Black Hole Marsh Update and Common Dolphins

I can't believe it's been about twenty days since my last blog post! Apologies for this, especially when it's been so busy out there in the birding world. I have been getting out as much as possible, just always been running out of time to blog about it afterwards.  

In this post as the title indicates I want to update you all with the happenings on Black Hole Marsh since my last post about the wading birds here on 20th July.  It really has been excellent, and right now is looking as good as it ever does so do come and visit if you get the chance.

Following the early juvenile Wood Sand I blogged about on 17th July, over the past ten-ish days up to two more juveniles have been present, although there seems to be just one now.  One of them in particularly was really showy, hence the obscene amount of photographs below. They are such a charismatic species packed full of charm it's a real struggle not to aim the camera at them..

It's been a good late summer/early autumn for Greenshank, with six on 17th July my highest count.  I noted the first juvenile on 1st August, with the early date suggesting it may be of Scottish origin.  A really cracking example of a juv too, looking strikingly paler than all the recent adults...

The first juvenile Ruff was on the marsh on 10th, with two a couple of days later.  Again, how fresh and bright does it look in its brand new baby feathers...

And the most recent addition to the Black Hole crowd is a Little Stint first found by Derek Carter on 12th.  Surprisingly it was also a juvenile - another example of what I believe to be an early date for a juv wading bird. 2020 really is proving the year of early juvenile waders, which hopefully is a sign they've had a good breeding season.  

As you can probably tell from my pics though, the two times I've seen it it hasn't been particularly close...

Whilst on the subject of juvenile wading birds, I always look forward to seeing my first juv Black-tailed Godwit of the year.  This year that was on 4th August, but it wasn't the first of a flurry - I have only seen one more since!

Not that there's anything wrong with summer adult Black-tailed Godwits, so richly coloured...

Other bits and bobs on the marsh have included up to 51 Dunlin, 25 Teal, 20 Common Sandpipers, nine Ringed Plover, four Green Sandpipers, four Snipe and my first Yellow Wagtail of the autumn on 5th August.  The lingering juvenile Marsh Harrier is still around too, although can be surprisingly sporadic in its' appearances.

I'll finish this blog post on a different topic.  Yesterday morning before work I spent fifteen minutes sat on Seaton Beach with Jess and Harry, and as we wandered down to the shore I mentioned that the flat sea looked good for cetacean spotting.  About five seconds later I was showing Jess two distant Dolphins out in the bay, including one frequently breaching - pirouettes and everything!  Unfortunately though they were too distant to ID and I couldn't get any other local birders on to them.

So I was dead chuffed to find a video of them on a local Facebook page today, clearly shot at the same time we were watching them from dry land.  Here's a screen shot from the video, showing they were my second ever Common Dolphins here...

And here's a link to the actual video, which is well worth a watch: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=321669915550419.

Wood Sandpiper and Lesser Emperor

It's been good to spend a bit more time out today, and I'll start with the birds.  A mid morning visit to Black Hole Marsh was timed exceedingly well, as Ian Mc had just found a Wood Sand...

Wood Sand and two Dunlin

Not just any old Wood Sand - a breeding plumaged adult!

Remained distant so was a good test for the P900

I've had a look back through my blog and notes, and am pretty sure this is my first every June Wood Sand on the Axe.  We don't usually see the first returning autumn ones until mid July at the earliest, and all spring birds have been in April and May.  Not only is it the earliest, but it's the least worn adult I've seen too - still in pretty much full breeding plumage. So so different to the pale brown juvs we see in August, nice.

Also on Black Hole Marsh were numerous Black-tailed Godwit and Redshank (one juvenile), two Dunlin, three Teal and a Green Sandpiper. A little later Sue Smith also had a Little Ringed Plover and a Greenshank - autumn seems to be starting early this year.  Although saying that, many of the Black-tailed Godwits and Redshank never actually left us!

A Black-tailed Godwit looking like this can surely only be an adult, so why not even bother going north?

A little later an enjoyable tram ride showed additions in the form of a Greylag Goose on the Estuary and a Lesser Whitethroat singing at the north end of Colyford Common.

I also found time for some dragonflying this afternoon, which was nice because during the last month weather and work has not allowed for much of this.  I spent an hour and a half at Lower Bruckland Ponds dreaming of finding a Vagrant Emperor (been an influx of these to the east coast), so when I spotted a mostly brown Emperor with blue restricted to segment two I thought I'd only gone and done it....but not quite!  I soon realised it was a male Lesser Emperor, still a cracking insect and a really exciting find, but I can't help by feeling just a little short-changed!

