Dusk Delights

I have been away since Sunday so was eager to get out today to enjoy some more spring action. Sadly though I woke up to fog, which completely smashed my enthusiasm to pieces and I went back to bed.  When I did finally get up I noticed on twitter that Portland was experiencing something of a fall, so I headed down to Seaton Marshes.

It was foggy.

I did eventually stumble upon some migrants, they were (amazingly!) another two House Martins with eight Sand Martins.  I really don't know what is going on with House Martins this year but several have already been seen in the UK, which by mid March is so unusual. I wonder if something has happened where they winter? Maybe some got mixed in with wintering Sand Martins and they've headed north with them?  All I do know is pretty much every year I don't see my first House Martins until the first week of April, weeks after my first Sand Martins and Swallows - but I'm yet to see one of the latter!

I was tied up for the rest of today, but headed out again at about 16:30.  All seemed quiet, including nothing with the gulls on the Estuary, but a distant scan of the gulls roosting on the sand by Tesco revealed something darker mantled.  At first I was really excited as I thought it may be a sub-adult Caspian, but when I got closer I could see it looked more like a particularly cute headed fourth calendar-year (third summer) Yellow-legged Gull...

The bird right of centre

Presumably a female - you can see why I was thinking Casp at first with that lovely little eye

This is my third, and the Axe's fourth Yellow-legged Gull so far this year, which is three or four more than you would usually expect to see by mid March. They are a rare bird in winter here (and in Devon) despite their ever increasing occurrence in late summer/autumn.

Last thing tonight I went back to Seaton Marshes, where the egret roost has recently relocated too.  And in with the Little were SIX Cattle Egrets - yeah we've gained at least one more!  I say at least one because I could only properly go through about a quarter of the Axe egret roost, I could see at least 30 egrets in the distance with the Heronry behind Axmouth Church and I didn't have my scope!  I will try and get down there again tomorrow night and see how many Cattle Egrets we really have...

Short-eared Owl

Beer Head was really the only place to go this morning, with the river valley yet again hidden under a blanket of fog...

There was very little moving up here this morning sadly, and only really Goldcrests and a couple of Stonechats in/on the bushes...

A nice highlight though was my third ever Short-eared Owl for the Head, which flew in off the sea west of the Lookout and off west just after 08:30...

Just proves that even on the quiet days it is worth going out. You just never know.

Fog It

The weather has not been too kind to us so far this week. Monday was a complete wash out, Tuesday we were fogged out for most of the day, and even today there was still a layer of fog in the valley at dawn - although at least this morning the higher ground was clear...

The river valley from Beer Head

There has been a few scarcities about though. The Canada Goose flock on Colyford Marsh continues to host a Barnacle Goose, and since Monday a first-winter Dark-bellied Brent Goose too. Have seen up to 14 Dunlin on the river, with three Grey Plover still, a Knot and yesterday Dad had an Avocet on Black Hole Marsh. Gull numbers are low but with the Black-heads I've seen two Med Gulls recently (an ad and a first-winter). Also yesterday, I came across my first patch Black Redstart of the autumn, a nice first-winter male at Axmouth Yacht Club.

The trees and bushes are certainly harboring more Goldcrests than the last few weeks, but Chiffchaffs have suddenly become harder to find. It looks like they've all grouped together at the traditional sites (Lower Bruckland Ponds, Seaton Marshes) and are less evenly distributed.  There was quite an amazing sight yesterday as up to 3000 Starling were feeding on flying insects in the river valley - I spent ages checking through them but it wasn't easy! Quite a spectacle though.

This morning Beer Head did feel quite good, it was definitely the best morning so far this autumn for Chaffinch passage, but with the light winds they were flying in all directions and many were really high so they were pretty much uncountable.  Not many other finches were going over though, and a Mistle Thrush, a Reed Bunting and two Lapwing were the only oddities. The bushes seemed overall quiet but there were clearly more Song Thrushes, Blackbirds and Robins about.

Weather looks good for the next few mornings, so let's see if I can uncover something nice like a Bluetail.  If I don't it won't be through lack of trying...

Photo Poll Results

For the last two mornings we've been plagued by the dreaded fog. It's mostly affected high ground so I haven't even bothered with Beer Head and Axe Cliff, the valley however has been a bit clearer at ground level so I have put all my effort in here...

