Late Common Redstart

I was keen to get to Axe Yacht Club today due to the ever increasing numbers of Black Redstarts collecting here, I had three yesterday on the houses of Trevelyan Road and Ian Mc reported four this morning.

Gladly I did manage to squeeze in a visit early this afternoon, and saw at least five first-winter Black Reds, although there could have been as many as seven present. One of them was clearly a male showing black around the face and upper breast, a darker mantle, but lacking the white wing panels of an adult.   Mike did see an adult male here half an hour before my arrival, and with Kev's three in Beer this afternoon that makes for an impressive patch day count.  It really is proving a top autumn for this species. 

Amazingly though, even though it's November and I was stood on a beach in the middle of a load of boats, this wasn't the only species of Redstart present...

A female Common Redstart!

I really was not expecting this!  

When a redstart flicked up onto a boat parked up right next to me, I was completely stunned to raise my bins and see exactly just that...a Redstart!  A Common Redstart.  Thoughts of Eastern Black Redstart crept in briefly, as it took me a few views to confirm it's sex as some angles seemed to suggest it had a dark throat and orange breast. When it showed better however I just imagined I was stood on Beer Head in early September looking into a bush... yup that's a female Common Redstart...

Showed really well at times

Maybe it thought it was hitching a lift!?

Quality

When feeding among the boats it behaved just like all the Black Redstarts around.  But did differ in that its darker relatives would often fly up to the roofs of the houses along Trevelyan Road, whereas the Common didn't do that once. Despite some really close views, it often proved quite elusive - frequently dropping down below the boats and not showing for several minutes at a time.

Not the usual Common Redstart-habbo!

This is my first ever November Common Redstart, and of course the late date could well suggest she's originated from somewhere further east than our usual passage Redstarts.  But unless she stays for a few days and I manage to somehow collect a DNA sample, we will never know where she's come from or what race she belongs too.

The only other birding time I've managed today was the first hour of light which I spent hunting down Long-tailed Tit flocks with a Pallas's prize in mind. I couldn't even dig out a Yellow-browed or a Firecrest for my troubles, in fact if things don't change soon this will prove my first Yellow-browed-less autumn on patch since 2012!

Black Redstarts

Considering the impressive numbers of Black Redstarts that have shown up at various other south coast sites within the last week, I've spent my last couple of lunch breaks wandering around Seaton checking the usual haunts.  Yesterday this gave me two first-winter Black Reds around Axmouth Harbour (one either side of the river) and today an absolutely corking male on rocks between Seaton Hole and the end of West Walk.  

The two young ones at the mouth of the Axe were quite mobile and skittish, presumably due to the freezing cold north wind blasting down the valley.  Today's male however was far more obliging...

What a top draw bird, and a real privilege to share my lunch break with.  Kev also saw two Black Reds in Beer today including another ad male, so there's at least five about for sure.

This morning saw a nice little influx of winter thrushes too, with a couple of flocks of Fieldfare and several Redwings whirling around my housing estate this morning.  Not very pleasant out in the cold wind though!

Talking of not very pleasant out, rewind to Saturday which was an absolute wash out of a day. We had high hopes for some good sea watching, but in reality 07:40 - 09:10 produced nothing more than (all west);

1 Brent Goose
21 Common Scoter
345 Gannet
1 Arctic Skua (dark juv at 08:20)
1 Great Skua (08:40)
112 Kittiwake
70 auk sp

Yes the Kittiwake and Gannet counts are pretty impressive, and it's always good to see skuas, but the action died down fairly quickly and by 08:45 it had already gone pretty quiet.  And no stand out scarcity sadly.  There were no scarcities on the Estuary either on Saturday despite several checks, but the three Cattle Egrets were still showing around Boshill Cross...

Spot the three Cattle's!

And that's that.  As ever, thanks for reading.

Who's Nicked Our Cattle Egrets?

Wasn't a bad sunset over the Axe Estuary last night...

I was there to check the roosting egrets, and came away feeling surprised having not seen any Cattle Egrets! Looks like they've all gone to Abbotsbury. Two adult Med Gulls on the Estuary were as exciting as it got.  Saying that I was surprised to see a distant Starling murmuration, albeit a small one (a mini-murm!) over Seaton. It turns out they are roosting behind solar panels on a house roof near the Orchard car park...

Today, during a local wander to get little Harry to sleep, a female-type Black Redstart was showing well along the sea front...

Other recent little snippets of interest from me include a lingering Greenshank and four Shoveler in the valley, up to three Common Scoter, Red-throated Divers and Great Crested Grebes settled offshore, and a pair of Blackcaps in Mum and Dad's front garden.

