Balearic Shearwater Passage

Although it's been a busy week for me, there is no way I could have ignored the sea considering the weather and last weeks bumper Balearic Shearwater passage off south Devon.  

It wasn't until extremely late that I made it down to the seafront yesterday, 20:20 to be precise. All thanks to a text from James Mc who was at Lyme Regis and reported lots of westward shearwater action.  Upon my arrival I was greeted by a huge feeding flock of large gulls just offshore (the whitebait and mackerel are in the bay I'm told) joined by numerous Gannets too.  And within less than a minute shearwaters came by.  In half an hour I noted; 

Manx Shearwater 44

Balearic Shearwater 27

Common Scoter 15

Pretty much all the shearwaters were at a good range, with many of the Balearics in particularly seemingly being pulled close inshore by the feeding flock, before most then turned and headed back out south/south west.  

With the wind still up this morning, I was back at the Spot On Kiosk by 05:25 and gave it just under two hours.  As soon as my eye met the telescope there were Balearic Shearwaters passing through, I'm sure if I had arrived earlier I would have added so many more Balearics to the tally.  It was  a spectacular show for this species, that far out numbered Manxies today. For the first hour and a bit all flew straight through west, but then a close flock of ten, that at first seemed to be doing the same, decided to land and began feeding offshore.  This in turn tempted most of the remaining Balearics that came in the from the east to land with them.  By the end of the watch there were about 15 birds feeding on the sea with the large flock of feeding gulls and Gannets. Fantastic to watch.

A Velvet Scoter was a real surprise, always is here but especially so considering the date, with an immature female-type high west and then back east at 05:41. I was really hoping it would be picked up further east but wasn't to my knowledge.   The Great Skua that flew west about four minutes later was however picked up again, by Mike at Beer.  My first Skua of the year FINALLY!  Wonderful to see, although distant as this dreadful photo suggests...

Was so far out!  Really restricted white in the wing too, if it were late August I would have labelled it a juv

An adult Yellow-legged Gull in with the large numbers of gulls (400+) feeding just off the beach was another great highlight, a proper heavy billed brute too.  Interestingly single adult YLG's were also seen at Abbotsbury and Portland today so maybe something of a mini-arrival?  Worthy also of a mention was my fist juvenile Mediterranean Gull of the year - always a highlight and quite an early one too.  It was one of several Med Gulls that were offshore/flying west. 

My full totals for this watch were (west unless stated); 

Gannet 200+ (uncounted so an estimate)

Balearic Shearwater 67 (last 15 birds landed and fed offshore, flock of ten the biggest group)

Manx Shearwater 7

Great Skua 1

Yellow-legged Gull 1 (close inshore with gull flock)

Med Gull 5 (1 juv, 1 2nd sum, 3 ads)

Kittiwake 4

Auk sp. 5

Velvet Scoter 1 (west then east)

Common Scoter 20 (clearly some duplication as a flock of 12 flew west then came back east about five mins later)

A very enjoyable watch. I tried again tonight, but twenty minutes showed just; 

Balearic Shearwater 2

Shearwater sp. 1

Common Scoter 3

Med Gull 7 (loitering)

To finish the post - spot the odd one out!  It's a common sight at this time of year to see gulls feeding on washed up whitebait on the beach.  But never before have I seen a Little Egret get in on the action! I even watched it have to briefly take flight on a couple of occasions to avoid the incoming crashing waves...

Look carefully and you'll see it! Was distant and in sea spray

Felt so good to enjoy some decent seawatching off Seaton, especially after the spring we've just had.  Hopefully there are more sea-based treats ahead during the remainder of summer 2020, and fingers crossed they are large ones...

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!

Balearic Bonanza and White Stork Update

This windy weather has brought some seabirds into Seaton Bay, and Ian Mc has done well to keep on top of them - sea watching every morning since the breeze began.

Yesterday morning he reported a fairly decent passage of Balearic Shearwaters prior to 9am, 64 west.  This encouraged me to try a mini-sea watch during my lunch break from Seaton Beach, and sure enough I soon saw a flock of six fly west.  I went back in the evening and was pleased to count 23 in just fifteen minutes from 18:45, giving us a day total of 93. Although that's with the sea not watched for most of the day, so I wouldn't be surprised if the actual day total was 150+.

