Redstart Heralds Restart of Spring

Now we've seen the back of that blasting easterly wind, northbound migrant birds have responded accordingly.  

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it out today, but Kev did ok up Beer Head as the fog cleared mid morning with Grasshopper Warbler, Redstart, Black Redstart and Whitethroat.  I did however cash in on some migrants yesterday, thanks to two visits to Seaton Marshes.

Visit one showed at least ten Willow Warbler and seven Blackcap in the bushes, with my first Reed and Sedge Warbler of the spring on the Borrow Pit.  The rain and low cloud kept 30+ Swallow and half a dozen or so House Martins low over the marsh...

Unfortunately yet again they weren't accompanied but a Red-rumped!

Visit two early afternoon revealed the cherry on top, a cracking male Redstart. It wasn't hanging around however, and within a few minutes had traveled the whole length of the ditch that runs west to east across the marsh just north of the Borrow Pit. I lost it when it flew into bushes next to the tram line.

And that brings this blog up to date for now, although considering the date I hope that by the day there will be more to tell.  To complete this post, although off patch, a visit to Lyme Regis the other day showed the immature drake Eider still present...

Wish it moved a little way west!

Lyme Regis

An enjoyable family wander around Lyme Regis this afternoon revealed the lingering immature drake Eider distantly off the Cobb...

And 13 Purple Sandpiper feeding along the shoreline off the eastern end of the sea front...

Just a pity the sun wasn't out!

Scotland Trip - Day Five

The final day...

Day Five - Thursday 14th April

After breakfast, we loaded up the trusty Corsa and said farewell to Glenan Lodge at about 9am. I can highly recommend this B and B, it is good value, the rooms are very comfortable and the breakfast very yummy!!

We all wanted one last look at a summer plumaged Black-throated Diver, so this was the first port of call. It didn't take us long to find a pair of these stunners showing very well indeed...

Just stunning!

Also on the loch were a summer plumaged Red-throated Diver and a pair of Wigeon. Yet again Red Grouse were all around us!

We then headed north (yes I know - even further away from home!), and soon stumbled upon a surprise male Black Grouse...

It appeared to be displaying to itself - unless there was a female hiding somewhere nearby?

After about 50 minutes driving, we'd reached Nairn where we wanted to do a bit of sea watching from...

Looking north from the harbour car park at Nairn

It didn't take long to pick up three Long-tailed Ducks, several Eider, Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser and Sandwich Tern - then a fine summer plumaged Red-necked Grebe appeared out of nowhere.

A Goldeneye flashing!!

Also here, there were at least 50 Turnstone, a couple of Ringed Plover and a Hooded Crow.

We took to the road again, and headed around the coast (for over two hours!) to Rattray Head - this is where a King Eider had been reported on a couple of days within the past week. Whilst driving here, a singing Corn Bunting and several Yellowhammers were 'trip ticks'.

We got to Rattray - then began to drive out to the head. We hadn't gone far before I just HAD to pull in...

Grey = Geese

There were thousands and thousands of Pink-footed Geese feeding in road side fields, what a sight!! A look through them revealed a couple of sandy brown leucistic Pink-feet, and singles of Greylag and Barnacle Geese.

On the other side of the road was a huge Ley - this had plenty of diving ducks and Great Crested Grebes on. A couple more Corn Buntings were singing here too, though remained annoyingly invisible!

We eventually got to the car park at the end of the track, and walked out over the sand dunes past a flock of over 200 stunning mostly summer plumaged Golden Plover.

Rattray Head beach and lighthouse

There was no sign of the hoped for King Eider, but there was just so much to look at it was fantastic! On the beach were Sanderling, Redshank and a surprise Ruff. About 100 Eider were loafing about just offshore, and behind them AT LEAST 210 Great Northern Divers!! Also 6+ Red-throated Divers, and auks were constantly flying past north, with a few Kittiwakes and Gannets also noted.

A quick check of Birdguides on my Blackberry showed that the/a King Eider had been seen on the Monday just gone on the Ythan Estuary. As this was south of where we were, and on the way back home, we thought we may as well stop off here...

