Birds That Aren't Gulls!

With waders and gulls featuring heavily in my last few blog posts, I thought I should fill in the gaps with my other bird sightings from the last couple weeks.

As we approach the end of July, with autumn passerine migration starting to be a feature on the south coast, I gave Beer Head an early morning walk on two days last week...

Looking south west from Beer Head. Such a fantastic location to spend any time!

Both visits showed a similar amount of birds in less than ideal fall conditions.  There were between 6-8 Willow Warblers scattered across the headland on both days, all being my favourite flavoured yellow-lemon juv ones.  There was also a family of Whitethroats in the same place on both visits, as well as the usual breeding Blackcaps.  My second visit however, on 23rd July, did show one more migrant than my previous, with a very charming Garden Warbler feeding on an elder bush in the base of the hollow.  My earliest ever autumn record of this species on patch so a nice reward indeed. 

Just slightly drifting away from the bird theme of this blog post, it was nice to see up to seven Wall Browns during my second visit, which was slightly later in the morning than my first.  This is our most reliable local site for this species...

An underrated butterfly in my opinion, and scarce enough around here to be suitably appreciated

A little inland in the Morganhayes area (woodland west of Colyton), am sure like most conifer plantations in the UK at the moment, there seems to be plenty of Crossbills 'chupping'-around.  Seeing them perched up is a different story though... Why do they always land on the pines just beyond the ones in view!?  On the evening of 20th however one made an error of judgement and actually landed in view, and although it wasn't an adult male it was still much appreciated...

Hello you!  Nice to actually see the cross bill on a Crossbill for a change

Although it landed in view, he/she was never in full view!  

Back down in the river valley, during my recent gull watching sessions other birds have been rudely interrupting my fun.  Take Kingfishers for example, as usual for this time of year they seem to be plentiful, with this one in particular begging to be papped...

A token photo!  Do like the natural framing though so am pleased it stayed put for me :-)

And don't get me started on this Marsh Harrier.  Yes it's a lovely fresh dark glowing-headed juvenile, but it's been around for a week now and not only is distracting, it actually FLUSHES the gulls on occasions!  Not on at all...

My best views were on a gloomy day so pics not great!

Such a striking plumage at this age - love them!

Even a family of Reed Warblers right beside the Tower Hide have been causing me problems, loudly announcing their presence as the beg for food...

A true baby Reed Warbler

Beady eye!

Seemed to be four juvs with at least one adult feeding them

And to complete this post, the final bit of bird news is from today.  Whilst sat at my desk a tern whizzed past my office flying up river - never a common sight on the Axe.  A few minutes later I was outside watching and listening to an adult and a juvenile Common Tern calling to each other as they flew around and around the lower Estuary.  They finally departing when a juvenile Peregrine came diving in.  What a treat. There's a video of them calling away on my Twitter feed, it sure was great to hear.

Some Sea Passage

Notched up a couple of new species for the year for me today, both courtesy of the sea although neither that exciting.

During a dog walk at Seaton Hole mid morning looking out to sea showed my first three Whimbrel of the year fly east with three Sandwich Tern and a Kittiwake west.  This evening a twenty minute look off the Spot On showed a few flocks of distant Manx Shearwaters west and a Common Tern (year tick number two) feeding in the bay.

A look along the Estuary late this evening revealed two more Whimbrel and a Brent Goose, which surprisingly was a Dark-bellied. April is the peak month for Pale-bellied Brent passage, most Dark-bellied have already gone through by now.

Off-patch, but very much on-topic, it's been great to hear of so many people seeing the East Budleigh 'Italian Sparrow' since Friday's blog post. It's a stunning bird whatever the DNA analysis might tell us.

Washout

South easterly winds coupled with rain is exactly what you want to see in the forecast when September comes around. Perfect conditions for bringing waders, gulls, terns, wildfowl and seabirds in to the south coast. So no surprise I was up early today and could not get out of the door quick enough!  In reality though by the end of the day I'd got very wet for very few new arrivals. Well there was one excellent new arrival, but I managed to let it get away...

Mid morning whilst sat in the kitchen chatting on the phone to James Mc I noticed a large wader flying towards the house, still a fair way off to the east.  It instantly looked odd.  It continued flying west and as it got closer I literally threw down my phone and ran to my binoculars. Annoyingly they were in the car outside, and when I finally grasped them away went the wader over the roof tops to the west.  Thanks to this species fairly distinctive size, proportions and flight style I know it was a Stone Curlew. But having seen no plumage features with naked eye views only in the pouring rain, it was gone for good... so so so annoying. And what a house tick that would have been!

What I have seen today, and managed to actually conclusively identify, include a drake Gadwall on the Estuary this morning, and the following on Black Hole Marsh at dusk; 

50+ Teal

1300 Black-headed Gull

1 Mediterranean Gull (adult)

130 Herring Gull

8 Great Black-backed Gull

11 Lesser Black-backed Gull

1 Common Tern (adult) 

12 Ringed Plover

c50 Dunlin

6 Greenshank

6 Common Sandpiper

3 Green Sandpiper

5 Snipe

Sadly the Ruff seems to have left us now, but I did manage this pic before he went...

Juvenile male Ruff

And I couldn't help but snap this juv Ringed Plover showing at stupidly close range...

Really hope I've not missed the Black Tern boat for the year - thought that was virtually a dead cert today. Oh well, maybe tomorrow?

A Damp Day

I've not had any time for birding today, but a wet and windy dog walk along the beach first thing gave me the chance to video my first sea birds.  I've been really excited about the potential of getting some of my sea bird sightings on video, so I was keen to see how my camcorder would perform with distant and constantly moving shapes.