This morning news came through from Ian Mc that there was an even heavier Balearic Shearwater passage going on, he and Mike counted a very impressive 155 west by 09:40. Today was also my birthday, and although I couldn't have made it out for this early watch, when Jess asked me what I wanted to do today my answer was simple.... sea watch!  I watched 10:15 - 12:15, adding another 26 Balearic Shearwaters to the tally, plus five Kittiwake, three Auk sp and a Sandwich Tern. Ian saw another seven Balearics during a mid afternoon watch, and I added a further three this evening during a one hour watch from 17:30, plus a first-winter Common Gull and another Kittiwake.  So adding all these together that's 191 Balearic Shearwaters west past Seaton today, by a million miles our highest ever day count! In fact as far as I can recall this is our first ever three figure, with my previous highest being 71 on 10/9/12. In recent years there's been no decent counts of Balearics here at all, this species seems to be venturing into our part of Lyme Bay far less frequently.  Thanks Ian and Mike for being so helpful with times and counts today, really useful as it's enabled us to work together to get as much coverage on the sea as possible.

Now for an update on the Lyme Regis/Seaton White Stork, and the Sidmouth one which amazingly wasn't the same as ours! The Lyme/Seaton bird (unringed with a tracker and snipped primary tips) was photographed flying over Prawle Point by Pat Mayer on the 19th (the day after it was here), whilst another White Stork bearing a small black ring was stood on the roof of Lidl's in Sidmouth!

Anyway on the morning of 20th I was surprised to get a message from Wild Zoological Park in Bobbington, near Wolverhampton.  Both White Storks were theirs - free-flying display birds that had been whisked away by a thermal the previous day (17th).  And here's a snap of them together...

(c) Wild Zoological

They have names of course, Victor and Violet, and the reason Violet was ring-less was because she came to the zoo with foot and leg problems. Victor is back home now, he flew down from Lidl's roof when he saw his 'keeper', but Violet is still on the loose.  If you see her please let me or the zoo know, she could still be in the South Hams area.

Balearics and a Beast

It's high time I summarised my recent bird sightings, which thanks to today have become a little more interesting...

Black Hole Marsh had a spate of activity early last week, and although I missed the two Wood Sands that dropped in for half a day, three adult Little Ringed Plovers stayed put long enough for me to catch up with, although they were often flighty and vocal...

Little Ringed Plovers - surprisingly all adults!

On the same day I also saw a single Ringed Plover, two Greenshank, three Green Sands (also vocal and flightly), ten Dunlin and two juv Med Gulls on Black Hole Marsh.  Along with a brute of a juv Yellow-legged Gull on the Estuary and a Lesser Whitethroat on Colyford Common.  

I've not had chance to do Beer Head/Axe Cliff so far this autumn, but Willow Warblers keep popping up in front of me. Ian Mc did ok up Beer Head yesterday morning with a Pied Fly and good counts of Wheatear and Willow Warbler - although this wind will presumably have halted any further passerine passage.  Does looks like it's kick started some sea passage though which is good!

I gave the sea a couple of ten minute watches this afternoon, showing the odd Manx Shearwater and several Gannets passing, but things livened up a bit more during a 40 minute watch from 17:40 this evening when I recorded;

11 Balearic Shearwater
4 Manx Shearwater
1 shearwater sp.
1 Med Gull (juv)
2 Kittiwake
2 Common Tern
3 wader sp.

Great to see some Balearic action, with ten of the 11 passing in a ten minute window from 17:45, including a fairly close flock of five which looked so awesome. I haven't had any decent counts of Balearics off here for a good number of years - they seem to be sticking more to the west part of Lyme Bay these days - so every one of these 11 were very much appreciated.

A look up the Estuary just after this watch revealed an absolute beast of a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull, a real brute...

A truly epic bird - that juvenile Herring Gull looks so tiny in comparison!

Long legged, long winged, huge billed - what a treat!  Quite a dark one too (esp around the face), although note the pale ground colour to underparts

That's More Like It!

As the date gets nearer to the 13th (mini-Waite due date!) I am trying to get as much sleep as possible, so this morning with no wind to tempt me out I thought I'd sleep in. So pleased I didn't in the end though!