A quick check of the Estuary from a few stopping places on the A975 showed the Estuary was heaving with birds. Pintail was the only bird added to the trip list here, but if we had more time to look closer I'm sure we would have unearthed a few more 'trip ticks'.

We arrived at the golf club car park, and made our way to the mouth of the Estuary. The sight and sound was just absolutely spectacular as several hundred Eider were 'loafing about like Mallards at Radipole!'...

Stunning!

There was no sign of the drake King Eider - much to our annoyance - but another bonus here was the impressive seal colony...

There were loads of them!

Here's a short video too...

if you turn the volume up you can hear the Eider calling

The time was now 17:00 - and we still had an at least 11 hour car journey ahead of us to get home!!! We followed the Sat Nav (which all week had been a god send), and it took us right through Aberdeen City Centre at rush hour!!!!

We finally came out the other side of Aberdeen and began headed purposefully south. Apart from a quick fuel stop, and an hour's stop at a Little Chef near Sterling (where I ate the nicest burger EVER!) we made good progress.

We got back to Bristol at about 3am, and I got back home to Seaton for just before 5am.... I was bloody shattered!!!

I had such an enjoyable five days, in which time we clocked up 115 species of birds, saw some great mammals, stunning scenery and most of all, had a cracking good laugh! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Bun, Nick and Karen for their company, and everyone who gave us 'gen' to ensure we got the most out of our trip.

From the moment I took this photo on the Farr Pass, I knew this was the photo I'd finish this review with. Thank you Scotland for such an enjoyable birding break....

The 'Famous Grouse'

Well I hope you have enjoyed reading my rather drawn out trip report!? I'm pleased to announce that normal service will now be resumed on Axe Birding...

Ticking Over

I have a week off work, which is always a good thing! The birding hasn't exactly been exciting though...

This afternoon, the flat light and calm seas meant I just had to head to Seaton Hole and Seaton sea front...

Ideal sea scanning conditions

This revealed 80 Common Scoters, nine Velvet Scoters, three Eider, 14 Great Crested Grebes and two Red-throated Divers. The Wigeon were also resting on the sea, with about 500 off the Yacht Club.

I only saw two adult Med Gulls on the Estuary mid afternoon today, but yesterday there were five, including a new red colour-ringed bird. There are good numbers of Common Gulls about at the moment (150+ today), am just waiting for one of these to pop up...

Found this bird in January '08 on our delightful little Estuary, a stonking adult Ring-billed Gull!

Finally I had a bit of a nasty 'grip-off' this morning - a rarities form containing all the gory details of five Waxwings in Colyton on Boxing Day landed on my doormat; I was over the moon - honest.....

Counting Coots

Although it is noticeable milder this morning, it wasn't yesterday morning! In fact, for the first time since this cold weather descended upon us, yesterday morning there was actually ice on the river...

Not a common sight at all!

It is was good day for Coot yesterday; I'm pretty sure I smashed the previous highest day count for the patch. Four at Lower Bruckland Ponds and eight on the Estuary weren't anything special or unexpected, but the flock of 18 on the sea were...

Making a total of exactly 30 Coot!

There was a drake Pochard attached to this Coot flock (though it's nearly entirely hidden in the above photo), and a gorgeous pair of Goosanders flew west, including the first adult male I've seen during this cold snap. Two Eider and five Common Scoter were off Seaton Hole, with a further 14 Common Scoters off Branscombe.

To complete yesterday's sightings; 12 Gadwall were on the river (a flock of 11 and one with the Wigeon), the Yellow Wagtail was still at Colyford WTW and four Chiffchaffs were at Branscombe WTW.

This morning, a look over the sea was again eventful. Another two Goosanders flew west, and landed on the sea near the Chine Cafe (both female-types), a immature drake Eider flew in from the south, then east (with the two still off Seaton Hole with five Common Scoters) and best of all, an immature Velvet Scoter was settled on the sea with three female Common Scoters just to the east. I presume the same bird I found last week?

A quick look up the river valley showed nothing unusual, but at least 1,020 Wigeon were feeding on Colyford Marsh, here's some of them...

