Seawatching

May is my favourite month for sea watching without a doubt. Everything is in fresh spring plumage and the variety of what can fly past is as good as it gets (skuas, terns, shearwaters, divers, wildfowl, waders, etc) and we often do get a good blow at some point during the month.  I love it!  

But this can cause problems....  Birders know just how painful it can be when you are tied up with 'daily life' and there is a bird or are birds you want to see. It could be a rare, a movement or fall and you're stuck at work/in the middle of a shopping trip/have the kids for the day - I'm sure we've all been there. Now I'm very lucky, first of all Jess is very understanding, and has now learned it is always best for everyone if I just go.  But I am sensible about it, and I can cope with missing most things now except for 1/ a patch tick and 2/ may sea watching.  Although with sea watching you can kind of predict what you are going to see, there is just something so magic about watching birds migrating over the sea as they head to their breeding grounds. I find it so SO hard to leave/ignore a busy spring sea.  

The weather looked good for Monday 2nd May, not great but good enough, so I watched from the Spot On Kiosk on Seaton seafront 05:55-08:20 and 14:00-15:00 and saw;

4 Great Northern Diver (1 s/pl e, 2 s/pl w and 1 w/pl on the sea)

1 Black-throated Diver (w s/pl w)

16 Pale-bellied Brent Geese (w in one flock at 06:08)

31 Common Scoter (all w, biggest flock was seven)

122 Manx Shearwater (40 in morning and 72 in afternoon, all west)

1 Great Skua (w at 07:45, Dan J had it past Sidmouth just under half an hour later)

2 Arctic Skua (2 d/ph hassled gulls then flew e at 06:30, they were later seen past West Bay and possibly the same two through Chesil Cove at 07:50 per John Down)

4 Kittiwake

6 Sandwich Tern (two groups of three w)

2 Whimbrel

2 Ringed Plover (two singles w along beach)

4 Sanderling (two two's w with Dunlin)

210 Dunlin (a very impressive movement with flocks of up to 40 flying w, they dried up by 8am)

So although I have had much better May sea watches, there was a real nice variety and some decent movement.  The skuas were the first one's I've seen on patch for almost 18 months (missed the few we had last year) and the Dunlin movement was really quite spectacular. It's just a pity there wasn't a bit more rain about because then the waders would have come on to the beach and up the river valley instead of just passing.

I didn't manage to video any of the real goodies, but here's the Brents, a Whimbrel and a Fulmar...

The relatively new phenomenon that is the spring Pale-bellied Brent migration is fantastic. We don't get flocks of geese down here in this small valley, so it is about as 'Norfolk' as birding can get for us. The flock past the sea front was great, but I had an even better sight that evening...

The girls and I were enjoying a wander around Lyme Regis, and just after we arrived I noticed on twitter a flock of c60 Pale-bellied Brents were flying around over Weymouth (Julian Thomas) and then flew west through Portland Harbour. I knew they were coming so kept one eye on the sea, but I actually nearly missed them because of this....  They left west from Weymouth at 17:13 and at 18:05 I was suddenly aware of Brents calling. I turned around and was greeted with the beautiful sight and sound of 70 Pale-bellied Brents flying rapidly west between us (on the end of the Cobb) and the town. It's a short clip, but just listen to that sound!! (and not my wife asking if it's a ship or a boat!)...

A quick calculation indicates they were traveling at about 28mph - love being able to work things like this out! I fired off a quick text to let the other patch birders know that there were heading for Seaton, and Tim Wright managed to make it down to the sea front just in time to see them/some of them pass by.

I would really love to know where these Brents come from, maybe Holland or France?  They only seem to appear at around Portland, fly west along our part of the coast then always seem to settle on the Exe Estuary for the rest of that day.  It is such a predictable passage now that it clearly is a movement of birds from a regular wintering site to their breeding grounds, presumably in Canada. AMAZING!

Isn't the weather looking promising for the next week. Not for sea watching, but it's looking good for some rare herons, warblers, maybe something better... and surely a tan!? 

Divers and First Swallow

Had a great hour at Branscombe this morning with Bun, looking for divers and hoping for something more.  Well the something more never appeared (except for one Mute Swan, four Canada Geese and 18 Common Scoter) but the divers were absolutely fab!