Dan J from Sidmouth texted me at about 06:20 to say he'd just had two distant Skua sp. east. Knowing there were at least two skuas in the bay was more than enough to get me up! 06:50 - 07:50 from the Spot On Kiosk produced (flew east unless stated);

11 Common Scoter 

2 Great Northern Diver (see below!)

7 Manx Shearwater

2 Balearic Shearwater (east with 4 Kitts at 07:38)

1 Pomarine Skua (GET IN!!!!)

4 Kittiwake

Three major talking points in the above list. And of course I'll start with the Pom. After five Arctic and two Great Skuas this spring, what a joy to finally see a Pom. Always a rare bird here. It was a stonking fully spooned pale-phased adult, and flew east at 07:10. I've had them closer but it was close enough to see all plumage details and that impressive spoon!  It was nice to watch it chase a Manxie around for half a minute or so too, always amazes me how different a skuas casual migrating flight action is compared with their flight action when in full chase mode, and how quickly they switch modes.

The Balearic Shearwaters were a real surprise, a proper rare spring bird on the patch, and I'd say Devon. It's usually mid summer onward when they appear - but sometimes we don't get many at all in the whole year.  However by a long long way the smartest bird(s) of the watch were the two Great Northern Divers. OH MY WORD.  Annually we see GND's flying west past here in spring, often they are in summer plumage but usually are distant. Not only were today's two both in full summer plumage, but they were also both settled on the water not that far out. Each time I scanned over them I couldn't help myself from stopping and having another gawp - incredible patterns and colours on these amazing plumaged birds. I've no pics I'm afraid as the sea was too lumpy, but flipping heck I won't forget these two beasts for a while. Absolutely stunning birds. And they stayed there for the whole hour.

After the sea watch a quick tour of the valley sites showed a singing Willow Warbler on the Borrow Pit (my first on patch this month!) and on Black Hole Marsh our fourth Avocet of the spring. It was rather oddly upended like a feeding duck so this is the only photo you are getting...

I promise that is an Avocet!

Before today I've done well missing patch year ticks recently. Last night Sidmouth Clive had a Cuckoo fly towards Seaton Marshes from Black Hole Marsh, but there was no further sign of it. And on Tuesday a Ring-necked Parakeet was seen by three different people in three different places in Axmouth during the course of the day. Ok I know that's a bit plastic but for me it would be not only a year tick, but a full fat patch tick too! That's presuming it didn't have any dodgy rings or any other anomalies.

It's been so nice to see the local breeding birds doing so well in this pleasant weather. I am seeing lots of fledglings about, and many adult birds being busy...

Song Thrush Black Hole Marsh

Sedge Warbler Black Hole Marsh

And I keep seeing Hares up Axe Cliff, with two up there on Tuesday morning...

A Hare up close for a change!

And I think that's about it for this post. Well except for the breaking news from the bookmakers that the odds have been slashed for baby Waite being named Pomarine...

Porthgwarra

As promised...

My desperation to see a UK Cory's Shearwater was only heightened by missing the Seaton ones, and then highetened even more by missing an excellent sea watching day off south Cornwall on Saturday just gone.  The weather for Monday morning wasn't ideal, but I thought Porthgwarra was worth a shout, so at 3:20 I left Seaton.  I would have got there sooner but there was a horrific diversion in place at night on the A30, but still I was at PG scope up sea watching by 06:40.

I was on my own until about 07:40 - quite stressful when there's birds passing at all distances!

My totals for 06:40-10:10 were;

4 Cory's Shearwater
9 Sooty Shearwater
41 Balearic Shearwater
4 Storm Petrel
2 Great Skua
3 Sandwich Tern
1 Ocean Sunfish

So yes - I did it!  Cory's in the bag :-)  The whole reason I wanted to get there for first light was because a weather front came through the night before, and I thought my best chance for big Shears would be early on - and I was right!  All Cory's were singles, the first was the best, at 06:58 and came through with two Manxies, then there were two more singles at the same distance (just beyond Runnel Stone) within the next 15 minutes. A fourth went west at 08:35 but boy was it distant, way beyond the Runnel Stone!   Aren't they great birds, so so relaxed and lazy looking, hugging the waves as they soar past.  Have to say, I also think they are bloody hard to spot - despite their size! I think it's because they fly so low to the sea, hardly flap, and always seem to be slightly changing direction.  