Maybe it's a good time to be reminded that in roughly eight weeks Wheatears will be here!

An Hour Out

I've done quite well today considering I've only had an hour out tops, in two parts, mid morning and late afternoon.

This morning on Beer Beach, a male Black Redstart popped up in front of me, which was presumably the recent Seaton Hole stunner I thought...

Always great to see these winter beauts

But then I saw it from the side...

No white in the wing and limited black on the throat/upper breast

Yes it was a first-winter male, which means we have definitely got at least four Black Redstarts wintering with us this year. The adult male has been at Seaton Hole almost daily, and on Saturday females were along side him, and in the middle of Seaton Town.  Chances are there's more than four, but at least we have an 'at least' figure. Today's bird was clearly not the first-winter male I had along Trevelyan Road (Seaton) on 16/11/17 as that one was already showing decent pale wing patches. Because of the date, that bird could easily have been a passing autumn migrant so I've not included it in the over-wintering total.

This evening there weren't many gulls along the Estuary to go through, but there was a single adult Med Gull. Was interesting to see it had already lost its winter mask, showing the first signs of a hood...

Only my fourth of the year!

All the Wigeon were on the sea this evening, about 250, due to shooting in the valley. Among them were a few Teal, and surprisingly a female Pintail, our first of the year...

Spot the Pintail! It wasn't always easy in the light and swell...

Eight Wigeon, two Teal (left) and female Pintail (second from back)

On Saturday, two days after 'Twilight Tim' had four Hawfinch at Colyton Church, as I was walking through Colyton with the dog, having seen no Hawfinches at the Church, I was amazed to watch a flock of nine fly in, land on a tree (which is marked with a red dot on the map below), then twenty seconds later fly off back west with a single Greenfinch...

If only flocks of Hawfinches dropped out the sky like this every winter!

Busy Bridge Marsh

The last few days have seen excellent numbers of wildfowl and waders feeding on Bridge Marsh, well over a thousand birds. My best counts have been 650 Lapwing, 85 Curlew, 79 Black-tailed Godwit, 290 Wigeon and 160 Teal. Really superb birding and thoroughly enjoyable, just a pity I've not been about to pull a rare out of the mix. Well that's apart from the wintering Glossy Ibis, which hasn't always proved easy to catch up with since its arrival. He/she joined the masses of birds on Bridge Marsh this morning...

Earlier in the day it was nice to finally catch up with the Seaton Hole male Black Redstart, which was actually on the houses near where the cars park at the top of the slope and not down on the beach.  A brief look out to sea showed it to be fairly quiet, although a lone Brent Goose flew west.  

To finish, another sunset shot I'm afraid, taken this evening from Seaton Beach. The tip of Beer Head looked to be glowing thanks to the angle we were viewing from...

Hawfinch Hotspot and Patch Update

Having not seen any more Hawfinch on patch since my Colyton duo earlier in the month, I've been keen to get to Shute where James Mc found 3+ birds in the Churchyard a couple of weeks ago. Shute is only a couple of miles outside the Axe patch, which makes the fact we've not had any more here even more frustrating!

I spent a couple of hours wandering around the lanes of Shute on Thursday morning and heard/saw 10-15 birds, including groups of five and four.  I didn't have any in the Churchyard at all, and my god they could be elusive little blighters - it's a good job they were so vocal!   Most views were similar to this...

But this more distant bird perched up nicely for a few minutes...

There's plenty of Yew, Hornbeam and Field Maple around Shute and most birds seemed quite mobile, but I've highlighted on the map below where I saw most of mine. They are still being seen around the Church as well so don't walk past here without checking the Yews carefully.  I can't stress enough how useful it is to know the various different Hawfinch calls before visiting, particularly the 'seep' call. It's an unobtrusive and subtle sound, but distinctive once learned - they're still not particularity easy to pin down though even when they are calling!

Back to the patch, and I'll quickly summarise my patch highlights over the past week or so...

I had two Brambling with a large flock of Chaffinch at Stafford Cross back on 14th Nov, and a return visit on Thursday morning showed there were at least five now present...

Female Brambling

Male Brambling

I saw another Brambling yesterday, along Clay Lane in Colyton. This afternoon, a Facebook message from a visitor from London, Mark Knivett, reporting two Black Redstarts feeding along the cliff edge on the West Walk, reminded me of this lovely first-winter male Black Red I had along Trevelyan Road on 16th Nov...

It's proving to be an absolutely stonking autumn/early winter for thrushes around here. So SO many Redwing about, in other years we often don't get good numbers of grounded winter thrushes until after Christmas...