We were surprised to say the least when we realised the group of three divers we spied soon after our arrival were all Black-throateds! I know, it sounds so stringy, the number of mis ID'd Black-throated Divers reported is frankly frightening, and even though I was looking at them, my County Recorder head just wasn't having it... but they were!!   I knew I had to get some photos to prove we weren't having a funny five minutes, it's just a shame the birds were about a mile away...

And you thought my LRP photos were bad!!!  They were always gradually drifting west but remained in a tight flock, at first just resting on the sea but later diving quite frequently.

Thankfully these weren't the only divers that we saw, there were also two Great Northerns and at least four Red-throats (including one in summer plumage).  

The only other birdie highlight of the day was my first Swallow of the year that leisurely made its way north over Bridge Marsh late morning.

Portesham Pallas's Warbler

I didn't need any convincing yesterday to go and see the Pallas's Warbler currently over wintering at Portesham in Dorset. Pallas's are my favourite of the 'regular' sibes, I saw several at Spurn and Dunge in the early 00's - some exceptionally well.  But in the ten subsequent years of birding this patch I have seen just one, that was in 2007 and for about twenty seconds!  So it was high time I saw another, even though seeing what in my head is a late autumn specialty, in March, could well play havoc with my inbuilt birding body clock!

It was actually dead easy. James Mc and I parked up in Portesham shortly before 10am, casually strolled up to where we thought we should go, and there it was...

Count the head stripes - that's a seven-striped sprite alright

Showing it's Wood Warbler-like white underparts

The yellow tones to the face also reminded me of Wood Warbler colours. Often looked bull-headed too.

In coming - I just love those stripes!

Check out it's arse! Surprised I managed this with my bridge camera.

What a stunning bird, and mind blowing views.  No stiff necks looking at tree tops, it spent virtually the whole time feeding at eye level, and for the twenty minutes we were there it remained in view for about 17 of those.  It was so easy to follow as all the trees and bushes were completely bare, and it shared the surrounding cover with only a couple of Robins, Dunnocks, one Goldcrest and a Chiffchaff (which looked huge compared to it!). It really seemed to love this bush, the first bush on the right...

It did move into the small copse to the west and across the track south of this bush. But it did seem to like this bush, there were plenty of small flies buzzing around it which may have explained why.

The rump really is amazing.  It is virtually impossible to see when perched, but the moment it flies it's like a light bulb. It's even obvious when you just glimpse it flitting about with your naked eye at a distance.

My advice to anyone thinking of going for this bird, go.

Here's a few short videos that I'm sure will tempt even the most stubborn...

I can confirm to you all that without doubt seeing a Pallas's Warbler is an excellent cure for the winter birding blues - almost as much as a male Northern Wheatear (they can't come soon enough!).

As we were Portland way, I couldn't leave without some diver and grebe action, so we headed to Sandsfoot Castle for a quick scan over a nice calm Portland Harbour...

Looking south to Portland

This proved a very worthwhile stop, as a scan from the Sailing Academy, and through some builders fencing a little way back east along the road, showed a pretty decent selection.  For us fairly loyal patch birders, Red-breasted Mergansers are exciting enough as they are scarce on our patches, it was great watching the males displaying. 

My previous visits here have shown the Black-necked Grebes to be in one or two pretty tight flocks, but today the 12+ present were spread out everywhere; a four, a few pairs and singles. Most were in or coming into summer plumage which was nice, unlike the four Slavonian Grebes - three of these were in winter plumage with the fourth just starting to get dusky down the front. There were stacks of Great Crested Grebes too, all of these were in the far north east corner of the harbour (where one of the Slavs was, another was towards Ferrybridge with two together in the middle of the harbour).

Four Great Northern Divers were all spread out singletons, but the closest diver was a stunning Black-throated Diver. It was quite a hefty one to be honest, looked quite thick-necked and bulky, so am pretty sure it's the one that was showing well from the southern shore of the harbour over the last couple of days.  Sadly my photos aren't quite as good as Pete's...

A blurry phone-scoped Black-throated Diver in awful light!

One fat bird!!

With work looming it was time to head back west. But on the way home we called in at Abbotsbury for a look over the Swannery...