Male Lesser Emperor Lower Bruckland Ponds

This is the fourth male Lesser Emperor I've found here (16th July 2006, 10th Aug 2012 and 19th June 2017) but easily the most enjoyable, because it was actually showing well. Hence why for the first time I actually managed to get photographs!  The other three were all brief flybys with Emperors in hot pursuit, but this one seemed to have found its own territory and spent the half-hour I was there patrolling - I even watched it fly up and pluck a Common Blue out of the air before feasting on it.  Amazing!  

Male Lesser Emperor again - showing blue on side of seg 2 (unlike Vagrant Emperor)

Out of focus but still so recognisable!

Other Odonta on show included my first couple of Small Red-eyed Damselflies of the year, at least 16 Scarce Chaser (one female), eight Four-spotted Chasers and excellent numbers of the other usual species.  This is such a great dragonfly site.

Now I know I have posted plenty of Scarce Chaser photos on this blog before, but as they are one of my favourites I just can't help but post a few more...

Scarce Chaser male

Scarce Chaser male from underneath

Scarce Chaser mating pair

What a top late summer day! 

Black-tailed Godwits

As promised a few posts back...

There are three sub species of Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa in the world. L. l. melanuroides, which breeds in eastern Russia, Siberia, China and Mongolia, has never been recorded in the UK so we can forget about that one, leaving us with these two...

The Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit (L. l. islandica) breeds mostly in Iceland, but also the Faeroe Islands along with a few pairs in Scotland. The majority winter in the UK, Ireland, France and Holland.

The small number of Continental or European Black-tailed Godwit (L. l. limosa) that breed in the UK (East Anglia) are at the western limit of their breeding range, with most breeding in western and central Europe to central Asia and west Russia. They winter around the Mediterranean and as far south as the west coast of North Africa, mostly Senegal.

So to summarise the above information, it would seem that islandica is an abundant winter visitor to the UK, whereas limosa is a very rare breeding bird and probably a fairly scarce passage migrant. And this is what the case seems to be on the Axe Estuary, through my observations and the on going Black-tailed Godwit colour-ringing project undertaken by the Axe Estuary Ringing Group. In fact I can't say I've ever seen/noticed a limosa here before.

Separating the two sub species is far from easy though, especially in winter plumage when on plumage they are identical.  Spring birds in breeding plumage are do-able, as are fresh autumn juveniles, and this is why I have been paying extra attention to our Black-tailed Godwit flocks this autumn as they've contained a high proportion of juvenile birds. Everything I've seen though has  looked fine for islandica, well until last Saturday morning...

A small flock (c12 birds) of juvenile islandicas have been feeding on Colyford Common at high tide over the past couple of weeks, but last Saturday morning (9th Sept) one bird really stood out and stood up! Bingo, surely my first limosa...

Juvenile/first-winter L. l. limosa on the left and juvenile  L. l. islandica on the right

The structural differences are pretty striking in the above photo. Longer necked, bigger headed, longer billed with a broader bill base and longer legged (noticeably the tibia).

Sadly the L. l. limosa at the back is out of focus in this shot

Check out the bill size difference!

L. l. limosa at the front

The above photo shows the neck difference nicely. All the islandica in the flock lacked any sort of neck bulge when they held their heads tight to their body, whereas the limosa always showed a noticeable bulge along the lower edge of the neck. Presumably this is simply down to the fact it's a larger bird with a longer neck?

L. l. limosa at the front

Looking at the actual plumage of the bird, I'm not sure how useful this is as there was so much variation in moult and wear within all the Godwits in this group. But I'm sure it's not a coincidence this was the palest and blandest bird in the flock, lacking any orange tones to the head, neck or mantle - just a buff wash. This fits well with the literature for the limosa as they are far less colourful as juveniles than the often almost bright orange islandica. Just a pity it wasn't a month earlier though when they'd all be in much fresher plumage.

It's also worth mentioning that when the flock took to the air, the size difference was just as notable in flight. It was always easy to see which one the limosa was even if you couldn't see any plumage features.

