Garden Mega

Well you can't say I didn't see it coming - although really wasn't expecting it from the house! Find below a snippet from yesterday's blog post...

At about 18:30 today, whilst I was in the middle of Harry's bath and bed routine, Twilight Tim (Davey) messaged that he'd found an Iceland Gull on the Estuary.  But by the time I got to my phone there was a second message to say it had flown off south, along with some suitably gripping video footage.  However 15 minutes later there was another message to say it was back. Many thanks for the updates Tim.

I positioned myself at the bedroom window and tried to get a look at every gull I could see in flight over the small section of Estuary inline with mine.  Much to my surprise, ten minutes later bingo, Iceland Gull flying low north up the Estuary! I really wasn't expecting it as most gulls that take off from the Axe Estuary mid-afternoon onwards fly south, which would have ensured it remained out of view from me.

It was flying steadily north, and after the few seconds I was watching it, just as it was about to disappear behind the tree in the foreground that blocks my view north east, it chose to circle around twice with a Herring Gull, before then continuing north out of view.  This gave me a couple of extra seconds to grab my camera and take these two photos.  Yes they can only be described as dreadful shots, but it is a real credit to the capabilities of the P900 that in these couple of extra seconds, at a distance of about half a mile, through a not very clean window, I managed to get anything identifiable at all!

Striking even at this distance!

Just as it flew out of view

Although Iceland Gulls are annual here, they very often don't stick around for long and I've just never been looking out the window at the right time - this is a full fat house tick! 

These distant views were a really good reminder of how big Iceland Gulls can look in flight.  Most Iceland Gulls at rest are clearly smaller than Herring Gulls, and if you see a large looking white-winged Gull in flight it is so easy to incorrectly conclude Glaucous (which are so much bigger than Herring Gulls at rest).  Yes Iceland Gull maybe smaller than Herring Gull, but they are a long winged bird and their whiter wings will always make them 'appear' larger than a darker winged bird even of similar size - especially in dull light conditions.   Just something to bare in mind if you encounter a flying white-winger.

Iceland Gull takes my lockdown house list to 85, with the other addition since my last post being Dunlin and Water Rail, both heard after dark on 28th.  The latter being particularly vocal.  Am pleased to report the Grasshopper Warbler continues to reel, although it seems to have moved a short distance as it's a bit quieter from the garden now. 

Although my camera was with me in the bedroom for the gull, I stupidly didn't take it with me today for my daily family walk.  As we came back through Black Hole Marsh the Ruff was showing exceptionally well, as can be seen with this phone pic...

Why oh why did I go camera-less!

And how can I not end this post without bragging about these beauts Jess cooked up today.  We are trying to eat sensibly during lockdown, but you've got to allow a treat now and then...

She's good at photographing the fruits of her labour too!

Stay safe everyone.

Waders

This drastic weather change has seen a significant pulse of wader passage on the Axe Estuary, which is to be expected with rain in late April.

This morning the star bird was a Ruff briefly on Black Hole Marsh, before flipping over to the Estuary. Obviously we all know how stunning/bizarre spring males are, but this was a she, and she was truly beautiful.  A really small and dainty bird, probably not that much bigger than a Curlew Sand, but so exquisitely marked.  Just look at those tiger-striped tertials and greater coverts, absolutely stunning...

I wonder where she's been wintering and where she may be heading off to breed?

Hello there Mrs

Also today, probably the same Grey Plover I saw from the house last week, and which Phil heard a few days ago, was showing distantly on the Estuary. Along with a single Bar-tailed Godwit, four Whimbrel and a few Dunlin and Ringed Plover...

100% winter plumaged Grey Plover on this side

But a few black spots on this side, with a Bar-tailed Godwit and a Whimbrel

Good to see there's still some gull passage going on, with two first-winter Common Gulls and at least 25 Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the Estuary this morning... 

All ages - I keep reminding myself there's still time for a late white-winger

Yesterday I took my exercise walk in the afternoon, and was delighted to see a flock of thirty odd Dunlin on the Estuary. Then in true spring fashion, in came another flock and I was now looking at 64 Dunlin and five Ringed Plovers.  In birding I don't find much more exciting than being amongst spring wader passage, when out of nowhere flocks of breeding plumaged waders drop in en-route to their tundra breeding grounds, having wintered somewhere south of the UK.

So many waders! Never a common sight on the Axe.

Always feeding in such a frenzied way!

More rain tomorrow so possibly more waders to come!? Stay safe everyone...

More Birding Required!

I've not seen loads or been out that much, but I have seen enough to write this...