The light wasn't too bad when I took this, but the sun soon came out which made viewing more difficult

We were really impressed with the amount of wildfowl here, heaps and heaps of Pintail in particular. All the Pochard were sat out on the bank probably wondering where their lunch was - no wonder they are so rare here now, they are clearly getting lazy! In contrast the Tufties were busy getting their own grub out on the water, and among these were the the two wintering Long-tailed Ducks and at least one and a half Scaup. I say one and a half because I know there's a hybrid ScaupxTuftie here, and I couldn't rule this out on one of the birds - probably because it was the hybrid.

As ever it's not just the birds that make a twitch, but the company. James M is an ace twitching partner as we are both as laid back and relaxed about it as each other - and neither of us actually like twitching!  Especially the crowds.  We really are bad twitchers, and will only twitch a bird if the chance of seeing it is up around the 100% mark, plus there has to be other birds around to see as well. In general we also have a similar taste in birds and what we think is worth going to see, well that's with the exception of big white things. James seems to think all egrets may as well be Little Egrets (just smaller or bigger versions), and all swans are Mute Swans just with different coloured bills...

Seawatching

I had an early alarm set for this morning, the forecast was promising wind, rain and cloud so I just had to try a sea watch.

Up until about 07:50 the conditions were pretty good.  Although the wind was never that strong it was coming from the south west which is our best direction for sea watching, and with it were a few passing showers that always help to bring birds closer in.  Sadly just before 8 we had a substantial downfall that for some reason killed the wind right off and the sea practically went flat. Still, I held out to make it a three hour watch.

05:55-08:55 produced (all west unless stated):

15 Pale-bellied Brent Goose (one flock)

2 Gadwall (pair at 08:10)

17 Common Scoter (10w, 7e)

9 Great Nortern Diver

1 Black-throated Diver (w/pl landed on sea half way across bay, but never saw it again)

1 diver sp.

92 Gannet (some flew east but there did seem to be a general westerly passage)

406 Manx Shearwater (a decent count, including several flocks of 40+ birds)

16 Whimbrel

1+ Ringed Plover (heard only)

1 Sanderling (came in then flew west)

15 Kittiwake (12w, 3e)

11 Razorbill

I have to say I was disappointed not to get a Skua (made even more so by the fact James Mc had two single Bonxies off Lyme Regis, one of which went west but never made it to me), but I love a sea watch that gives a nice variety of species, and this one certainly did. So all in all I was happy with my haul.

Brixham Twitch

We (James M and I) have wanted to pay a visit to the White-billed Diver for several weeks, but work, weather and other things kept getting in the way.  Last Tuesday though, after a painfully congested drive down, through some scarily intense rain, we arrived at our destination...

Although all looks calm and tranquil, there was a pretty strong SW wind blowing

Within minutes we were shocked at the quality of birding.  Let's be honest, divers are usually 'telescope birds', but no need for a scope here for much of the time!  It was like being in a foreign country, with Great Northerns and Black-throats swimming around the harbour like its an every day occurrence! Just amazing stuff...

Great Northern Diver - one of about 25 in the harbour!

Black-throated Divers - saw about half a dozen of these

And then of course there was the star bird, which appeared just inside the entrance to the inner harbour soon after our arrival...

Next to the GBBG

It quickly (and it really could move under water!) came closer though...

 

And then EVEN closer....

What a superb bird!  I saw the Hayle bird which really was a highlight in my birding life, but this was even better!  Obviously its whopping ivory bill really is striking, but so is the whole feel and shape of the bird.  Great Northern Divers are big, but this is bigger, and chunkier, and seemed to swim and move about with real power and ease. And it really did give point blank views as it fed along this channel...

Welcome to Brixham indeed!

This photo was taken when it had swam quite some distance away from us...

Yep, that's the White-billed Diver!

With a couple of Red-throated Divers further in Torbay, it was a 'four diver day' for us!  Then there were the grebes.  Although we missed the Red-necked that was showing inside the marina, we had one just around the corner from the AstraZeneca. Also from here, a Slavonian Grebe flew in and landed close in, and later two Black-necked Grebes drifted in and then back out of the harbour...