I was stood down by the breaking waves getting completely and utterly soaked by the driving rain when I noticed two Common Terns slowly making their way east just offshore, perfect subjects!  You will have to forgive the shakiness when I crank up the zoom but I wanted to see what the quality was like on full whack. Uploading to YouTube has affected this somewhat, but I'm still pleased with it.  Just waiting for the summer plumaged White-winged Black Tern now!

Not The Day I Was Expecting

Normally, the evening before I have a pretty good idea what kind of birding I will be doing the following day. And last night I set the alarm for 6am with sea birds in mind. I was very wrong!

For some reason I woke up shortly after 4am today, and it was horrendous outside. Heavy rain and strong winds battering against my windows. When my alarm went off at 6 though, no rain, and much less wind. This, along with my interrupted sleep, encouraged me to get a little bit more sleep!

When I did get up, I sent Gav a text to find out what the sea was like. The response was mostly negative, so I headed out at 7:30 to check elsewhere.

The Estuary showed nothing new at all, so I headed to Black Hole Marsh. As soon as I stepped out the car I could hear several Willow Warblers singing, many more than I should be hearing! I wandered down the track towards the marsh, but was interrupted by a reeling Grasshopper Warbler in the field to the south. One of my favourite sounds of the spring - and our first of 2012. A look over the lagoon showed another 'first for the year', in the form of this Common Tern...

With two Black-headed Gulls

I walked back towards the car where I met Gav who had twitched the Gropper (they can be hard to find when you 'need' them). Whilst we were waiting it didn't make a sound, but another first for the year briefly popped up, in the form of a cracking male Whitethroat.

Next stop was the Beer Cemetery Fields, I grabbed my mist nets on the way up too. I shouldn't really have bothered with the nets, as it was really quite windy up there - although it wasn't a total waste of time as I did catch and ring three birds; Blackcap, Wren and Blue Tit.

It certainly wasn't a waste of time coming up here though! Two and a half hours produced;

2 Redstart (males - in the same area as each other)
1 Tree Pipit (flew low west calling at 11:15)
1 Grasshopper Warbler (reeling near the cemetery - it was real close but I never saw it!)
45+ Willow Warblers (probably many more)

One of the Willys

And I know you know what a Grasshopper Warbler sounds like, but here is a short video clip of the Beer Cemetery bird reeling...

I was out again this afternoon. Seaton Marshes produced ten Wheatears, Colyford Common another seven, and my first Sedge Warbler of 2012 was singing beside Black Hole Marsh.

Considering the date, and the weather, there are still very few hirundines about. I have seen a few Swallows about, but in past years, this weather on this date would produced several hundred hirundines in the river valley - and possibly even the first few Swifts. I wonder where they all are?

What a brilliant and very enjoyable day! It's so nice to see a decent spring fall. I spent a lot of time out yesterday too, and saw nothing of note all day! The only migrants I saw were a couple of lone Swallows. What a difference a day makes! I presume the weather over northern France was clear last night - they must have had one hell of a shock when they arrived in the UK!

Another Murky Morning

I woke up to another wet, dull and misty morning....so stayed in bed a little longer than I really wanted to! At just gone seven I finally dragged myself up and headed down to Blackhole Marsh, before the workmen arrived.

It was worthwhile, as with the small wader flock was my first patch Sanderling of 2010 - I think a first for the marsh! Sanderling is a scarce bird on the river, with most of our records concerning birds on/past the beach in late spring. As I've already said, it was misty and drizzly, an excellent excuse for posting a photo of this quality...

Yes I know - crap! Smart bird though :-)

Other birds on the marsh included: 2 Oystercatcher, 39 Ringed Plover, 42 Dunlin, 2 Ruff, 3 Greenshank, 3 Green Sandpiper, 3 Common Sandpiper and a Water Rail which was showing very well in the north west corner. Spotted Crake next please :-)

So how much work did the workforce manage yesterday - a day of almost constant rain. This is how it looked this morning...

Well they've put another pair of posts in the ground!

At about 8am, I suddenly realised the weather had cleared, and the noticeable south west wind lured me to the seafront and my favoured sea watching spot for 'rough but dry conditions' - the Spot On Kiosk. It proved a good move as between 08:20 - 09:40 I notched up the following:

1 Great Crested Grebe - flew west, I always think these look stupid in flight!
2 Common Scoter
4 Balearic Shearwater - 1w at 08:25, 3w at 9am (1 v.dark bird)
2 Great Skua - juv west at 08:35, adult west at 09:20
2 Arctic Skua - 2 west also at 09:20, too distant to age
3 Kittiwake
2 Common Tern
9 Dunlin

1 Curlew

One of the Common Terns passed quite close, so I just HAD to whip the Lumix out...

...just a pity I was a little late in 'whipping it out!'

Numbers of large Gulls on the Estuary during this rough spell of weather have been surprisingly poor, though both sizes of Black-backed Gulls are making up a higher percentage than usual. In the small collection present on the river early this afternoon was this rather black mantled and long-winged Leeb...

intermedius-type!? Although it doesn't look that dark in this pic, it wasn't far off GBBG colour

The more observant blog browsers may have noticed a change in the name of this blog (not to mention a total re-vamp in layout!). I thought I'd go for a short, simple and obvious title - I should have changed it yonks ago really!

If you are a fellow blogger and have my blog in your blog list (for which I am much obliged), if the name change doesn't show up can you remove then re-instate me, that should do it. Thankyou :-)