! Depsite this bird being watched for a good couple of hours today, and being flushed several times (not by us I must add!) it didn't call once!

I have my idea/theory/guess at what it may be - but what do you think??

Ok, now time to rewind the day... it was an early start for me, meeting other members of the AERG at Seaton Marshes at 06:45. I would have found getting up a lot easier if I'd gone to sleep at say 10pm the night before, and not 2am as I had!

What followed was probably the most successful cannon net catch we have ever had.It was touch and go whether it was going to go ahead because of the recent cold snap, but an increase in temperature helped the boss decide we were good to go.

We 'banged' not long after 07:30, and under the fired net were 191 birds!!

Most of these (131 in fact) were Teal, with smaller numbers of Wigeon, Mallard and Shelduck. A nice treat were two Shoveler - a species infrequently ringed in the UK.

Adult drake head on

First-winter drake side on - looks quite menacing doesn't it!

These Shoveler weren't the only gems in the net this morning - there were some waders too!

Six Black-tailed Godwits included two controls (birds already ringed but not by us). We colour-ringed the other birds with the Axe's combination (yellow/red/yellow) on their right legs, as well as individually unique combinations on their left legs. The one I processed is lime/orange/lime...so keep your eyes peeled!

A Lapwing was a first for the ringing group - and a new bird for Fraser. Very smart it was too! This, or anything else already mentioned wasn't my highlight though....

We had no idea a Ruff was amongst the mass of feeding birds when we fired the cannon at dawn...but there bloody was!!! And guess who got to ring and process it :-)

Soooooo teeny!

The bird's wing length (backed up by bill and tibia measurements) nailed it as a female. Leg colour, and most importantly active wing moult, helped age it as an adult. What a stunning bird - I felt (and still feel) so privileged to have ringed it!

All in all - another excellent day on patch. Rounded off nicely with an Estuary jaunt which showed the Bar-tailed Godwit still along with two adult Med Gulls...

one being 'Red ZTL8'

Colyford Common Ringing

I was a little late this morning, I thought I pressed the 'snooze' button, but I actually pressed the 'go away I want to sleep' button! I finally got down to Colyford Common at 8:30. The reserve looked stunning...

There had been a very hard frost. It had taken me a few minutes to get the ice off my windscreen

The sun soon warmed everything up though, and it has turned out to be a beautiful day!

Although ringing was never busy, there was a good variety, with one stand out highlight....

A Snipe - one totally STUNNING creature in the hand!

We trapped yet another unringed Cetti's Warbler. Cetti's is the only UK bird to have ten tail feathers...

....see!

In the clear conditions Skylarks were on the move over head in some numbers but little else. A few Fieldfares were kicking about with at least two Water Pipits and two Green Sandpipers on the marsh.

Couldn't see the Long-billed Dowitcher or any Whooper Swans during a quick look about early afternoon.

Patch Tick!

This morning the Axe Estuary Ringing Group had a session planned at Colyford Common - at this time of year we net in the crop field and the north end of the reserve. I was there at half seven, and although ringing was never 'busy' - there was always a trickle of birds.

Just as I was closing the ring on a 'new' Cetti's Warbler that we had just caught, these small clumps of reeds...

(known as Fraser's reed bed)

....suddenly came alive with the calls of Bearded Tits! EPIC!

After a bit of scanning, I spied a female/juvenile sat out on top of one of the nearest patches of reeds. Another female/juvenile joined it and they spent the next few minutes flitting between reeds calling to each other. PATCH TICK!!!!

All nine of us managed to see them, and as we were cursing ourselves for deciding NOT to put a net up in the reed bed today, the Beardies took to the air and gained height rapidly. They started heading off north, but turned around and disappeared into the sun south east. Calling all the way.

Now if I hadn't have had a Cetti's Warbler in my hand, then I'm sure I would be posting some photos of them. But I did, so here's a photo of another Tit with a long-tail...

Pity it didn't bring a stripey warbler with it!

Saw plenty of other birds whilst ringing. A couple of Brambling paused briefly in trees, where a Fieldfare 'chaked' from for half an hour or so early on. A few Redwings were knocking around, as were up to ten Reed Buntings. Overhead Skylarks were passing over in good numbers, and a few small flocks of Wood Pigeons totalled c250 birds.

On Colyford Marsh, a low flying Buzzard spooked over 300 Wigeon and 150+ Lapwing. At least four Rock Pipits were on Colyford Common with a Green Sandpiper and a Snipe also noted.

Nice to see plenty of Common Darters still out in the sunshine, and a female Migrant Hawker.

For some unknown reason, I put a moth trap out last night! I really shouldn't have bothered as this morning I had only one moth to look at....a worn Large Yellow Underwing.

I'll end this post with a couple of photos I forgot I took! They were taken during my second unsucessful search for Lap Bunt at Axe Cliff sometime last week...

Now that's what I call a Bunting!