What a stunningly beautiful morning, with the temperature gauge showing -4 when I stepped out the front door pre-sunrise. I've been feeling left out with all the snow photos coming in from north and east of us, but this morning helped quash some of this jealousy...
I saw quite a few bits and bobs too, including this Mink. This species always makes me feel a bit odd when I see it. I don't see many, but when I do I feel like I should be excited, but then remember the havoc they cause...
On the bird front, just by where the Mink was a flighty Water Pipit proved a bit of a surprise, as they have become a real scarce winter visitor here in most of the recent years. On the Estuary, four Shoveler were resting with Mallards...
There were plenty of Redwing and a few Fieldfare scattered about all over the place, along with a few more Skylark than usual. At Stafford Cross a brief look showed at least ten Brambling, but the main prize came during my journey back through Colyton.
Driving along Burnards Field Road (our Hawfinch hotspot) I caught a glimpse of the unique shape of a flying Hawfinch, heading low south parallel with the road. Thankfully it did the right thing and pitch down in a Field Maple (I think), which it fed in for the next ten minutes before I had to leave...
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.
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.
I'm going to kick this blog post off with a video. Make sure you turn the volume up so you can hear their wing beats...
Yesterday proved a major Wood Pigeon day for us, with James Mc seeing somewhere between 30 and 50 thousand pass through (I really must buy him a notebook!) though sadly I only managed to witness about twenty minutes of this. But today, with clear skies forecasted for the first few hours of the day, I wasn't going to miss round two. James joined me for an Axe Cliff vis mig watch 08:00 - 10:00.
There were fewer Wood Pigeons today (for us anyway) with probably about 15,000 seen flying west. Still, many of them passed really low over our heads, or just in front of us below the cliff edge. As the morning went on flocks started passing higher both out to sea and inland, so we probably missed thousands! I tried to capture their magic on camera but it's never the same...
Although this would have proved enough excitement, there was plenty more to be seen this morning. After three busy nights of thrush passage, it was good to finally see more about in daylight hours. There were almost constantly ones and twos of Blackbirds, Song Thrush and Redwing taking off or dropping in, along with my first three Fieldfare of the year west. Pity the four Ring Ouzel James saw here yesterday weren't still about, or some more, but hey ho.
I stupidly forgot my notebook this morning, so the higher counts are more like guesstimates, but this is roughly what would have gone into my notebook (west unless stated);
3 Lapwing
7 Golden Plover (a five and two singles)
15,000 Wood Pigeon
50 Stock Dove (probably a gross undercount!)
6 Rook
200 Jackdaw
140 Starling
70 Skylark (most of these were inland of us so we probably missed more than we saw)
70 Blackbird (total includes both settled and migrating birds)
40 Song Thrush (total includes both settled and migrating birds)
45 Redwing (flying in all directions!)
3 Fieldfare
10 alba Wagtail
50 Meadow Pipit
70 Chaffinch
3 Brambling (all singles)
80 Linnet
15 Siskin
1 Redpoll
6 Bullfinch
25 Reed Bunting
With all these passing migrants the predators were having a field day. Two Peregrines were almost constantly having a go at the Pigeon flocks, plus we saw three different Sparrowhawk...
Sadly the fields at Axe Cliff are a shadow of their former self. Since they've been ploughed, flattened and replanted this year with winter crops, they're proving completely unattractive to ground feeding birds. In past years today would have also shown hundreds of larks, pipits and finches feeding in the fields, adding another exciting element to birding here, but today absolutely nothing. I really can't believe Yellowhammers are hanging on, but they are...
After Axe Cliff I had a 15 minute look over the valley. A Great White Egret had flown west past Abbotsbury earlier in the morning, and by my reckoning was due to drop in on the Axe any minute. Sadly though, having now missed five here this year (Bob Longhorn found another on Black Hole Marsh yesterday, which stayed 45 minutes), this bird decided to completely bypass us and flew up the Exe instead. Typical! The other bird I was hopeful for was Glossy Ibis, as yesterday saw something of an influx of these into the UK. Despite checking all the visible ditches and scrapes, no luck. Guess what Sue Murphy found on Colyford Marsh late this afternoon though, yes, our first Glossy Ibis of 2017. I had the right idea - just picked the wrong time!
A few days ago it was nice to see a Cattle Egret still with us. Or was, I haven't seen it since! It was feeding with a few Little Egrets near the cattle on Bridge Marsh on Wednesday...
Am really looking forward to some more vis migging, hopefully there's a few more sessions left in this autumn. The question is though will a Hawfinch reward my efforts? Only time will tell...
Early on Monday the biggest storm since 1987 came.... and went...
I'm not saying it wasn't bad, because it was, but it lasted only a couple of hours, and by the time dawn came the wind had already shifted to the west and skies were clearing. It actually turned into quite a nice day! We were actually true victims of the storm, as a rather large branch landed on Jess's car and caused this...
Armageddon!
The sea on Monday really was disappointingly poor, with a juv Kittiwake along the beach early on being the only 'storm driven' bird noted. The highlight of all the sea watching wasn't even a bird, but a Grey Seal that appeared for a few minutes close in.