All the Shearwater action was great. I reckon my Balearic count was about 10-15 short of how many actually flew past, they were coming through with the Manxies right below the watch point so were easy to overlook.  The Sooties were great as they always are - I love their wing and body shape!

Seven Balearic and a Manx Shearwater (bottom left)

Gannets were streaming past

The Runnel Stone, a very helpful marker about one mile out.

As ever with here, sea watching with the sight and sounds of Chough around you is never a hardship...

Saw four in all

And towards the end of my watch, it was good to see the Scillonian come past...

Wonder if anyone on there has now seen a Cliff Swallow!?

I thought I'd use it to show off the capabilities of the Nikon P900. I think it passes PG at a distance of about 1.5 miles, and this is what happens when you crank the P900 zoom right up...

Hello!

After PG, and after some time with the best wader in the world, on the way home considering how many rare waders had been appearing, I thought Davidstow was worth a look at. This was my first ever visit here and my god does it look good. It was drizzly, foggy and felt so so rare...

Davidstow

Sadly didn't find anything rare, but saw;

10+ Ringed Plover
3 Dunlin
3 Snipe
1 Green Sandpiper
10 Wheatear


It's such a great place that even the common waders here look rare!...

A rare Ringed Plover

A rare Dunlin!

I will certainly be coming back here again, it's only an hour and a half drive from home.

So that's my Cornish Cory's jaunt all done and told.  So back to the patch now, and today has been a pretty good morning. The highlight being a Dipper than flew over me at Stafford Marsh - my first one on patch this year (they've gone really rare).  Also seen 35+ Yellow Wags, three Whinchat and a Wheatear on Seaton Marshes and five Sedge Warblers and a modest selection of waders on Black Hole Marsh.

Seawatching Unsuccessfully

16th May 2009 is a date that has always stuck with me - it remains the most gripped I have ever been by missing a patch bird. Ian Mc was watching a decent passage of Manxies from Beer when out of nowhere a Cory's Shearwater came gliding through with them!  We soon learnt this bird was first seen in Chesil Cove (by Brett) and later Exmouth - so was just one random bird that had got mixed up with the usual Manxies. So gripping, and a first for the patch.

Well I have been gripped again - big time!  

From early last week it was pretty clear Birdfair weekend was going to be a good one for birding, finally a decent Atlantic blow was coming in and I was going to completely miss it.  Despite seeing plenty abroad, I am yet to see Cory's in the UK - the last couple of years I've been desperate to get down to PG but the weather and the timing of the fronts just haven't been kind to me. On Saturday I was expecting to be miss a decent passage of these brutes at PG, but had no idea I was going to miss several seen from Seaton! Large Shearwaters are just SO rare this far into Lyme Bay and this far up the English Channel, so to hear of groups of four and a count of up to 12 is just so mind boggling! And devastating.

Even local photographer Tim White who is a complete newbie to sea watching rocked up and saw two, one of which passed by just a couple of hundred meters offshore! This is probably closer than any Shearwater I've ever seen in 12 years of sea watching here!!!

It wasn't just me that missed out mind. Bun was even further away, in Mexico! James Mc spent a lot of time sea watching on Saturday from Lyme and Seaton, but missed the lot. Dan J who is a very keen sea watching in Sidmouth didn't get a whiff of a large Shearwater despite several watches during the day. And poor Tim Wright, he was sea watching from the thatched shelter when both of Tim White's birds went through, but came away with nothing. It was a bad day for quite a few of us! 

What was odd is how they were behaving, not passing by here and then being seen off other sites to the west of us, they were just here!   It was clearly a small group of displaced feeding birds that probably spent most of their time just over the horizon, but now and then circled into and then out of Seaton Bay. Although 12 were counted, I wouldn't be surprised if the actual number of birds was lower, possibly 6-8 maybe? A big well done though to Brendan Sheils who saw the first two on Friday evening, and then the Chard boys who picked up the numbers on Saturday morning, if it wasn't for them this phenomenal event would have probably gone by completely undetected! 