Because all I've got for sub species specific identification of this bird is structural differences, and no real plumage traits, I reckon that means I can do no more with it that write this blog post. This limosa Black-tailed Godwit would (on paper) be the first record of this sub species for Devon, and for me to submit this as a county first I would need all the boxes ticked, not just a few. Annoying yes, but when it comes to bird ID I am strict. Oh well, at least I've got a blog post out of it!

If you're after your own limosa it's very important to remember that overall size and bill length varies between sexes (and maybe age?) in Godwits like most other wading birds, so be aware that islandica will show a variety of bill lengths and body sizes. As with many things, a direct comparison makes it so much easier so it's best to study Godwit flocks, lone birds will always be tricky unless they show a particularly striking plumage.

And here's some useful links on the subject:

Birding Frontiers
http://birdingfrontiers.com/2011/07/15/more-on-continental-black-tailed-godwits/

Northumberland & Tyneside Bird Club
http://www.ntbc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Black-tailed-Godwits.pdf

Handbook of the birds of the world
http://www.hbw.com/species/black-tailed-godwit-limosa-limosa

Osprey and Continental Black-tailed Godwit

Although we see several Ospreys each year on the Axe, both in spring and autumn, we've not had a lingering bird since mid August 2014 - this one unusually preferred fishing over the sea not the Estuary!  Before that we had two lingering birds in 2012 (though neither for very long) and the most watched was THIS colour-ringed juvenile that stayed for over a week back in September 2010.  So it was high time we enjoyed another loitering bird, and that we have...

Thanks to a tweet from Martin Bennett early Thursday afternoon (a lovely chap from the New Forest who I'd met that morning in the Island Hide) we were made away of the presence of a fishing Osprey on the Estuary. It remained all of the Friday, and was around today until late morning when it flew off south west.  I though it was leaving us earlier in the day as at 9:20am it flew west over Stafford Marsh with pace...

Gladly though it came back east to offer the gathered crowd some more fishing views...

There's nothing like an Osprey to pull in the crowds! Pity it left us so soon but hopefully we will see some more before the autumn is out.

The bushes were deadly quiet this morning, and the wading bird situation isn't much better now Black Hole is full of water. All I noted here and on Colyford Marsh were four Greenshank, two Green Sandpipers and a couple of Ringed Plovers.  The highlight for me this morning was without doubt one of the 90+ Black-tailed Godwits that are currently on the Axe.  Among a small flock of Black-tailed Godwits feeding on Colyford Common I was delighted to notice a larger bodied, billed and legged bird, a Continental limosa Black-tailed Godwit (as apposed to Icelandic islandica race which are the norm for the Axe).....

Limosa Black-tailed Godwit (front bird)

I have got several more pics of this beast, but am going to save them for another post within the next couple of days which will be about all things Blackwit.

Since my last post, the only other sightings I have to add are of a drake Gadwall that I've seen on the Borrow Pit twice, and good numbers of migrants around the Wetlands on Thursday morning which included singles of Wheatear, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat and Willow Warbler, six Yellow Wagtail, 15 Blackcap and 20 Chiffchaff.

Colyford Common Wheatear

I have missed a few birds since my last post, mostly thanks to work. Tim White reported two Knot from the Tower Hide on Friday, and I was annoyed to miss a juvenile Little Stint found by Phil on Thursday evening which sadly didn't stay the night.  The most annoying thing about missing the Stint was that I really wanted to give it a good grilling as Phil reported that night, that it was a particularly long-billed individual. Hope Phil doesn't mind me sticking one of his record shots of it up here...

Little Stint (c) Phil Abbott

As you can see, quite a long-billed bird. But nothing else suggested it was anything other than a Little Stint.

Be sure to check back here soon for that Black-tailed Godwit post, which who knows may even prove educational!?

Quick Update and Icelandic Blackwits

Only time for a short update. The last few and the next few days have been and will be a bit hectic for a variety of reasons. I have managed a bit of time out though which I'll summarise here...

A morning wander around Black Hole Marsh last Friday showed the bushes were the busiest they've been so far this autumn. The highlight was a cracking juv Lesser Whitethroat along the track to the Tower Hide, but the ten Willow Warblers were just as exciting to see...

Autumn Willow Warbler - hope I get to ring some soon!

The marsh itself revealed a Greenshank, c18 Dunlin and two Cattle Egrets.

Saturday gave me less than above, although three Green Sands showed well.  In the afternoon I saw my first settled Yellow Wagtail of the autumn (but my third of the season) on Seaton Marshes.

