Long-tailed Blues

I've got quite a bit of catching up to do!  Since my last post I've seen quite a few birds, not seen even more birds, and enjoyed a couple of really productive moth nights.  All of that must wait though, because the contents of this blog post, quite simply, deserve its own post...

Late afternoon on Saturday 24th, news broke on Twitter of at least two Long-tailed Blue butterflies at Axmouth Harbour, from Lloyd Evans. Here is the very tweet...

What a tweet!

All this came as quite a shock.  I was stuck at work, but Kevin quickly followed it up and saw two an hour later. They were feeding & egg laying on a small patch of pea plant just to the east of the river mouth.  

Frustratingly the following day didn't allow me any chances to see them, but three were present and well reported on social media, pulling in visitors from far and wide.  Then Monday came around, and thankfully - finally - I managed to spend my lunch hour with them.  What a treat...

Female Long-tailed Blue

What wonderful little butterflies, clearly smaller than Holly Blues, and I found them really hard to keep up with thanks to their distinctively jerky and rapid flight.  They were oddly sporadic in their appearances too, with one period of 20+ minutes of nothing, and then a flurry of sightings right up until I left.  This one spent a lot of time underneath the flowers, so often the views were like this...

Easily to overlook - but once seen so distinctive

This female showed by far the best, resting on flowers and egg laying on the nearest patch of pea to where I was stood...

It actually has long-tails!

As can be seen in the above pic though, she has a deformity on her right wing. Also viewable in this pic...

A cracking underwing pattern - but what's with the wing...

This is a defect caused when the wings are being pumped up during emergency, which begs the question, was this butterfly born and bred here!?  Well personally I think not.  Despite this damage it was flying around just fine, and considering there has been a national influx of this species within the last week or so, I think the chances are it arrived as part of this influx.    

Not easy to see the upperwing - just about managed a shot of it here

As you can see, this conclusively sexes this insect as a female - but when flying around on two occasions I heard others announce it as a male due to how blue it appeared.  When comparing it to the second Long-tailed Blue that was flying around however, this was understandable. The second individual was a really drab, brown and tatty female - presumably the one pictured by others in previous days lacking any tails.  I did see a third insect in flight on two occasions, and this one really did look proper blue, sadly never saw it settled though.

There is a previous patch record of Long-tailed Blue, I know of at least one recorded on Goat Island (where there is lots of pea plant - so there could be a load out there now!) but it's great to have some 'gettable' ones!  Whilst at the harbour I also saw Common Blue, Painted Lady, Silver-washed Fritillary and a couple of smart male Clouded Yellows.

As I said earlier there has been something of an influx of Long-tailed Blues into the UK - in fact it's looking likely to prove the biggest influx ever!  For more details have a read of this excellent BirdGuides article; https://www.birdguides.com/news/look-out-for-long-tailed-blues/

And I will finish by ending on a similar note to the article-linked above.  Go out and search your local pea plants, you may not find an adult but there's every chance you could discover some eggs. And if you do then keep coming back and you never know you may just witness a UK bred Long-tailed Blue emerge or take its maiden flight. Something I hope to do in about a month's time...

The Thaw

Overnight last night there had been even more snow, and although it had stopped by dawn, we had a 100% white-out. An early morning trip out showed the local area looking incredibly beautiful...

Looking east along Seaton Beach

Looking west along Seaton Beach to Beer Head

Seaton from a distance

Axmouth from a distance

The A3052 at 8am. Most Monday mornings this would be busy with commuters and buses!

A random county lane - looking lovely!

Despite all the snow there were surprisingly few birds about. The only species that seemed to be struggling a bit were Meadow Pipits and the odd Chiffchaff, but there were no Golden Plovers or Lapwing, or that many thrushes really. Great news.

Mid morning the sun came out, so before lunch I enjoyed another quick whizz around. This showed a bit more variety, with eleven Dunlin, four Pintail (two pairs), three Gadwall and the lingering Marsh Harrier and first-winter Caspian Gull on the Estuary. Was nice to have some blue sky above the stunning snow too...

Colyford Marsh and the upper Axe Estuary

Bridge Marsh

Looking up the Axe from A3052

The welcome sun saw an increase in temperatures and an impressively rapid thaw. More birds appeared once this began, with lots of thrushes taking full advantage of the freshly revealed green, along with numerous Chiffchaff, Snipe and various wildfowl on Seaton Marshes mid afternoon...

Common Snipe

Common Snipe

Common Chiffchaff. So happy to see so many feeding well after picking up the dead bird yesterday.