I did try, despite a 17 hour day on Saturday (including eight hours of driving!), I got myself up at 05:30 on Sunday and sea watched 05:50 - 08:30, and again 17:00-19:00. I didn't see any large Shears, but did see;

1 Common Scoter

7 Balearic Shearwater 

95+ Manx Shearwater

11 Kittiwake (mostly juvs)

1 Sandwich Tern

1 Ringed Plover

1 Dunlin

Not a bad Seaton haul really, but very unsatisfactory given the circumstances.

Looking at the forecast, looks like my UK Cory's chance is blown for another year, and probably another 15 years for the patch!!!  Thursday is looking interesting though with a chance of a passerine fall and maybe some more waders?  On the sunny days this week, Osprey has got to be a good bet, most juveniles have now left their nests now with the adults well on their way south already.

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!

Black Hole Marsh, Butterflies and a Balearic

Black Hole Marsh looks EPIC at the moment. There's lots of mud and it absolutely stinks, which means there's lots of lovely flies and bugs for wading birds to eat.  This afternoon Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank and Common Sands were spread about all over it - as were Green Sandpipers, 13 of them (with a 14th on Colyford Marsh).  Highlights were a stunning juv Ruff, and this juv Little Ringed Plover...

It's been here several days now

Two Med Gulls included an adult and the usual juv...

Starting to moult into first winter plumage

Yesterday morning the wading bird situation was pretty similar, just with the addition of a Turnstone which flew around calling for a few minutes as I was leaving. There were also three Teal (come on Garganey!).

Before yesterday's visit to Black Hole Marsh I had a 45 minute sea watch. I would have stayed longer but I just couldn't get out of the wind! Numbers were represented by Gannets (lots, with birds going both ways) and Common Scoter - 17 of them. There were a few notable singletons too, with a Balearic Shearwater west, a Bonxie east (my first Skua of the autumn) and a Turnstone that flew out from the Estuary. 

It's not been hard to notice the excellent numbers of butterflies flying since the suns reappearance, I thought I'd photograph a few of them too...

Peacock

Painted Lady - such a stunning underwing

Gatekeeper

The underwing of a Comma - and that's why they're called Comma's!

Shearwater Success

My perseverance with the sea earned me a year tick this morning.

I was planning to sea watch 6-7am, but just couldn't get up. So I had to settle for a later and shorter sea watch, 08:30 - 09:00.

And the end of my very first scan three Shearwaters flew in from the east, immediately recognisably as Balearic Shearwaters. Finally!!! They flew west across the bay, and as many species do, started heading more south west when they got to straight out.  

As this had happened within the first sweep, I immediately sent a text around as I thought I'd hit on a decent passage, I was wrong! No more Shearwaters passed, and the best of the rest were singles of adult Med and first-summer Common Gulls. 

Black Hole Marsh 08:00 - 08:25 showed yet again not much new. Green Sandpipers up to four, Dunlin down to four, with 12 Common Sand, 10 Blackwits, two Greenshank, two Teal and a Lapwing. Am pleased to report the Green Sands were quite vocal, so will hopefully get them on the house list soon :-).

Won't have much/any birding time now for the rest of the week and the weekend, so roll on August!  August means the start of the main autumn passerine migration - surely it's got to be better than last year...

A Day Late...

I wish I had had time to go down to the sea front and look over the waves yesterday afternoon/evening, because Sooty Shearwaters were passing the south coast en masse. Portland had 60 and Start Point over 300!  I'm pretty sure I would have been rewarded with a patch record count if I'd given it time, but I reckon even if I had a spare half an hour I would have seen some Sooty action.  What a pain in the arse!

To try and compensate I was out at 7am this morning, and sea watched for an hour from 07:08 from the Spot On Kiosk.  Annoyingly the conditions weren't that great...

Blue sky and small waves = not good for sea watching

I'm pleased to say though I did manage a Sooty Shearwater! YEAH! :-)  The views weren't great as I got on it late, but it was at a pretty good distance for here so it wasn't all that bad.  It came by pretty much bang on 8am.  It was nice to see four Red-throated Divers too, three of which flew through west, and the fourth looked to be doing the same until it plonked down on the sea infront of me.  My first of the autumn.

So anyway, the full totals of this watch were (all west):

1 Common Scoter

4 Red-throated Diver

110 Gannet

1 Sooty Shearwater

9 Balearic Shearwater

2 Kittiwake

2 Auk sp.

So although I did see a few bits, I basically 'did a Josh'. (That's a new phrase meaning 'to miss a good seawatch').

