No Good Gulls

I spent a lot of time checking the three large gatherings of gulls in the valley this afternoon, despite the wind and sometimes very heavy rain.  With each scope scan I felt a nice white-winger or crisp first-winter Caspian Gull was next up, it looked so perfect... but just wasn't to be.  In a way this was similar to last Friday, the large numbers of Black-headed and Common Gulls feeding close in over rough seas looked a perfect place for a Little Gull to be. James Mc had two off Lyme Regis but Seaton clearly didn't take their fancy.

I had to do my monthly woodland bird survey this morning, in private woodland near Colyton. This sadly is well outside from my Patchwork Challenge patch, I say sadly because I saw so much!

The three Woodcock were expected - in fact this is well below the usual wintering numbers here, but the Crossbill, Lesser Redpoll and even the eight Siskin were something of a surprise. It's been such a poor winter for most of the finch species down in the valley that I wasn't expecting any of these.  Superb.

Being in Colyton I thought I'd have a look at the four Cattle Egrets at Colcombe... and there were five!  I did think I had five last week come out of roost so maybe not a new arrival, just one that's relocated to Colcombe?  

If you want to see these Cattle Egrets you have to chose where to view them from dependent on where the cattle, and birds are. Sometimes they show well from Station Road/Rosemary Lane, but more often than not Yardbury Hill Road/Lions Close Hill is a good option. They are more distant from here but you can look over the whole field.  Please remember though that the road that leads to Colcombe Farm (Colcombe Road) is a private road and however tempting you shouldn't be viewing from here.

Cattle Egret

With not much to see over the past week on patch (mostly due to the horribly mild weather I presume) other than gulls, there's only really been one rarity on my radar. 

It's turning out to be the best UK Cattle Egret influx since 2008/09, with small numbers appearing (mostly in the south west) during the past week.  Back in 2009 we all thought it was the start of 'another Little Egret story', but since then they have become somewhat rare. So it's really nice to see a good flurry of records and reports of small flocks on the bird news websites again. Even better is the fact it's half a month away from my Patchwork Challenge year listing attempt!

Although we've not got many cattle in the river valley at the moment, we do have some, and plenty of Little Egrets so I've been optimistic for one here within the last week. But with no luck during the days I knew my next best chance was to watch the evening egret roost at Axmouth, the bonus is this will include birds that have been feeding outside the patch boundary during the day. My first free late afternoon slot was Saturday (yesterday), so at 16:10 I parked up at Coronation Corner and waited. And isn't it nice when a plan works...

The weather was really cloudy and grim, so by 16:20 it was almost completely dark. I'd seen about 25 Little Egrets come into roost (they always fly in from up river) when I picked up another egret flying in that I immediately knew was going to be a Cattle.

This shows that getting your 'eye in' really does make a massive difference. Because in the previous five minutes I'd seen numerous Little Egrets on the very same flight line, when this one came into view I could tell it was smaller and flying with quicker and shallower wing beats.  It was so dark that it wasn't until it flew over the road and into the roost site that I could see the crucial bits, but thankfully I could see it all clearly enough (completely different head and bill shape, all yellow bill, shorter legs, etc).  I found it interesting that it came down river and into roost all on its own, does this mean it had used this roost before?

This was my first patch Cattle Egret since 11th April 2014 (have missed one in between) so it was really great to see, but I doubt any will ever beat this beaut from June 2008...

Breeding plumaged adult Cattle Egret on the Axe Estuary 02/06/08

Bun probably had the Cattle Egret again tonight. Sadly it was too late and it was completely pitch black, so all he saw was a 'smaller egret' drop in, he just didn't get enough on it.  Hopefully tomorrow though I will be able to find where it's hanging out in the day...