Distant photo - but the distinctive 'fluffy bum' shape still obvious

Also from the AstraZeneca car park we saw the lingering Iceland Gull, we never got close to it but still had good views.  It's a stunning bird, but did seem a bit dim! All the other gulls were following fishermen, or swimming around just off the shore, but the Iceland Gull spent the entire time circling the same white bouy just staring at it! I guess it was feeding, but it just seemed a bit 'Tim nice but dim' to me!

Sadly we had to get a move on, as I was working in the afternoon, but we couldn't resist the Decoy Lake drake Scaup on the way home. In reality it wasn't quite as exciting as it should have been, as it spent the entire time asleep and partially hidden underneath vegetation on the far bank, next to a drake Gadwall.  Here we were also hoping to make our three grebe day into a five grebe day, and soon enough a Great Crested Grebe popped up. The hunt for Little Grebe failed to fined any, but two Black-necked Grebes were somewhat of a surprise!  I didn't manage any photos of them as they stayed on the far side, but the local attention they attracted ensured there are some photos other places, namely here... http://teignbirds.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/thanks-for-grebes-steve.html

All we wanted now was a Little Grebe. And it took a drive alongside the Axe once home to find one, and it really took some finding in the rough conditions. We managed it though, four diver species and five grebe species in a day - if only a Pied-billed Grebe was somewhere in the south west we would have had every diver and grebe species on the British list in a day! 

So another twitch - and the perfect twitch too!  Got the bird within minutes and saw a very impressive back up cast all showing really well. A very enjoyable twitch.

As always though, it's not just about the birds.  It was great to meet the White-billeds finder, Bill Macdonald, who gave a face to face account of how exciting this find was!  Thanks for the help Bill, pointing us to the right sites for the right birds.  Also thanks to Mike Langman who kindly dropped us a line as we were making our way down, helping us connect with the birds and informing us exactly where to park (and for free!). Also, thanks Mike for quickly spreading the news of the Decoy Black-necked Grebes to all interested parties on our behalf. Lastly, thanks to James M, who is officially my twitching companion, and acted as chauffeur for the day.

Gotta get out and do some patch birding now, hopefully will actually see some birds too...

Monster Monday, Tick Tuesday and a Wasted Wednesday

Monday was something else - birding from my back door felt like birding on the east coast!

Annoyingly I had to work for a few hours Monday morning, but on my return home, looking out from the kitchen I was astounded by the numbers of thrushes.  The weather was dreadful, with very poor visibility, but this made it.  Large flocks of Redwings were dropping out the sky, landing on nearby trees for a few minutes, then flying off again. Flock after flock after flock. Other flocks were flying over much higher with out stopping, and only visible for a few seconds as they came under the low cloud. I saw about 500 Redwing in less than half hour, along with at least ten Fieldfare - my first of the autumn.  

If this wasn't enough, a Black Redstart appeared on a house roof just down the road from our back garden. This is my second one from the garden, but my first anywhere on patch this autumn. I watched it for about ten minutes feeding, before it dropped down into a back garden and out of view.  

What exciting birding!! And whilst drinking tea in a warm and dry kitchen! :-) Really reminded me of my Spurn days, when I could stand in the door way of 'Dun Birding' and watch migration in action.

Late morning I popped out for a look along the Estuary but learnt of the Little Gull movement at Portland - a species I still need for the patch year list! I went straight to the sea front and spent most of the rest of the day sea watching. I watched 11:25 - 13:05 and 14:00 - 15:10, and unbelievably saw NO Little Gulls. Portland witnessed a record breaking passage with 1500 of these beautiful small gulls passing the Bill and Chesil Cove, and Seaton Bay had none. As every minute passed the wind dropped and weather improved, which I think was our downfall - I reckon they were just too far out by the time they'd reached us. If I had started seawatching at 8am though, I think it would have been a different story. Or maybe if I'd gone to Branscombe.