There's been a refreshing pulse of wader activity on the Axe Estuary since the turn of the month, kicked off by a Ringed Plover north of Coronation Corner on 2nd with three Dunlin.  On 6th whilst sky watching from my bedroom window, I was surprised to see a very high-flying flock of c30 Black-tailed Godwits power in from the north west then drop like a stone into the valley. Frustratingly as they twisted and turned before heading off down river I could make out a smaller, plain-winged wader in their midst. I suspect it was a Knot, but there was knot anything I could do about it. The following evening (7th) it was nice to see our first Whimbrel of the spring with ten Curlew just north of Coronation Corner, and this morning a flock of 18 Dunlin were zooming around at high-tide not knowing where to land.  Hopefully Kentish Plover is next :-)

Axe Estuary at dusk

With the strong winds at the end of last week I gave sea watching a go on Friday 5th.  The direction and strength of the wind however meant shelter was very hard to find on the sea front, so twenty minutes late I gave up and checked elsewhere.  Still, in that time two Pale-bellied Brent Geese flew west and a Manx Shearwater flew east - my first of the year for both.

My passerine highlight of the last few days surprisingly wasn't a migrant species, but a Dipper.  They've been really reliable on our section of the River Coly this year, and yesterday I was delighted to stumble upon an active nest - not where I was expecting to find one either.  I gave them the space they deserved and was rewarded with prolonged views of an adult Dipper plunge-diving. So lucky to be able to watch this on my patch.  

There are more hirundines about now, although I am still yet to see a House Martin.  Sand Martins were well represented during the grim weather of last week, with just under 100 in the valley on 3rd, with small numbers of Swallows seen pretty much every day now.  Willow Warblers are now starting to pass through in decent numbers, tonight I watched six feeding in an isolated clump of Blackthorn in the valley even as the sun was setting. Amazing to think that by the morning they will probably be hundreds of miles away!

A well defined setting sun over Colyford

I saw my first Red Kite of the season from work yesterday morning (7th) thanks to Phil. He had seen it fly east over Beer Head and I happened to be outside when it carried on east over Sheep's Marsh and the Estuary. I wonder how many more (hundreds!?) I will see as the year progresses.

And I will end this somewhat disjointed post with my absolute highlight of April so far. During a morning outing to Black Hole Marsh with Harry on 6th I was suddenly aware of the charming calls of Med Gull.  Two second-summers were flying around calling to each other low over the marsh before landing on one of the islands, both with pretty much full hoods.  An amazing sight and sound, and proof to anyone that gulls are anything but boring!

Scorchio!

Wow it's hot today.  A look along the river at about 08:30 showed there had been a bit of an arrival of new waders, with three Black-tailed Godwits alongside three Dunlin (my first of the autumn) along the waters edge...

Summer plumaged Blackwit and three Dunlin

Among the gulls three Med Gulls were on show, the first-summer that I yesterday labelled 'distinctively bland' and these two beautiful juveniles...

If you're not familiar with the juvenile plumage of Med Gull, I urge you to come over to the Axe Estuary or Black Hole Marsh and take a look at one. At this time of year they should be present pretty much daily now in varying numbers, and they really do have a delicate beauty to them.  Gorgeous things.

The moth trapping last night would have gone better had Mum and Dad's resident pair of Herring Gulls not taken an interest in the trap before I got to it!  Still there was a very good variety of moths and good numbers too. Nothing new for me or the garden, but the two scarcest species (which were actually both on the wall of the house) were...

Female Four-spotted Footman

The Fern

It was great to get the chance to introduce Harry to a Poplar Hawkmoth, his reaction was epic...

Slow Going

I don't think it is just here that spring seems to have stopped for the time being. Although I've not had much time out this week (an hour or so in the field both first thing in the morning and last thing at night) it's clear that it's really quite quiet.  In fact I hadn't had a year tick at all this week (so unusual for the last week in April) until just before 7pm tonight...

Whenever I've been around in the evenings over the past few weeks I've been checking the little pre-roost gathering of up to twenty Pied Wagtails that can usually be found either on Bridge or Colyford Marsh. A White Wagtail would have been nice enough (still not seen one this year) but a pair of Yellow Wagtails on Colyford Marsh this evening were way more exciting!  Hard to beat a spring male Yellow Wag if you ask me - I just love 'em! And a year tick too :-)

Otherwise today has been poor, as was yesterday. Tuesday was a little better though with the increased water level on Black Hole Marsh at dawn offering 16 Dunlin, six Ringed Plover (both notable increases), a Greenshank and a Common Gull, plus five Cattle Egret over north and seven Whimbrel on the Estuary (been this many pretty much all week).  Walking back from the Island Hide I briefly caught sight of a large yellow bunting and crossed everything that it was going to turn out to be a Cirl Bunting...

...It was a Yellowhammer. Still really notable though, I can't recall seeing many/any Yellowhammers on the deck in the river valley. I have had a few fly over, but not perched up in a bush which is promising, it would be great if they started nesting here. It was nice to see a Sedge Warbler quite well too for a change...