The Estuary and valley were equally poor, with a second Tufted Duck at Lower Bruckland Ponds getting 'bird of the day' award!
Does this qualify as a flock??
Although the wind has made the news, the mildness hasn't. With the exception of today, it's been so warm for late Oct. As a result I'm still seeing many Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters, and more amazingly, on Monday 28th this Common Blue Damselfly...
Sorry it's a bit out of focus!
Tuesday was much calmer, and as a result there was a bit of vis mig. Best of all being my first Brambling of the autumnwest over, along with two Lesser Redpoll and plenty of Chaffinches. Also saw my first 'vis mig' Wood Pigeons and Starlings of autumn 2013. Also had a Swallow flying around over the Estuary later in the day.
This morning was much quieter for vis mig, with the only notable birds being on the Estuary; a late Curlew Sandpiper with five Dunlin and the lingering Ruff and Spotted Redshank.
With the amount of good birds turning up in the south west at the moment there's got to be a chance of something good appearing. Ideally I'd like a few more year ticks before November begins, oh - that's the day after tomorrow! Just where has this autumn gone... This year in fact...
Despite the last few days being cooler, and giving me a great opportunity to look over flat seas, it feels pretty stagnate out there at the moment. There just doesn't seem to be any movement going on!
I've checked the sea from Branscombe to Axmouth harbour within the last two days, and have come up with nothing better than two Red-throated Divers and seven Great Crested Grebes. Yes that really is it. Could someone tell me where all the sea duck are? They're certainly not here.
Something else I've done as much as I've been able to, is patch Waxwing hunting. Not just within the past few days, but within the past few months. Waxwing would be a very valuable patch year tick - but it would also be a patch life tick for me, so I'm VERY keen to get one on the list whilst they're still about! Why can't I have the luck of this chap.
Surprisingly I have seen almost nothing of note in the hours I've been walking/driving about local housing estates. But that changed today, when amongst a flock of c30 Chaffinches that flew out of gardens in Colyton, a single Brambling sat on a tree smiling at me...
You took some finding!
Since Jan 1st I've looked through several large flocks of Chaffinches on arable land hoping for one of these, without success. But it's always been in the back of my mind that there could well be some hunkered down somewhere in gardens - I was right! Very pleased to get this one on the year list, my 117 bird of 2013.
Oh yeah - and I hope you like the new look blog. I thought it needed a face lift.
..that's a title I could have used for yesterday's post too! Today was better though, less birds but a bit more variety.
I didn't make it over to Portland again today - but am starting to dislike that place as they seem to be sucking up every BB rarity that's made it to the south coast of Britain! Yes not only have they got a stunning Daurian Shrike, but on Monday they bagged a first for the Western Palearctic with a Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, and today a Siberian Stonechat has appeared. And don't forget the Wrynecks, Hawfinches, Yellow-browed Warblers, etc...
Anyway that's enough of the negativity about Portland - I am in danger of sounding like a fellow blogger and good friend of mine!
So I did try Axe Cliff this morning, and am pleased to have changed location. There seem to be a few Short-eared Owls about at the moment, and I thought here would give me my best chance of seeing one. And with only one area of rough grassland, it wasn't hard to figure out where it would probably be! And when I got to this strip of pasture, as expected up came a Short-eared Owl. But I didn't expect it to fly south, south some more, and even further south, until it was a dot half way across the English Channel!
It all happened so quick too! This was the first photo I managed of it...
Yeah I know - it could be anything!
And this was the last photo I took of it...
You can just about make it out still!
Short-eared Owls aren't regular on patch - so they are always a joy to see. But this one was even more special because it made me the first person to see five species of Owl in a year on patch. I'd do anything to take that up to six species though!
Back to Axe Cliff, and a Snipe was my second best grounded migrant of the morning, with a Stonechat and stacks of Linnets and Skylarks also noted.
We never do very well with vis mig if the wind doesn't have west in it - and today was no exception. There were good numbers of birds passing over, with Starlings and Wood Pigeons being the most numerous species, but they were flying in all directions making counting impossible! There were lots of Chaffinches too, along with several Siskins, five Mistle Thrush, two Brambling, two Reed Buntings and one Redpoll sp.
One of the biggest Wood Pigeon flocks I saw this morning
After Axe Cliff, a quick look along the Estuary showed a Ringed Plover (my first here for almost a month - just shows how terrible this autumn has been!), a Barwit and a Common Gull.
Mid afternoon the weather looked to be clearing, so I headed up to Beer Head. I was wrong - in fact it clouded over even more and the wind was much stronger up here! I still gave it a bash though. Not much apart from Blackbirds in the bushes on the head, but looking down the Underhooken gave two immature Ring Ouzels. Two Stonechats were along the track as I walked off the head...sadly they weren't pale with black underwing coverts! I have seen Sibe Stonechat once (Spurn), and I have to say I was really impressed with it! You may think 'I won't bother - it's just a Stonechat'. I can tell you it really isn't - they can look more like Wheatears! Top birds. Well done Portland...