Forgetting about Little Gulls, it was a surprisingly productive sea watch. The conditions during the night before must have been perfect as the conditions during the day certainly weren't! This is what went into my notebook from the two watches:

2 Brent Geese
20 Wigeon (hard to tell proper passage though as lots of birds from the valley were on the sea)
32 Teal (same as above!)
1 Shoveler (fem - may have come from the Estuary)
3 Pintail (eclipse drake and 2 fem west with Wigeon)
c100 Common Scoter (flocks flying both ways so hard to count, 60 biggest flock)
2 Velvet Scoter (two flew west in a flock of 24 Common Scoter)
1 Red-breasted Merganser (fem west)
2 Red-throated Diver 
2 Balearic Shearwater (flew west together)
3 Mediterranean Gull (flew west together; ad, 2nd winter and 1st winter)
c30 Kittiwake (no obvious passage, just birds feeding, plus a juv out of the Estuary)
1 Pomarine Skua (juv flew east, but appeared to drop down on sea)
2 Sanderling (both singles close west)
45 Dunlin
70 small waders sp. (presumably Dunlin, a 40 and a 30, but too distant - couldn't eliminate White-rumped Sandpipers)
5 Curlew
1 Bar-tailed Godwit

So as you can see, not a  bad haul for here. I was disappointed not to get a stand out bird - although I may well have fluffed a couple. A Common Scoter flock flew in to the bay and they were all just Common Scoters, but when I saw them again several minutes later flying out of the bay they had two other ducks with them - not Scoters. They looked like aythya's, and one had grey on the mantle. I couldn't see any wing bars (but they were mega distant) so am hoping they were 'just' a pair of Pochard and not the gripping blocker Phil has on his patch list...

I finished the day with a look up the river valley. Two more Med Gulls were the best, although the Starling roost was nice to watch. We've had up to 4,000 roosting in the valley for at least a week or so...

And here's a short video..

Tuesday dawned, and despite the fine conditions, I just had to look at the sea again. This time I gave Branscombe a go. I wasn't expecting it to be anything like Monday, but I did manage something I hadn't the previous day - a patch year tick!!  My totals were:

4 Brent Goose

2 Pintail (flew west)

8 Common Scoter

1 Black-throated Diver (flew west)

1 Red-throated Diver (flew west)

70 Kittiwake (west)

30+ auk sp.

So a pretty underwhelming year tick yes - and you could say an over due one too, but I think 'real' Black-throated Divers are actually pretty rare down here in Devon. It's taken me 11 and a half months and about 125 divers to see one this year!

My overwhelming thought of Wednesday was of disappointment. With the first frost of the autumn and bright blue skies I just had to go up to Axe Cliff for some vis mig action...

Sadly the vis mig never really got going.  I was hoping for a strong Wood Pigeon migration, but in the end saw less than a thousand. They were going in all directions too, probably due to the lack of wind.  Singles of Brambling, Reed Bunting and four Lesser Redpoll were the best of the little over head migration, with another five Reed Buntings on the deck amogst 10+ Yellowhammers and c80 Linnets.

And now we're on Thursday, but I've not had chance to go birding today. Hopefully I'll go for a wander somewhere tomorrow as the weather looks like it's going to be nice.

Scotland Trip - Day Five

The final day...

Day Five - Thursday 14th April

After breakfast, we loaded up the trusty Corsa and said farewell to Glenan Lodge at about 9am. I can highly recommend this B and B, it is good value, the rooms are very comfortable and the breakfast very yummy!!

We all wanted one last look at a summer plumaged Black-throated Diver, so this was the first port of call. It didn't take us long to find a pair of these stunners showing very well indeed...

Just stunning!

Also on the loch were a summer plumaged Red-throated Diver and a pair of Wigeon. Yet again Red Grouse were all around us!

We then headed north (yes I know - even further away from home!), and soon stumbled upon a surprise male Black Grouse...

It appeared to be displaying to itself - unless there was a female hiding somewhere nearby?

After about 50 minutes driving, we'd reached Nairn where we wanted to do a bit of sea watching from...

Looking north from the harbour car park at Nairn

It didn't take long to pick up three Long-tailed Ducks, several Eider, Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser and Sandwich Tern - then a fine summer plumaged Red-necked Grebe appeared out of nowhere.

A Goldeneye flashing!!

Also here, there were at least 50 Turnstone, a couple of Ringed Plover and a Hooded Crow.