At both ends of Tuesday there were at least 200 hirundines feeding low in the valley, by far my biggest gathering this year and no doubt congregating low due to the bitterly cold north wind. They were mostly Sand Martins and Swallows with the odd House Martin mixed in.  It was fascinating watching them during the evening, because when a huge dark cloud came over and the light level dropped instantly, they all flew up and started behaving like a murmuration of Starlings...

I have been keeping an eye on the sea since my Great Skua, but it's been as quiet as the land. I had four Sandwich Terns fishing offshore on Tuesday, a Ringed Plover flew east on Wednesday and today the lingering Common Scoter remains...

I'm actually well impressed with the above photo, as the Scoter is at the very least half a mile out!  

Having moaned in my last post about the lack of sea watching weather this spring, I am literally salivating at the forecast for Saturday evening/Sunday.  I've asked Jess to keep our imminent arrival in there til Monday at least...

 

Last Week

I've not got too much to tell of last week, due to two days of illness, two mornings of superb Dartmoor surveying and only about three hours of patch birding.

I had high hopes for Monday, but all I managed to squeeze out of the patch was a Hobby west over Bridge Marsh and this brief Greylag Goose with the Mute Swan flock there...

Patch bronze

Wednesday was spent on the moor, but I did have a spare ten minutes to look along the Estuary between this and work, and wow - it showed that Wednesday was a good day!  The heavy rain, fog and light SE wind had obviously encouraged waders to move about (and ground) - I was stunned to see a single flock of 90 Dunlin and 7 Ringed Plover on the Estuary.  Numbers like this are usual in the autumn on the Estuary, but only very rarely occur in spring, there has to be the right weather conditions. Although they were just Dunlin (I was disappointed there wasn't a smart Broad-billed Sandpiper in with them yes) they were great to see due to the incredible variation between birds.  All were in summer plumage, but the mantle colours varied from almost Curlew Sand-red to winter Sanderling-grey, and everything in between!  Overall size varied too, as did bill length, so the flock probably consisted of all of the regular occurring UK races; arctica, schinzii and alpina. I just wish I took some photos.

I find May wader days so so exciting - the 'rareometer' levels are sky high and there is so much potential.  Richard P managed to capture the magic with some footage from Charmouth the same morning, he had a single flock of 70 Dunlin, 25 Sanderling and 10 Ringed Plover, and he doesn't even have a river (well not a proper one anyway!). See HERE.

The following day was a bit of a let down, it was still misty and wet but the waders were just not moving - 11 Dunlin and three Ringed Plover were all the beach had to offer.  I did see a larger flock of small waders on Colyford scrape at high tide (about 40+ birds) but THE MOST frustrating thing happened...  I decided they were definitely worth a trudge out to Colyford hide, despite the rain the possibility of something like a male Kentish Plover made it a no-brainer.... Sadly though half way across Colyford Common I flushed a Peregrine off the marsh, which proceeded to fly across the tramline and straight over the scrape.  I heard a few Ringed Plover calls and when I made it to the hide there was nothing there at all... Arse.

And that's about it.  I'll end this post with a short video from Dartmoor, one of the perks of the early mornings and miles of walking...

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!? 

More Rain Please!

The showers this morning did the trick in grounding some migrants around the Axe.  I decided to concentrate on the river valley and it was soon evident there had been an arrival of Blackcaps, Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs.  It took a while until I found any quality, and when I did they were in the same hedgerow, the rare-looking hedgerow that runs north from Coronation Corner alongside the Estuary.  One was a Grasshopper Warbler that reeled briefly before vanishing, but the other was far more obliging - my first Lesser Whitethroat of the year...

As ever with my videos, if you click on that small cog-like symbol near the bottom right hand corner of the picture, and change the quality setting to 1080pHD, it will look a whole lot better.

For my previous birding outing you will have to turn back to last Friday, which was a very very wet day indeed!  The weather did the trick though as this proved our best wader day of this spring so far (which isn't hard as it has been dreadful!).  I clocked up 27 Dunlin, one Ringed Plover, 6 Common Sands, one Barwit (a gorgeous summer plumaged bird) and 19 Whimbrel.

Best of all though were the four stunning Yellow Wagtails on Bridge Marsh.  Spring Yellow Wags are a bit like Tree Pipits here, they are almost always just fly overs - so it was a real treat to see these.

Lastly, I just realised I never got round to thanking Mrs Bishop for finding the Montagu's Harrier the other day. A pity you got the ID a little wrong Brenda, but if it wasn't for you none of us would have seen it so many thanks from all of us here :-)

Finally It Kicks Off

I won't lie, the birding last week (from Monday to Friday) wasn't great, in fact it was highly frustrating.  Despite the dates, the mostly blue skies and apparent ideal weather for north bound migrants, it just didn't happen.  This wasn't only the case on patch, but all across the UK there were Sand Martin-empty skies and millions of fence posts without Wheatears on.  I did see a few bits of interest but I had to work hard to get these scraps.