A lot of stomping and scanning has failed to produce the goods. The wader variety and numbers seem to be dwindling as each hour passes, except for an usually high number of Bar-tailed Godwits (my highest count being 12 on Black Hole Marsh yesterday morning). I've really been hoping for a Wryneck but as yet I've not fallen over one. At least this morning there was clearly an increase in Sedge Warblers (15). This gave me the encouragement to work extra hard for an Aquatic but alas no pale central crown stripes, although there was one scarily yellow juvy Sedge (not the one pictured below)...

Seeing as though things are still quiet, it's time for me to waffle again.  And today's waffle is about the results of last week's Spotted Flycatcher photo poll.  I'm delighted to announce that my favourite won with an enormous 75% of the 96 votes cast...

I know there will always be a market and a desire to get the cracking full frame bird photos, and like anyone I absolutely love to see a pin sharp close up of a nice bird. But very rarely do these photos actually excite me or stay with me for long. Personally I am all for flying the flag for the 'record shot'. You know, the photos that show you more about the moment than the cost of the photographers lens. Let's look at those Spot Flies again.

This is a Spotted Flycatcher....

 

This is a migrant Spotted Flycatcher that's pitched down on top of a blackthorn bush on Beer Head, hoping to refuel on insects flying in the early autumn sunshine before continuing on its long migration to Africa...

OK, the photo doesn't necessarily tell you all of that, but hopefully you get what I mean.

 

I mean come on, how many full frame Wheatear photos do we have to see each year... oh yeah, that reminds me...

 

In my defence there is plenty of habitat detail in the shot giving it some atmosphere!

Back to record shots, this Whinchat photo (showing one of three Whinchat on Seaton Marshes yesterday) is dreadful, but I love how vivid those supercilia are and how charismatic the bird looks...

Long live the record shot! 

Oh Fog It!

It looked very good for sea watching today - well that was until I got down to the sea front at 06:15...

A murky sea

Although in the photo it does look like there's plenty of sea to look at, in reality there wasn't! This probably isn't so much of an issue for all you headland sea watchers, but here in a bay we need to see as far as possible. Luckily at about 06:45 it cleared for just over half an hour, but it came in again, so I finished watching at 07:45. This is what ended up in my notebook...

3 Common Scoter
4 Great Northern Diver (all ended up on the sea, the closest one was a stonking pristine summer plumaged bird - the best example of one I've ever seen here without a doubt)
24 Gannet
39 Manxies
2 Grey Plover
1 Knot
41 Dunlin
25 Whimbrel
2 Bonxies (sat on sea for twenty minutes before flying off west - a great sight as always)
5 Kittiwake
34 Auk sp. (all looked like Razorbill)

After a good few hours at home, the continued foggy conditions encouraged me back down to the beach. But not to sea watch, for a beach walk...

See - still very foggy!

This proved very worthwhile as on the beach there was a flock of 7 Ringed Plover, 8 Dunlin and these 8 gorgeous Sanderling...

What a treat!

Whilst watching the above birds, another flock of waders flew straight through west along the beach and away into the murk. This flock included another 15 Sanderling (so a total of 23) and 10 Dunlin. 20 Whimbrel also flew west (18 and a 2).

After this, a look at Black Hole Marsh still showed no Red-rumped Swallow. But for the second day there were 14 Gadwall (so odd to have such large numbers here in May!?), also 2 Shoveler and these 2 Tufted Ducks...

Always swimming away I'm afraid! Soon after they flew off west

The only waders here were 8 Dunlin. A little later a quick look along the Estuary added 44 Whimbrel, 4 Blackwits and 2 Barwits, with another 14 Dunlin and 2 Ringed Plover past the sea front mid afternoon.

So nothing outstanding today at all - but some lovely highlights. A male Kentish Plover would have topped it off so nicely though....

A Foggy Morning

I woke up to thick fog today, but still thought the reserves would be worth a look over. Bird of the morning was the Ringed Plover on Black Hole Marsh. As it was the first one on patch this year, I deemed a record shot was necessary...

Can you see it!??

A single Sand Martin at Lower Bruckland Ponds, and several singing Chiffchaffs dotted about were the only summer migrants I've seen today.

This was always going to be a short post, but I'll pad it out a little more with a photo of a Blackbird that posed nicely for me and my Lumix on Seaton Marshes...

Pity it wasn't an Ouzel!