Green Sandpiper

And that's about all the bird news from me, although there has been a few other bits and bobs about. The six Goosander are still around, as are at least two Cattle Egret. And this afternoon Dad had a juv Little Ringed Plover on Black Hole which was new in.

Lastly I have been showing my (annual) love for juvenile Black-tailed Godwits on Twitter over the past few days. I saw my first on Wednesday 2nd which showed really well in front of Island Hide...

Juvenile Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit

This dull photo doesn't really do it justice. They are the most beautiful colour, with soft yet crisp plumage and amazing patterning on their scapulars and tertials.   Despite the gloomy weather, a nearby adult meant I was able to take a nice adult vs juv comparison shot...

Moulting adult Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit (left), juvenile Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit (right).

There are so many differences visible and I would happily go through them all...but that would be boring so I won't. All I will say is just look at how different they appear, the adult is a tatty worn looking bird, whereas the juvenile is so so fresh - you can just tell all those feathers are new.  Such smart birds.

Scorchio!

Wow it's hot today.  A look along the river at about 08:30 showed there had been a bit of an arrival of new waders, with three Black-tailed Godwits alongside three Dunlin (my first of the autumn) along the waters edge...

Summer plumaged Blackwit and three Dunlin

Among the gulls three Med Gulls were on show, the first-summer that I yesterday labelled 'distinctively bland' and these two beautiful juveniles...

If you're not familiar with the juvenile plumage of Med Gull, I urge you to come over to the Axe Estuary or Black Hole Marsh and take a look at one. At this time of year they should be present pretty much daily now in varying numbers, and they really do have a delicate beauty to them.  Gorgeous things.

The moth trapping last night would have gone better had Mum and Dad's resident pair of Herring Gulls not taken an interest in the trap before I got to it!  Still there was a very good variety of moths and good numbers too. Nothing new for me or the garden, but the two scarcest species (which were actually both on the wall of the house) were...

Female Four-spotted Footman

The Fern

It was great to get the chance to introduce Harry to a Poplar Hawkmoth, his reaction was epic...

Little Ringed Plovers

Seemed to be much less happening out there today, not surprising considering the lovely clear skies. I didn't mind this though as we had a garden to sort out!

Little Ringed Plovers have a habit of dropping in when not much else is moving, and Phils one from early this morning had become three by the time I saw them late this afternoon...

As you can see they remained distant!

I have to say Black Hole Marsh is looking far busier than usual for the time of year. This site is often a late summer - mid autumn hot spot but quieter in other months. Not this year though, there's waders, wildfowl and gulls all over it. Fab.  Some of the wading birds are starting to look rather nice too...

Black-tailed Godwit

Aren't Juvenile Waders Great!

I was watching this nice little flock of Black-tailed Godwits feeding along the Estuary this morning...

When they were joined by this beautiful fresh juvenile...

Just look at that! A gorgeous gingery work of art. 

Sometimes it's the simple things in life...

Black Hole Marsh and Med Gulls

Went down to the wetlands this morning for the high tide, and I'm pleased I did because Black Hole Marsh was packed full of birds.

Looking out from the Tower Hide

'ROL'

'ROL' with two friends

Over the following hour the marsh showed;

2 Teal
1 Water Rail
6 Lapwing
1 Ringed Plover
5 Little Ringed Plover (1 ad and 4 juvs)
9 Dunlin
11 Black-tailed Godwit
20+ Redshank (incl. a good numbers of juvs)
1 Green Sandpiper
11 Common Sandpiper
250+ Black-headed Gull

I really love late July down here, often the hides are quiet as the scarce species haven't arrived yet, but the marsh can still be packed full of birds. So much noise and it's always brilliant to see migrating waders taking a rest to refuel before they continue with their journey.

A species that wasn't on Black Hole this morning was Mediterranean Gull, despite the large gathering of Black-heads.  Unlike any other time of year, in late summer we always seem to get far more Med Gulls offshore than in the river valley.  Ian Mc had 14 (one juv) off the sea front at about 08:30 today, I went there about 45 minutes later and had a lone juv, a lone second-summer and then a group of eight (incl. 3 juvs), all making their way west. I'm willing to bet they were all different birds, making a morning total of 24 which is pretty good for us.

Lastly it was great to have a meet up with our new Reserves Manager whilst in the hide. In my opinion this is a very exciting announcement as James was here when the Axe Wetlands were first born, but now he has the top job...

James Chubb back in his natural habitat