On Tuesday there was a pretty decent northward passage of Meadow Pipits, especially on Beer Head, and on the Estuary two Greylag Geese were new in (at a very typical time of year for this species on the south coast).

Two Greylag with the local bullies

Wednesday and Thursday were pitiful, but Friday was better.  We did actually have some migrants on Friday, two Wheatear on Bridge Marsh and three Sand Martins over Black Hole Marsh, but I didn't see either!  I did though see my first Dunlin on the Estuary for about four months, and two Green Sands on Bridge Marsh, which although we haven't had any wintering with us this year, had the 'feel' of being wintering birds as opposed to true spring migrants.  I also gave Seaton Marshes a visit and was pleased to see both the Glossy Ibis and the Green-winged Teal...

It was nice to see the Teal on the Estuary

All week there's been really good numbers of big gulls on the Estuary, and I was sure I'd eventually turn something up in with them. But not yet...

Then Saturday comes along, and probably because of the cloud cover it all happens.  I only had about an hour out in the field today, but in that time I saw a Little Ringed Plover, four Dunlin, three Sand Martin and three Goldeneye!  The Little Ringed Plover was on Bridge Marsh and found by Phil late morning, the Dunlin were on the Estuary, the Sand Martins flew north from the farm gate late this afternoon, and the three Goldeneye (including a stunning male) were found by Clive from the Tower Hide. Goldeneye is a pretty decent patch rare, you can normally see them in a given year, but only with a bit of jam as they are most often seen flying past at sea, or settled on it, but they are not a regular bird on the Estuary by a long way. The only photographic evidence I got of any of the above four species was this shocker...

There is a LRP in this photo!

As well as what I saw, three Ruff, numerous more Sand Martins, a Wheatear and a Yellow-legged Gull were also seen by various local birders here today, so today really was a pretty good day.  What really gripped me off though was an Iceland Gull off Exmouth early this morning, this should have been mine in the week!  

Sunshine At Last!

Just as the natural world thinks autumn is upon us, the sun comes out! Lovely it is though - finally the shorts are out!

Looking up the Estuary late last night

I've kept an eye on Black Hole Marsh over the last few days, eagerly waiting for a rare wader to drop in! No luck so far, but there is some wader passage going on.

On Saturday evening there were six Blackwits, three Dunlin, two Greenshank and this Ringed Plover on Black Hole Marsh...

A juv - it should have been a little ringed really!

And this morning, the same counts of Blackwits and Dunlin, one less Greenshank, but two Green Sands and this Whimbrel...

Dropped in all on its tod

Two of the three Dunlin

Before I start boring you with photos of dragonflies, I'll mention the colour-ringed first-winter Med Gull I saw at Black Hole Marsh last week. This one...

E325

It was ringed as a pullus near Terneuzen, Netherlands on 20/6/2011, then spent the winter in France, in the far north west of the county. It was last seen in France at Plonévez-Porzay on 25/1/2012 and there were no more sightings until mine the other day.

Ok, now for a few dragonfly pictures that I've taken today. I just had to take some photos because I have seen so few so far this year...

Southern Hawker

Four-spotted Chaser

Black-tailed Skimmer

And to end this post, a bit of 'natural art', taken this morning at Black Hole Marsh...

I'm Going For The Hat-trick!

This is going to be a brief one, as I want to get up early...

I was scouting around the patch looking for the Grey Phal I had seen fly back and forth over the bay, before gaining height and flying up river at 14:15...

Black Hole Marsh showed pretty much absolutely nothing at all! But my second look of the day over the (semi-permanent) flood opposite Axmouth Football Club was just a little more rewarding!

I had heard that the Weymouth Long-billed Dowitcher had flown off the previous evening, but I REALLY didn't expect it to be anywhere around here! It bloody was!!!!

I was scoping along the waters edge right to left, and came across this Snipe-like wader probing its bill in and out of the grass - FECKING HECK!!!!! My phone kicked in to action and I'm pleased to report most of the locals managed to see it before dark (and Dave H from Chard, who made it down from Taunton in record time!).

It was very dull and gloomy, so really wasn't good for photography. These are my best efforts...

Call and tertial pattern safely eliminated Short-billed, which would have been even better!

It was still present at dusk, and am looking for it early in the morning, hope it sticks.

Other birds in this field today included: 110 Lapwing, 40 Curlew, 22 Teal, 15 Dunlin, two Snipe, one Blackwit and too many Starling! I knew this field would deliver eventually, persistence pays....

The only other sightings I have for today (I was busy up until half 11 - no, not sleeping!) were four Teal and a Common Scoter on the sea off Seaton, four Shoveler and a Green Sand on Colyford Common and an adult Med Gull on the Estuary.

Night all.... :-)