We took to the road again, and headed around the coast (for over two hours!) to Rattray Head - this is where a King Eider had been reported on a couple of days within the past week. Whilst driving here, a singing Corn Bunting and several Yellowhammers were 'trip ticks'.

We got to Rattray - then began to drive out to the head. We hadn't gone far before I just HAD to pull in...

Grey = Geese

There were thousands and thousands of Pink-footed Geese feeding in road side fields, what a sight!! A look through them revealed a couple of sandy brown leucistic Pink-feet, and singles of Greylag and Barnacle Geese.

On the other side of the road was a huge Ley - this had plenty of diving ducks and Great Crested Grebes on. A couple more Corn Buntings were singing here too, though remained annoyingly invisible!

We eventually got to the car park at the end of the track, and walked out over the sand dunes past a flock of over 200 stunning mostly summer plumaged Golden Plover.

Rattray Head beach and lighthouse

There was no sign of the hoped for King Eider, but there was just so much to look at it was fantastic! On the beach were Sanderling, Redshank and a surprise Ruff. About 100 Eider were loafing about just offshore, and behind them AT LEAST 210 Great Northern Divers!! Also 6+ Red-throated Divers, and auks were constantly flying past north, with a few Kittiwakes and Gannets also noted.

A quick check of Birdguides on my Blackberry showed that the/a King Eider had been seen on the Monday just gone on the Ythan Estuary. As this was south of where we were, and on the way back home, we thought we may as well stop off here...

A quick check of the Estuary from a few stopping places on the A975 showed the Estuary was heaving with birds. Pintail was the only bird added to the trip list here, but if we had more time to look closer I'm sure we would have unearthed a few more 'trip ticks'.

We arrived at the golf club car park, and made our way to the mouth of the Estuary. The sight and sound was just absolutely spectacular as several hundred Eider were 'loafing about like Mallards at Radipole!'...

Stunning!

There was no sign of the drake King Eider - much to our annoyance - but another bonus here was the impressive seal colony...

There were loads of them!

Here's a short video too...

if you turn the volume up you can hear the Eider calling

The time was now 17:00 - and we still had an at least 11 hour car journey ahead of us to get home!!! We followed the Sat Nav (which all week had been a god send), and it took us right through Aberdeen City Centre at rush hour!!!!

We finally came out the other side of Aberdeen and began headed purposefully south. Apart from a quick fuel stop, and an hour's stop at a Little Chef near Sterling (where I ate the nicest burger EVER!) we made good progress.

We got back to Bristol at about 3am, and I got back home to Seaton for just before 5am.... I was bloody shattered!!!

I had such an enjoyable five days, in which time we clocked up 115 species of birds, saw some great mammals, stunning scenery and most of all, had a cracking good laugh! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Bun, Nick and Karen for their company, and everyone who gave us 'gen' to ensure we got the most out of our trip.

From the moment I took this photo on the Farr Pass, I knew this was the photo I'd finish this review with. Thank you Scotland for such an enjoyable birding break....

The 'Famous Grouse'

Well I hope you have enjoyed reading my rather drawn out trip report!? I'm pleased to announce that normal service will now be resumed on Axe Birding...

The Sea And My Patch List

I do love living by the sea - it is always there to look at, and it can NEVER be built on! Not to mention the fact its appearance changes from day to day...

This was how it looked on Wednesday morning of last week...

Oh so tranquil!

And this is how it looked the following morning...

See what I mean! And yes - the sea watching was so poor that I ended up taking photos of waves!

And when it comes to birding - the sea is just fantastic! You simply never know what is going to fly past, literally anything could at any moment! Which is why, if I'm not sure what to do or where to go, I head for the sea front. This was the case today....

I arrived at the Spot On Kiosk at 08:20 this morning, joined by Ian M about five minutes later. There are three lessons to be learnt from today's sea watch...

1/ a quiet sea watch isn't always a rubbish sea watch

2/ eat lots of breakfast beforehand

3/ sea watching with company is much better as you are less inclined to give up as quickly

So, in the end, we did a full TWO HOURS of sea scanning, I was planning on a twenty minute watch!

First highlight was a female-type Eider bobbing around distantly, our first of the autumn - and not a common bird for the patch at all. It remained on view throughout the whole two hours despite getting itchy wings and taking to the air on a couple of occasions.