Don't know why I'm bothering to post this, but I like Gulls, and I really like Lesser Black-backed Gulls, so this little group on Black Hole Marsh in my opinion deserve the effort of going up here...

You probably won't agree though!

A Patch Tick And A Patch Record Count?

I nipped out most days last week, mostly to Black Hole and Colyford Marsh. I didn't manage the rare I was hoping for, but there was always plenty to see. On Tuesday amongst 40+ each of Ringed Plover and Dunlin were two Little Stints, with one still present up to today. Two Greenshank were around from Wednesday with my highest Snipe count of the autumn so far (13) and Thursday saw a new Ruff in and an increase in duck numbers with two Wigeon and 120+ Teal. But it was the weekend that it all kicked off...

Whilst Jess and I were enjoying a day out in Somerset, a couple of texts informed me of a pager report of a Spotted Crake from the tower hide. Phil soon confirmed it when shown photos, and then spent most of the afternoon searching for it. His patience was rewarded late afternoon when it reappeared for a brief period - this is when he took these photos of it. When Phil texted the news out, we were 20 minutes from home, and after a bit of persuasion I made Black Hole Marsh our first destination! We spent about 20 minutes in the hide, but there was no sign so we headed home. About half an hour later it was seen again. Drat!

The following morning, the first two alarms I had set didn't wake me up, but thankfully alarm number three did! I got to the tower hide at 06:40...

A tranquil scene

It wasn't a tranquil scene inside the hide though where three of us were waiting and hoping for a patch lifer! Thankfully (as I didn't have much time) there wasn't that much waiting, and anxiety soon became jubilation! The Spotted Crake appeared at about 06:45 in almost exactly the same place Phil last saw it last night. We watched it for the next fifteen or twenty minutes as it made its way up river along the bottom of the bank below the salt marsh opposite the hide.

I have made an extra special effort to look for this species on patch this autumn, but have to say, this was one place I hadn't been looking. It really was in an odd place, although I guess if the food is there then why not! As Spotted Crakes go, it wasn't the most spotted (as Phil's photos show) - but I loved its buff bum! Totally different from a Water Rail, a really obvious and distinctive feature.

Gav and Karen both mentioned on their blogs that the light was so poor that they didn't even bother taking a photo. Not me...

A stunning and pin sharp photo of my first Spotted Crake on the Axe. Prints can be purchased.

The rest of Sunday I was at work, and Monday (today) I had put aside for a day of laptop work. The temptation to go out got too strong though mid morning when Martin Cade at Portland tweeted they had just had their 100th Balearic Shearwater of the day past the Bill!

I was down the sea front at 10:10, and by 11:40 had seen an impressive 71 Balearic Shearwaters! Some came through as loners, but most were in small flocks with the biggest single flock being of 13 birds, all flew west. I had a further 13 Shearwater sp. fly west at mega distance - too distant to ID. Otherwise there was not much else passing, just six Common Scoter and two Manxies.

Although 71 Balearics isn't a patch record, I am hoping other patch birders were watching the sea at different times and are able to add to this tally. I just wish I had started sea watching at dawn though - we could well have had over 200 through today I reckon. That would easily be a patch record!

Oh I see there's a Pec at Bowling Green, I wonder if I have enough time to check out Black Hole Marsh before Jess finishes work...

Bums

Dunlin and Little Stint taken on Tuesday - isn't the size difference so obvious!

Black Hole Marsh was cracking on Tuesday afternoon, with a 'new' Curlew Sand present amongst 19 Dunlin, 12 Ringed Plover, 4 Greenshank, 3 Ruff and a Knot...

Juv Curlew Sand moulting to 1st winter plumage

An hour after I came away from Black Hole Marsh on Tuesday, I was scoping Colyford Scrape from the Farm Gate as a juvenile Little Gull had been found. It wasn't doing much when I saw it, but nice to see this beautifully marked miniature Gull never-the-less.