This was the densest part of the three flocks

Closer to home, in fact AT home, the garden has been full of birds during the cold weather. Song Thrushes are very scarce here, but we've had at least three hanging about lately...

...always quite skittish though, so this was a hard photo to get!

And most days at least two Blackcaps can be seen, though there were four (three females and a male) on Tuesday morning...

Eyeing up that apple core

And as I write this there's a flock of six Redwing feeding in our berry tree - just a pity there's no Waxwings in with them!!

Lastly, the colour-ringed Med Gull I saw a few days ago; White 3N93. Well I knew I'd seen this bird before, and I had - on the 3rd of Feb this year! (see HERE). Between that sighting and this sighting there's been no other reports of him/her.

There'll be no more birding for me over the next few days, so roll on next week..... Oh, but just before I do go, anyone know who saw the 5+ Bewick's Swans at Colyford Common on 8/12/10!??

What A Difference A Day Makes

I was planning to be on the sea front by dawn. I would have had to walk down, so had my alarm set for 06:30. For some reason either it didn't go off, or it just didn't wake me, and there I lay in bed snoozing for longer than I had expected!

When I finally did wake up, I gambled and got my car out. All was fine, and I got to the sea front at 09:30. All WASN'T fine here! I'm flipping glad I stayed in bed...

...you could barely see the sea!

A look up the valley didn't show anything that was obviously new, but six Gadwall and yesterday's Barwit were still present...

With Blackwits about halfway along the Estuary

The Bewick's Swan remains with the small gang of Mute Swans opposite Stedcombe. This photo is rubbish; the only reason I'm posting it is because it shows how small the Bewick's looks...

Teeny!

Lower Bruckland Ponds is nearly entirely frozen over, except for a small patch in the corner of the top pond. This was covered in ducks, though only two of them weren't Mallards. One was this...

Shoveler

And the other was this....

Answers on the back of a postcard please! What is it and where? (ps Coot isn't a duck!)

I then had a look at Bindon Barns, hoping for a nice rare Bunting. This never materialised, but there were up to 30 Yellowhammer feeding on the spilt grain...

Certainly worth keeping an eye on then, I would LOVE a patch Cirl Bunt!

It had just passed midday, and another look over sea showed the horrible 'sea steam' was clearing. So I went to Seaton Hole.

A very nice surprise here was a distant Velvet Scoter - my first on patch for a wee while. The word distant is an understatement though - I couldn't tell you what age or sex it was! Hopefully it will stay with us for a few days or more, and drift in a bit closer!

Also here were two Eider, eight Common Scoter and a flock of six Tufted Duck which landed briefly on the sea before flying off west.

To complete this post, a Brambling flew over the garden at 9am, but almost no Skylarks and not one Lapwing! What a difference a day makes....

The Sea And My Patch List

I do love living by the sea - it is always there to look at, and it can NEVER be built on! Not to mention the fact its appearance changes from day to day...

This was how it looked on Wednesday morning of last week...

Oh so tranquil!

And this is how it looked the following morning...

See what I mean! And yes - the sea watching was so poor that I ended up taking photos of waves!

And when it comes to birding - the sea is just fantastic! You simply never know what is going to fly past, literally anything could at any moment! Which is why, if I'm not sure what to do or where to go, I head for the sea front. This was the case today....

I arrived at the Spot On Kiosk at 08:20 this morning, joined by Ian M about five minutes later. There are three lessons to be learnt from today's sea watch...

1/ a quiet sea watch isn't always a rubbish sea watch

2/ eat lots of breakfast beforehand

3/ sea watching with company is much better as you are less inclined to give up as quickly

So, in the end, we did a full TWO HOURS of sea scanning, I was planning on a twenty minute watch!

First highlight was a female-type Eider bobbing around distantly, our first of the autumn - and not a common bird for the patch at all. It remained on view throughout the whole two hours despite getting itchy wings and taking to the air on a couple of occasions.

Second highlight was a Black-throated Diver which flew west at about 09:15.