Second highlight was a Black-throated Diver which flew west at about 09:15.

Third and final highlight was a Red-necked Grebe Ian picked up flying east at 09:30. It looked as though it was going to fly straight through, but it landed somewhere miles to the east of us. I wonder if it's the same bird that I had off Branscombe on Wednesday just milling around?

Other than these three highlights; five Red-throated Divers (3w,1e,1 on sea), one diver sp. (distant e), a few Gannets, nine Dunlin (w) and a Razorbill (w) were all that made it in to the notebook.

So little to show in quantity for two precious hours of my life, but some nice patch quality :-)

I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon at home, that wasn't totally bird-less though...

Oh look - a nice male Sprawk

I was out again though mid afternoon til dusk...

Spent 40 mins wandering around the stubble fields at Axe Cliff. The first flock of Skylarks I flushed (c80 birds) had a Lap Bunt in with them. I couldn't see it, just heard it call several times. And I didn't see or hear it again despite sifting through another 350+ Skylarks before returning back to the car.

I spent pretty much the rest of the daylight hours seeing nothing of note at all. But last thing from the farm gate was incredibly pleasant....

Very nice

And when it was almost pitch black, a/the flock of 12 Brent Geese (re)appeared. They flew south down the river - so I assume they are feeding up river somewhere and roosting on the Estuary or in the bay.

Now to lists....

Whilst sea watching, Ian M casually asked me "so how many birds have you seen on patch?"

To which I replied "haven't a clue!"

So this evening I worked it out - and have even uploaded my list to BUBO (thanks to Bun for the guidance!).

And yes I have been strict...

1/ Ruddy Shelduck is not on the list....despite the fact the two Gav found were wild!! If you don't believe me - look for yourself...

See, both totally wild! Wary, unringed, fully winged, only present for a couple of hours, seen by me, etc...

2/ The Black Stork that stunned Bun and myself on 08/06/07 was 0.4km outside the 5km radius from Axmouth Bridge - which just sucks! As you read this I am drafting a letter to the 'local patch authorities' to see if I can get ours expanded by another half a kilometre!

3/ I have only seen Nightjar on Trinity Hill, again outside the 5km zone

4/ I know I've seen Baird's Sand on the Estuary, on Wednesday 19th May 1999 to be exact - I was 13. I won't go in to details, but it wasn't accepted by BBRC despite four people seeing it, and even hearing it call! But, it got the NP vote so it's not on the list.

Anyway, after all that, my official patch total is.... 238.

But if anyone was to ask me casually whilst in the field, the answers 242 ;-)

So what do I still need (apart from the four mentioned above!). Well my three biggest bogey birds are:

1/ Turtle Dove - and I reckon if I don't get one in the next couple of years I'm stuffed, just as they sadly are.

2/ Puffin - how I've not seen one of these I don't know!

3/ Hen Harrier - I was counting Chaffinches half a field away from Gavin who jammed in to one. From where I was stood, I couldn't see it! And I was at work for the male everyone else saw going to roost on Axe Marsh a year or two later.

The most painful gap on my list is Common Crane. I think I'm the only birder in the world who has ever 'fluffed' a flock of four of these easily identifiable and humongous birds....

....I reached in the car for my bins and yanked them out, but the strap got caught on the handbrake. By the time I'd untangled them, and put them to my eyes, the birds had gone around the corner.... I went to sleep that night thinking 'just what were those four massive large winged grey birds!??'.... the next day, four Common Cranes were on Exminster Marshes. In the words of James May.... oh cock!

On the other hand, I have got some really nice grippers....but no way am I going to list them or go in to any details - wouldn't even dream of it! There is one bird I will extrapolate on though....

"Friday 26th April 1996 - Dad took me and Mr House (a Grammar School music teacher) to the Undercliff tonight. Heard and got good views of a singing Nightingale in the undergrowth near Goat Island"

What is weird is that my life up to age of about 17 is just a blur of immaturity, but this is one night I can remember - and I'm not just saying that! I can see us walking down the steps, waiting, hearing and seeing... and the hazardous walk back in the pitch black! Sadly I think this was the last one ever recorded here.

So there you have it, I am now a 'lister'....