A photo of a Little Stints bum isn't the only reason I called this post 'Bums'... it is because, as per usual, we missed out on most the sea watching action that other parts of Devon enjoyed on Tuesday. I spent three hours sea watching from Seaton seafront during that morning and noted; 4 Balearic Shearwater, 35+ Manx Shearwaters, 2 Arctic Terns and 4+ commic Terns. Yes - that was it! I even missed the Sooty Shearwater that came through during the time I wasn't looking at the sea!

The following morning (Wednesday), an hours sea watch showed it was even quieter, although at least one Storm Petrel could be seen feeding distantly. A single Balearic Shearwater flew west and a single commic Tern loitered behind a boat.

And now to today, and I've been looking rather intently for an American wader as they are popping up everywhere!! No luck as yet, in fact Black Hole Marsh had very much a 'samey' feel to it. Saying that though, whilst watching the 15 Ringed Plover, 21 Dunlin and single Curlew Sandpiper - another flock of 20+ small waders came whizzing south past the Island Hide low over the Marsh - but they didn't stop and just kept flying...bloody annoying really! On the Estuary there were five Bar-tailed and 13 Black-tailed Godwits, one of the latter being an Axe Estuary colour-ringed bird (Red, Orange, Lime).

I won't have much time out and about over the next three days, if I do get any time though I will try and make the most of it....

I Wish I'd Had More Time

I only had time for a couple of quick glances at the sea this morning; 10:10 - 10:30, and at about 11:20 for ten minutes.

In the first watch I was rewarded with five Balearic Shearwaters west - three came through together at 'close range for Seaton', shortly followed by two distant singles. A single Common Scoter and few Gannets were the only other birds I saw passing (aside Gulls).

The second watch showed a few waders; a Turnstone flew west in the company of five Knot, and ten Ringed Plover and a Dunlin were on the beach.

Looking at the forecast I am very excited about the week ahead. Rain really does make the difference for us, and it looks like we are going to get a lot of it! Watch this space...

Another Murky Morning

I woke up to another wet, dull and misty morning....so stayed in bed a little longer than I really wanted to! At just gone seven I finally dragged myself up and headed down to Blackhole Marsh, before the workmen arrived.

It was worthwhile, as with the small wader flock was my first patch Sanderling of 2010 - I think a first for the marsh! Sanderling is a scarce bird on the river, with most of our records concerning birds on/past the beach in late spring. As I've already said, it was misty and drizzly, an excellent excuse for posting a photo of this quality...

Yes I know - crap! Smart bird though :-)

Other birds on the marsh included: 2 Oystercatcher, 39 Ringed Plover, 42 Dunlin, 2 Ruff, 3 Greenshank, 3 Green Sandpiper, 3 Common Sandpiper and a Water Rail which was showing very well in the north west corner. Spotted Crake next please :-)

So how much work did the workforce manage yesterday - a day of almost constant rain. This is how it looked this morning...

Well they've put another pair of posts in the ground!

At about 8am, I suddenly realised the weather had cleared, and the noticeable south west wind lured me to the seafront and my favoured sea watching spot for 'rough but dry conditions' - the Spot On Kiosk. It proved a good move as between 08:20 - 09:40 I notched up the following:

1 Great Crested Grebe - flew west, I always think these look stupid in flight!
2 Common Scoter
4 Balearic Shearwater - 1w at 08:25, 3w at 9am (1 v.dark bird)
2 Great Skua - juv west at 08:35, adult west at 09:20
2 Arctic Skua - 2 west also at 09:20, too distant to age
3 Kittiwake
2 Common Tern
9 Dunlin

1 Curlew

One of the Common Terns passed quite close, so I just HAD to whip the Lumix out...

...just a pity I was a little late in 'whipping it out!'

Numbers of large Gulls on the Estuary during this rough spell of weather have been surprisingly poor, though both sizes of Black-backed Gulls are making up a higher percentage than usual. In the small collection present on the river early this afternoon was this rather black mantled and long-winged Leeb...

intermedius-type!? Although it doesn't look that dark in this pic, it wasn't far off GBBG colour

The more observant blog browsers may have noticed a change in the name of this blog (not to mention a total re-vamp in layout!). I thought I'd go for a short, simple and obvious title - I should have changed it yonks ago really!

If you are a fellow blogger and have my blog in your blog list (for which I am much obliged), if the name change doesn't show up can you remove then re-instate me, that should do it. Thankyou :-)