Two More Geese and a Glauc

The last day of March offered the Axe even more wildfowl variety, with two new geese for the year. 

This morning Ian Mc found a Greylag on Bridge Marsh, which remained in the valley all day. Late March/early April often sees a spike in Greylag records for us, suggesting it must be some sort of spring passage, although from where to where who knows...

Greylag Goose standing proud

Then this evening Tim Wright located a Barnacle Goose, the same one that Dave Helliar has seen recently in the Chard area...

Barnie!

As Barnacle Geese go, well let's just say it's not the best. This bird shows surprisingly grey flanks and belly, some brown in the black of the neck and breast, and a bit more white than usual in the head area. Nevertheless I still think it's a pure bird, just a grubby first-winter individual probably of 'suspect' origin. 

Yesterday, as you'll have probably already seen from other local blogs, Ian Mc scored his fourth white-winged gull of the year on the Axe. Thankfully this one I actually managed to see, a stonking first-winter Glaucous Gull. A proper massive and fairly dark one too - the best type :-)

As we reach to the conclusion of March 2018, some may find it interesting to know that thanks to two cold snaps, a decent flurry of early spring migrants, 11 species of gull and the whole host of wildfowl that we've seen, 136 species of bird have been recorded on the Axe Patch this month.  Pity the sea wasn't busier as that could easily have added another five or more.

Fog It

The weather has not been too kind to us so far this week. Monday was a complete wash out, Tuesday we were fogged out for most of the day, and even today there was still a layer of fog in the valley at dawn - although at least this morning the higher ground was clear...

The river valley from Beer Head

There has been a few scarcities about though. The Canada Goose flock on Colyford Marsh continues to host a Barnacle Goose, and since Monday a first-winter Dark-bellied Brent Goose too. Have seen up to 14 Dunlin on the river, with three Grey Plover still, a Knot and yesterday Dad had an Avocet on Black Hole Marsh. Gull numbers are low but with the Black-heads I've seen two Med Gulls recently (an ad and a first-winter). Also yesterday, I came across my first patch Black Redstart of the autumn, a nice first-winter male at Axmouth Yacht Club.

The trees and bushes are certainly harboring more Goldcrests than the last few weeks, but Chiffchaffs have suddenly become harder to find. It looks like they've all grouped together at the traditional sites (Lower Bruckland Ponds, Seaton Marshes) and are less evenly distributed.  There was quite an amazing sight yesterday as up to 3000 Starling were feeding on flying insects in the river valley - I spent ages checking through them but it wasn't easy! Quite a spectacle though.

This morning Beer Head did feel quite good, it was definitely the best morning so far this autumn for Chaffinch passage, but with the light winds they were flying in all directions and many were really high so they were pretty much uncountable.  Not many other finches were going over though, and a Mistle Thrush, a Reed Bunting and two Lapwing were the only oddities. The bushes seemed overall quiet but there were clearly more Song Thrushes, Blackbirds and Robins about.

Weather looks good for the next few mornings, so let's see if I can uncover something nice like a Bluetail.  If I don't it won't be through lack of trying...

Gulls Save The Day

This morning was a bit of a nothing morning when it came to birds. I was dog-sitting so spent the morning walking around Colyton and Axmouth with two Golden Retrievers. I could well have been pulled past a few silent goodies, but there were certainly no vocal Yellow-broweds where I walked. Cannot believe I still haven't seen one this autumn! 

This afternoon was much better though, with the highlight being a gorgeous juv Little Gull on Colyford scrape mid afternoon. Sadly it was too distant for pics but what an absolute joy to see - such a teeny weeny dark little thing. And my first patch Little Gull since February 2014 so very much appreciated. Also on the Estuary was this hefty adult Yellow-legged Gull, presumably the same bird that I saw on Saturday afternoon, as I also saw it yesterday morning on the flood water at Colyford Marsh.

Middle bird with head tilted up

Second from right, this photo shows mantle colour, leg length and overall size well

Also on Colyford Marsh and the Estuary this afternoon; two Shoveler, the Barnacle Goose, two Grey Plover, one Bar-tailed Godwit and nine Dunlin.

Not quite the east coast, but hopefully the south west will shine soon..

A Good Day On Patch

First of all, I must just thank everyone who's phoned/texted/emailed/commented/tweeted/facebooked me regarding the Nikon video. Hopefully I have got back to everyone, but your kind comments really do mean a lot. It will be interesting to see what this all leads too.

And now to the patch, and today is the first time in what seems a long long time (well the whole of this autumn!) that I feel like I've had a good day on patch. A really good day.  Although the rares I am so yearning for never came, or a Yellow-browed still, I have seen a really nice and varied selection of notable birds.  And this is how, where and when...

Black Hole Marsh for half an hour from dawn didn't show anything new, but everything that's been around was here and I noted;

65 Canada Goose

1 Barnacle Goose

3 Water Rail

2 Grey Plover

5 Dunlin

1 Curlew Sandpiper

1 Little Stint (not the pale bird from a few days ago, a new juv)
1 Ruff
1 Common Sandpiper

I know many of you would have sighed at reading Barnacle Goose in that list, but it was the first time I have seen it at such close quarters, although I wouldn't be surprised if it roosts on Black Hole Marsh every night with the Canada flock. Whatever it's origin, there's no doubt over how smart (and cute!) it is...

Beer Head after this was disappointing bird-wise (just a few Chiffs and Goldcrest, a few more Robins and Song Thrush but very little overhead), as was a walk from here to Branscombe and back with Jess and Honey late morning to mid afternoon.

A mid afternoon whistle stop tour of the Estuary was much better though, as the gull flock at the top end of the river included two Yellow-legged Gulls. Both were distant from where I was viewing, but easy to pick out nonetheless. October is the best month of the year for non first-year Yellow-legged Gulls on the Axe by a mile, a good blow usually produces a few (plus the odd Caspian Gull).

You can't see much detail on the adult Yellow-legged Gull in this photo, but you can see it's large size and heavy build, yellow legs (they were brighter than they appear in this dull photo), darker grey mantle (if you look VERY closely!) and almost clean white head.

The above second-winter Yellow-legged Gull (right in the middle of the picture) was an absolute beast. The mantle colour was a bit darker than this photo suggests, but look how big it is - and it was so long winged! Typical moult stage for a second-winter (lots of grey) and the head area looked perfect with that grey smudging around the back and sides of the neck.  This photo shows the mantle colour better...

And then this evening, the cherry on top - and what a cherry it was!  Twilight Tim has seen a Turtle Dove a couple of times in the Colyford area over the last week and a bit, but it's not been pinned down. I was at the Bridge Marsh gateway, and after checking the Egrets and ducks on the marsh, I almost didn't notice the brown lump next to me as I was walking back to my car...

I'm so glad I did! At first it was raining, so the poor thing looked a bit bedraggled...

But eventually the sun peaked through the clouds allowing it to dry up...

What a bird, and as you can see showing ridiculously well! Only my second ever on patch following my overdue patch first on 13th May 2012.  It remained here for about 25 minutes, allowing six others to get to see it which was nice -  always nice to share a good bird.  As can be seen from my pics it's a first-year bird with a mixture of juvenile (plain dull orange-brown) and adult (bright orange and black) feathers. I wonder if this is the last one I will ever see on patch though?

So nice to finally have a decent day here - lets hope the rares start flowing now...