A Lovely Late Autumn Day

I had a lovely wander around town and along the sea front this morning, the clear blue skies and chill in the air made it such a pleasurable outing. Really seasonal. 

Wood Pigeons have been moving in fairly small numbers each morning since my last blog post, but the stronger northerly wind this morning ensured they were all sticking tight to the coast and remained fairly low.  Flocks were still of mostly between 200-400 birds, so no massive flocks or really impressive numbers yet, but it's always great to see Pigeon passage whatever the numbers...

The sea was quiet, with my first Red-throated Diver west the only notable sighting. There was a distinct lack of birds on the flat calm sea, I do hope we get some settled sea duck off here again this winter.

Over the last week there's been up to four Black Redstarts around Seaton. Sadly I didn't find the adult male that Phil had yesterday, but I did see three female/first-winter types...

The situation is much the same in the valley. Waders include the lingering Little Stint (will it over winter?), three Grey Plover and about a dozen Dunlin. Among the Canada Geese the first-winter Dark-bellied Brent Goose is still with us, and two Shoveler were on the upper section of the Estuary mid morning.

On Saturday morning four Golden Plover were with Lapwing along the A3052 by the Honiton turn off, a typical cold weather sighting.

Lastly, here's an absolutely stunning first-winter male Blackbird from the Borrow Pit this afternoon.  The all dark bill suggests it's a Scandinavian bird, which is probably true as so many of our wintering thrushes originate from here...

Beer Head

Enjoyed another good morning with Peter up Beer Head this morning.  It was windier than I expected, which really affected what is usually my most successful mist net (it was like a sail on a boat!), but thankfully the second net is in a more sheltered location.

There was a different 'feel' to the session, with the first hour or so being all about thrushes, a family of birds I don't usually catch many of at this site.  Smaller birds started dropping in to the mist nets once it had warmed up a little, which took a while!

In about four hours we caught 32 new birds, as follows:

9 Blackbird
2 Song Thrush
1 Redwing (my first for the site - what a cracker!)
1 Blackcap
6 Chiffchaff
11 Goldcrest
1 Great Tit
1 Chaffinch

What a gorgeous bird.

The first Redwing I've handled for years!

Two male Blackbirds, a bird born this year (age code 3) on the left and an adult (age code 4) on the right.

Same as above.

As well as the 32 birds ringed, we re-caught three that I had already ringed.  One was a resident Robin (there aren't many resident birds up here) and interestingly the other two were Goldcrests, one that was ringed on 8th Oct and the other on 14th Oct.  So some of these migrants are lingering and not just going straight though.

We very nearly caught a Woodcock too!  As we were walking up to one of the nets about an hour and a half into the session, completely unexpectedly one took off about 3 meters from the net but flew the wrong way. If only we had walked in from behind it we could well have ringed a Woodcock this morning - now that would have been nuts!  This is actually the first Woodcock I've ever seen at Beer Head, a rare bird for the site.

Overhead passage was quieter than I expected, although four low flying Golden Plover were nice to see.  Didn't see much more in the bushes either, and no further sign of the Dartford Warbler that Ian M saw.

Having A Hoot

Yeah I know Short-eared Owls don't go 'hoot' - but it's called 'poetic license' I'm told!

The weather was stunning yesterday morning, and I decided to spend the best part of it up around the Beer Cemetery fields. As I stepped out the car four Crossbills flew over east - it was going to be good!

The highlight(s) came whilst wandering through the 'Richard's Pipit field'. I picked up a Short-eared Owl towards Branscombe, it circled and always gained height, before cruising off high north. I took another few steps forward, the grass rustled and another Short-eared Owl appeared, about ten foot in front of me...

Which soon landed in a nearby hedgerow...


After about ten minutes, it took to the air again, and seemed to spend ages just flying around giving cracking views...


And here's a little video....

The last I saw of this bird was when it drifted off towards Beer Head.

By the end of my wander, at least 17 Crossbills had flown east; the four, a flock of 11 and at least two 'heard only'. Several small groups of Siskins and Skylarks also flew over, but in all directions!

The best of the grounded migrants (except the Owl) was two Lesser Redpolls again with the Meadow Pipit flock. Still no Red-throated or OBP, but there's time yet....

Despite checking several other sites yesterday, I couldn't turn anything else up, a colour-ringed Great Black-backed Gull (ringed on 28/6/10 in Calvados, France) and the Lower Bruckland Cetti's Warbler (which has moved to the lower pond now) being the best.

I didn't have chance for any birding today, although from the garden this morning a few Redwings, Siskins and a Redpoll flew over.

As well as all this birding I've been enjoying, and working obviously - I've had a net up in the garden for a couple of short spells over the last few days. A nice big but fat-less Blackbird must have originated from somewhere east of here, this Goldcrest was my second for the garden...


But this was the highlight...


Have I gone mad!? It's a Blue Tit - yes it is just a Blue Tit! But this Blue Tit was ringed before it flew into my net!

Ok, so it hasn't come that far - Fraser Rush ringed it as a pullus in a nest box in Holyford Woods on 18th June this year. I know that doesn't sound much, but fellow ringers will know re-catching a Tit ringed as a pullus isn't a regular thing! I wonder how its two siblings are faring!?

A Foggy Morning

I woke up to thick fog today, but still thought the reserves would be worth a look over. Bird of the morning was the Ringed Plover on Black Hole Marsh. As it was the first one on patch this year, I deemed a record shot was necessary...

Can you see it!??

A single Sand Martin at Lower Bruckland Ponds, and several singing Chiffchaffs dotted about were the only summer migrants I've seen today.

This was always going to be a short post, but I'll pad it out a little more with a photo of a Blackbird that posed nicely for me and my Lumix on Seaton Marshes...

Pity it wasn't an Ouzel!