Third and final highlight was a Red-necked Grebe Ian picked up flying east at 09:30. It looked as though it was going to fly straight through, but it landed somewhere miles to the east of us. I wonder if it's the same bird that I had off Branscombe on Wednesday just milling around?

Other than these three highlights; five Red-throated Divers (3w,1e,1 on sea), one diver sp. (distant e), a few Gannets, nine Dunlin (w) and a Razorbill (w) were all that made it in to the notebook.

So little to show in quantity for two precious hours of my life, but some nice patch quality :-)

I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon at home, that wasn't totally bird-less though...

Oh look - a nice male Sprawk

I was out again though mid afternoon til dusk...

Spent 40 mins wandering around the stubble fields at Axe Cliff. The first flock of Skylarks I flushed (c80 birds) had a Lap Bunt in with them. I couldn't see it, just heard it call several times. And I didn't see or hear it again despite sifting through another 350+ Skylarks before returning back to the car.

I spent pretty much the rest of the daylight hours seeing nothing of note at all. But last thing from the farm gate was incredibly pleasant....

Very nice

And when it was almost pitch black, a/the flock of 12 Brent Geese (re)appeared. They flew south down the river - so I assume they are feeding up river somewhere and roosting on the Estuary or in the bay.

Now to lists....

Whilst sea watching, Ian M casually asked me "so how many birds have you seen on patch?"

To which I replied "haven't a clue!"

So this evening I worked it out - and have even uploaded my list to BUBO (thanks to Bun for the guidance!).

And yes I have been strict...

1/ Ruddy Shelduck is not on the list....despite the fact the two Gav found were wild!! If you don't believe me - look for yourself...

See, both totally wild! Wary, unringed, fully winged, only present for a couple of hours, seen by me, etc...

2/ The Black Stork that stunned Bun and myself on 08/06/07 was 0.4km outside the 5km radius from Axmouth Bridge - which just sucks! As you read this I am drafting a letter to the 'local patch authorities' to see if I can get ours expanded by another half a kilometre!

3/ I have only seen Nightjar on Trinity Hill, again outside the 5km zone

4/ I know I've seen Baird's Sand on the Estuary, on Wednesday 19th May 1999 to be exact - I was 13. I won't go in to details, but it wasn't accepted by BBRC despite four people seeing it, and even hearing it call! But, it got the NP vote so it's not on the list.

Anyway, after all that, my official patch total is.... 238.

But if anyone was to ask me casually whilst in the field, the answers 242 ;-)

So what do I still need (apart from the four mentioned above!). Well my three biggest bogey birds are:

1/ Turtle Dove - and I reckon if I don't get one in the next couple of years I'm stuffed, just as they sadly are.

2/ Puffin - how I've not seen one of these I don't know!

3/ Hen Harrier - I was counting Chaffinches half a field away from Gavin who jammed in to one. From where I was stood, I couldn't see it! And I was at work for the male everyone else saw going to roost on Axe Marsh a year or two later.

The most painful gap on my list is Common Crane. I think I'm the only birder in the world who has ever 'fluffed' a flock of four of these easily identifiable and humongous birds....

....I reached in the car for my bins and yanked them out, but the strap got caught on the handbrake. By the time I'd untangled them, and put them to my eyes, the birds had gone around the corner.... I went to sleep that night thinking 'just what were those four massive large winged grey birds!??'.... the next day, four Common Cranes were on Exminster Marshes. In the words of James May.... oh cock!

On the other hand, I have got some really nice grippers....but no way am I going to list them or go in to any details - wouldn't even dream of it! There is one bird I will extrapolate on though....

"Friday 26th April 1996 - Dad took me and Mr House (a Grammar School music teacher) to the Undercliff tonight. Heard and got good views of a singing Nightingale in the undergrowth near Goat Island"

What is weird is that my life up to age of about 17 is just a blur of immaturity, but this is one night I can remember - and I'm not just saying that! I can see us walking down the steps, waiting, hearing and seeing... and the hazardous walk back in the pitch black! Sadly I think this was the last one ever recorded here.

So there you have it, I am now a 'lister'....