Redwing

And I think that's it from me for today, so I shall bid you all a good night...

Seaton Beach looking towards Beer Head on the evening of 17th Nov.

Odds and Ends

First of all, thanks to everyone who's made kind comments about the article I've written for the November edition of Birdwatch magazine. I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to pen a three page article all about birding the Axe Estuary and Seaton Wetlands during the winter months. I was even more delighted in the fact the Axe had been given so much magazine space! If you want to read it, when you're next in a Newsagents look for this front cover...

It's worth paying the price for the Sibe Blue Robin story and photos alone!

I've just got a few odd sightings to report from the last few days on patch, not that I've done much birding...

Last Thursday I had several sightings and 'soundings' of a Brambling bombing around where I live. Never saw it perched, but it was clearly perching somewhere.

The following morning (Friday) I saw my first Black Redstart of the autumn, with a female-type on roofs along Beach Road, Seaton. Offshore were big numbers of gulls, Kittiwakes and Gannets feeding, although mostly far out.

Sunday morning a calm sea revealed a lovely Great Northern Diver at first off Seaton, then off Seaton Hole. It came quite close inshore at times, but the light made photography tricky...

And today, my best sighting was of thirty Golden Plover with Lapwing in the usual fields alongside the A3052 by the Honiton turn-off. Sadly no small grey ones among them. There seemed to be a few birds moving this morning, from the back garden I had a few Chaffinch and Redwing, and a flock of six Fieldfare NW.

Hopefully I'll manage to get out a bit more during the remainder of the week.
 

Cattle Egrets Up Close

As I type this cloud is arriving! Cloud!! Fingers crossed for some passerine action tomorrow...

I had a quick scoot around this morning, it was overall still pretty quiet but there were a few nice highlights.

I was really surprised to see four Med Gulls on Black Hole Marsh at dawn this morning, three first-winters and a second-summer. They were a surprise as I've not seen a Med here for about three weeks, and there's only about thirty Black-headed Gulls!  If you can pick out all four in this photo I will be impressed...

Maybe this will help... The second-summer is on the left with two first-winters on the right...

And this really cute and gorgeous subtle first-winter on the post...

There was no sign of the Cattle Egrets on Black Hole Marsh, but a walk around Seaton Marshes afterwards showed why. It was 07:30 and they were still in the roost!  It was so nice to finally get some good views of them...

And one final surprise for the morning was a pair of Pintail east past the sea front during a brief sea watch, along with a drake Common Scoter. 

I had ten minutes out again this evening, which I spent at Bridge Marsh. Two Goosanders were flying around landing on both the Coly and the Axe, just after Tim White reported two from Black Hole Marsh (so I guess they were the same birds?). And that was about it for me today, so all in all a good day even though I've spent most of it at work.

Patch bird of the day though goes to a male Black Redstart. I was sent a photo of one - which looked an absolute corker - present in a private garden near Boshill mid morning today. I know it's not really a rare bird, but a spring male is a good as they get. This was made even more gripping because I haven't even seen a single Willow Warbler today!    

And to complete this post, a few random photos from today around the Patch...

Pair of Yellowhammer at Axe Cliff

Comma at Axe Cliff

Male and female Kestrels at Seaton Marshes this morning

Venus pre-dawn

Winter Birding

I've seen a few nice things over the last couple of days, most of them distinctly wintry. I'm also finding myself willing every good bird I see now to stay put until Jan 1st - yes I'm already getting fired up for my Patchwork Challenge 2017 year list and it's only November! 

I'll start with yesterday afternoon, and an enjoyable half an hour along the Estuary up to dusk revealed three redhead Goosander (sat on mud north of Tower Hide), two Med Gulls (adults), 24 Dunlin and a Grey Plover.  It's been such a good autumn for Goosander on the south coast, and many other species of wildfowl (especially sea faring ones), I do wonder if that means we have got a proper cold winter coming?

This morning started on the sea front where I could see my first Great Crested Grebe of the winter off towards Seaton Hole. There were also three Black Redstarts about this morning, the two female-types still at Seaton Hole and an adult male near the Spot On Kiosk (thanks Dad)...

I also popped in to Lower Bruckland Ponds this morning, where the Yellow-browed Warbler was showing well right by the entrance bridge. It spent most the time flitting about in the trees as they do...

But in the frosty conditions it did briefly come right down to ground level...

Also present was a female Tufted Duck, which has been here for a couple of days at least...

Yellow-browed Warbler and Tufted Duck.  What a dream Jan 1st duo that would be...