Tim Wright scored our first Little Ringed Plover of the year an hour or so later on Colyford Marsh, does this mean we've finally seen the back of winter?

That's More Like It!

Well Ophelia has come and gone, but in birding terms delivered nothing. She didn't bring any American land birds or waders, and didn't even drag up that many sea birds on her journey - bit or an ornithological flop really. But since then things have picked up...

The last week has seen an exceptional arrival of Firecrest across south Devon and Dorset, well some parts of south Devon and Dorset! Portland recorded an unprecedented 150+ on Sunday, with probably just as many around Prawle/Start/Soar. But other places (Dawlish Warren, Exmouth, here) recorded none on the very same day!  Pleasingly they have started trickling through here now, I had my first at Spring Head, Axmouth on Monday afternoon, with another on Tuesday up by Axe Cliff Golf Course car park. Dad had six at Beer Head also on Tuesday, and Bun another in Beer village. Such smart birds.

A quick look along the beach to see what Ophelia had left us revealed just six Ringed Plover, a Little Stint (presumably the lingering bird) and a whole load more Man o' War.

Looking east along Seaton Beach on Tuesday morning

Wednesday gave us a nice double, although sadly one of which I missed.  Our Reserves Officer James Chubb saw a Great White Egret on Colyford Common (which had previously been at Abbotsbury Swannery), but it soon took flight and headed off south west. So proving to be as brief a visitor as the other two recorded here this year. Drat.  What followed cheered me up though...

Yellow-browed Warblers have proved much scarcer this autumn than recent years, presumably solely because we've not had the easterly winds of the previous few autumns. So, stepping out my front door early afternoon, I was really surprised to hear one call from trees just up the road - my third from the garden! I didn't have great views of it, but Tim White clearly did an hour or so later as he managed THIS fab picture of it - always such smart birds and always great to see/hear.

The drizzle and completely still conditions of last night saw (well heard!) an excellent nocturnal passage of Redwing and Song Thrush overhead, which gave me high hopes for this morning.  But those hopes have not really been lived up too (as usual!), although it did feel really good out there. There was one lovely highlight though...

As I drove over the lower Axe bridge into Seaton, I was amazed to see a flock of six Avocet fly across in front of the car! A really mega-sized flock by Axe standards.  I watched them fly upriver, they then circled around a bit before seeming to drop down on Black Hole Marsh. So I went around for another gander...

And that brings me and this blog up to date! So good to feel proper autumn excitement - we are a go...

In Seach Of The Purple One (Part Two)

Last Thursday saw an early afternoon low tide, and calm weather conditions. This, coupled with an apparent increase in Purple Sandpiper numbers at our two nearest sites (Sidmouth and Lyme Regis) within the last week, encouraged me to try again and walk the rocks on the beach east of Axmouth Harbour.  

Looks so right!

It all looked so perfect. So much exposed rock covered with weeds, and I saw more wading birds than I ever have before; 47 Curlew and 11 Oystercatcher, plus three Little Egrets...

A good Purp-carrying species

And for a few seconds I thought I'd done it.  I'd very nearly got to the point that I turn back, and three more Oystercatchers lifted off from a large, gently sloping and smooth surfaced rock.  As I got closer my eyes caught sight of two small grey birds shuffling about on the weed - Purple Sands!!  It took probably just over a second for my binoculars to get to my eyes, but in this short space of time I was already celebrating - all the effort I have put in had finally come good. Local birders would be queueing up to buy me drinks at the pub and my name would go down in history as the birder that finally got Purple Sandpiper on the Axe patch list.  What an amazing feeling it was. But then my binoculars got to my eyes...

Rock Pipits.

I immediately felt very very flat. All the elation, even though it was fake, evaporated into thin air in an instant.

Isn't it funny that when you are so so focused on one particular species, your brain can so easily come to a premature and wrong conclusion without any real thought process. Thankfully there was no one with me, otherwise I could have looked like a right plank if I'd open my mouth before the bins came up.

On the plus side, I managed to see a very distant Red Kite during the boring walk back, thanks to a phone call from Bun - he had just seen it fly north east over Beer.

Move Over February, March Is Here

Hello all, I'm back!  Not been anywhere mind, just haven't had much to blog about and no time to do it.  It won't be hard to sum up my February though... 

We had something of an invasion of Greylag Geese mid month, with a couple of different flocks dropping in on the Axe, the biggest being 22!  These records tied in nicely with an increase in Greylag sightings elsewhere along the south coast, so am certain they relate to genuine wild birds. Best guess is that they are Spanish wintering birds migrating back north. The first small group seen by Tim Wright didn't stay long at all, just one night, before flying off north. Only one lingered, one of the 22, it remained with the semi-resident Canada Geese until nearly the end of the month.  

The increase in temperature part way through the month seemed to fool the birds into thinking spring had come early. So many of the resident species started to sing, and sing well. It even encouraged a couple of the wintering warblers to break out in song, with both Blackcap and Chiffchaff giving it some nearer the end of the month.  

Beautiful blue skies at Lower Bruckland Ponds. You can just about see the white buds appearing on the willow to the right.

These white buds! Lovely to see.

So that's February. Thankfully March has already proved better...

The one I didn't see was an Iceland Gull found by Phil on 1st.  A great find really as there hasn't been many white-wingers about, although a few do seem to be appearing now.  March/April often proves the best months for white-wingers here, when birds that have been wintering south of us head back north.

The quality I did (finally!) see (third attempt!) was the Short-eared Owl  first seen by Mike Lock on Friday evening at Axmouth.  It was seen over the weekend, but it wasn't until this evening that I saw it. Well WE saw it, as Jess is a big Owl-fan, and this was the last of the five regular UK Owls that I needed to show her.  I have tried to show her Short-eared Owl before, just a month or so ago at Wyke Down, but we dipped spectacularly, so to get one on patch is magic. Although I have seen quite a few here over the years, they have pretty much all been passing migrants that have stayed between 5 mins and an hour, so I didn't for a second think I'd be able to get Jess on to one here. But I did, and flipping heck did we see it well. 

Within seconds of arriving at a sunny Axe Cliff Golf Course at 5pm today Dave Helliar pointed it out hunting over the rough grass, and about two minutes later it flew past us about 10 feet away! Despite only having my point and shoot Lumix in my hand on automatic mode, and in the same hand that I was holding the dogs lead, I somehow manage to fluke this...

What a beaut!

We watched it for another twenty minutes or so, and it showed very well almost continuously, but it didn't come that close again...

 
And here's a short video...

Jess kept saying after we dipped this one twice, and the Wyke Down disaster "it wasn't meant to be - when I do see one it will be extra special". She was dead right. I must learn to be this positive when it comes to dipping...

On The Mend

...slowly!

Most the aches and pains have gone now, it's just the cough that's relentless - and that has lead to an incredibly sore throat. Oh well. At least I managed to get out a bit today.

I had a lovely wander about Lower Bruckland Pond mid afternoon, lots of newly emerged Damselflies were nice to see (only saw two species though; Large Red and Common Blue), and Butterflies included singles of Dingy and Grizzled Skipper. The latter my first here. No birds worthy of mention though.

Later on, after a text from Phil, I headed over to Axmouth where he had seen an Osprey perched up. I got there about an hour after the event, and the Osprey had moved from its original position. After a short drive though, we ended up getting superb views of it...

A late one! Taken with the trusty Lumix

A Mixed Day

The day didn't start all that well...

I had just had my windscreen replaced thanks to the nice men from Autoglass (£75 - ouch!). There I was sat waiting for the glue to dry, being a good boy doing as I was told....

First came a text from Kev Rylands 'I'm at Portland, at least 100 Wheatears here'...

About three minutes later came a text from Karen 'Male Ring Ouzel Beer Head in the Dell'...

SOD THE GLUE - I WAS GONE...

Ten minutes later I was at Beer Head with Ian Mc. Karen was nowhere to be seen - but thankfully the male Ring Ouzel was! It only showed briefly, but it was nice and close - only the third spring Ouzel I've ever seen on patch! There were several Wheatears (including my first females) dotted about, and Meadow Pipits were heading north in small flocks quite frequently.

The Monarch of the Dell!

All this migration action fired me right up I can tell you - I was up for some excellent spring birding so decided to head to the Estuary and marshes for the rest of my birding day. This included two visits to Blackhole and Seaton Marshes, single visits to Colyford Common and Lower Bruckland Ponds, two looks out to sea, and two jaunts along the Estuary..... I saw absolutely naff all!

Well when I say naff all, that doesn't include the Hoopoe that's still present in Axmouth. I had two drives around Axmouth Camp Site today, the first one drew a blank, but I struck lucky on visit number two...

One sexy bird!

I'll end this post with a short, and rather uninspiring video of it. I do love the way they move though...