The Beast From The East

We may not have had any significant snow fall here in East Devon yet (that is about to change!) but like elsewhere we have had freezing temperatures and that bitter east wind. It's been seriously cold...

Black Hole Marsh pre-dawn on Tuesday

A 100% frozen Black Hole Marsh on Tuesday

Even the Estuary has had icy edges this week

More Estuary ice

Lower Bruckland Ponds today

Bird-wise we have seen the expected increase in wildfowl and wader numbers, which I will summarise below, but my highlight of the week so far is a passerine. I haven't seen Bearded Tit on patch since Oct '13, so a series of 'pings' emanating from the vast Axe Reedbed this morning, followed by brief flight views of one bird, was a real treat. Only the third time I've ever seen this species here, they are less than annual and often not twitchable.

I haven't seen as many different ducks as I was hoping, for example no diving ducks. But following on from Mike's flock of 20 Pintail (mostly males) that flew in off the sea late on Monday, on Tuesday morning at least three were still on the river. Pity the whole flock didn't stay though - would have been a great sight!

Today the two Ringed Plover and Greenshank were still present, joined by ten Dunlin and later in the day, an impressive flock of 184 Golden Plover feeding with Lapwing opposite Stedcombe Vale.  Jack Snipe and Grey Plover have also been seen on the Axe today, and am sure there's more out there to find. The Marsh Harrier is also still around.

Golden Plover and Lapwing

Ditto

Back to passerines and although there have been more Redwing, Fieldfare and Meadow Pipits about, I've not noticed any major movements yet like the 2010 cold snap.

I'll finish this post with a snap I took this morning of a Fox at Lower Bruckland Ponds. It had curled itself up on the sheltered side of a small mound, with the sun shining upon it. He/she looked absolutely gorgeous and in really good condition...

Fox

Dartmoor

I've been lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time on Dartmoor over the last few weeks, and will be spending a heck of a lot more time up here over the next 11 weeks...

The weather really has been mixed, the above photos were taken on the nicest day, on other mornings we had to sit out snow and hail showers, and the first day saw a raw east wind whip up late morning.  

As expected it's been nice to see plenty of the usual Dartmoor summer birds; Cuckoos daily, Curlews, Redstarts, Whinchat, Snipe, etc. A Fieldfare on the 28th was my biggest surprise, the latest I've ever seen one in the county, but considering the temperature at dawn was -1 it was probably feeling at home...

When we are out on the moor we don't have much time to hang around, none at all really.  But when this Fox appeared in front of me I just had to stop and film it for a short while, and luckily for me it did a full on mouse-pounce...

Now back to the patch. I'm really pleased that the Hoopoe is still here today, and remained in view pretty much all day for the constant trickle of visitors, there's some stunning photos of it appearing online.  It's clearly been quite a good day today, I've not gone out birding at all but two dog walks and an eye open from my back garden has given me some nice birds. Allhallows mid morning showed ten Wheatear, two Willow Warbler and a Whitethroat. A wander around Colyford late afternoon showed a female Whinchat, and from the house this evening a female Goosander flew up river and my first Swift of the year flew south.  

Wish I had gone out birding today after all!

Scarce Chasers

Having failed to see Scarce Chaser on the Estuary the other day, I went to Lower Bruckland Ponds yesterday and had much better success. There were at least five males on three different ponds, the most mature males I have ever seen here...

There are three different individuals pictured above, the male in the upper two photos complete with mating scars. As usual there were plenty of other dragonflies and damselflies on show but nothing out of the ordinary.

I also had the good fortune to walk around the corner right into this gorgeous fox cub...

Understandably it scarpered the second it noticed me, so it's a good job I was quick with the camera...

A Much Needed Patch Update

Well I've got a few days to talk about in this post. And because today has produced the best bird, I'll start here and work backwards....

Thursday 17th

It was a non birding morning for me today, well pretty much a non birding day. But at about 10am I had a phone call from Ian Mc, he had a wader on Colyford Scrape from the hide that was ringing alarm bells. An hour later when I was almost available to twitch it, I found out it had yellow legs - but had flown off.... FLIPPING HECK!

At half 11 I was back on patch, and Gav had seen it and was convinced it was a Temminck's - Devon's first November record I believe. By the time I had got to Colyford hide all the key features had been seen.

Don't get me wrong, it is a cracking bird, with bright yellow legs, and a proper patch rarity - only our second ever. But a yellow legged stint in mid November, after the autumn that the UK has had, just a bit gutting....

Cracking bird like I said though - mustn't be ungrateful!

It's with a Lapwing flock rather oddly, and every time the birds on the scrape were flushed by a Peregrine, it always flew around with them before returning to the scrape.

Wednesday 16th

With a whole load of Desert Wheatears turning up in the UK the previous day (including a corker my mate Dave tripped over on Skomer - lucky bugger!), I just HAD to walk this first thing in the morning...

What wonderful Desert Wheatear habbo!

I walked the whole of the beach! At the very start of the walk I saw these two crackers...

Just a pity the sun didn't come out for me!

And by the end of the slog - that was still all I had seen! Oh well, it had to be done.

I then had a quick look up the estuary, and was excited when my eyes could see about seven brown blobs on Bridge Marsh...

Ooohhhh - grey geese!

Bugger it - they were Greylags! There were still 12 Brent Geese on Colyford Marsh, and about a billion Canade Geese.....well about 70!

Tuesday 15th

Today was the day I did the dirty on the patch (see my previous post!), but not until I had given the Beer Cemetery Fields a good look...

There was very little grounded, it was in the air where of the action was happening. With the south easterly wind, all vis mig was heading that way - including loads of Wood Pigeons! In just over an hour I counted 17,600...

It was quite a spectacle!

Also overhead my first Brambling of the autumn, 20 Redwing, two Fieldfare and a Mistle Thrush.

Monday 14th

I put lots of leg work in with very little to show for it, despite a couple of flocks of Redwings flying low over the house soon after dawn. My first stop was Lower Bruckland Ponds, where the previous day James Mc had seen a very grey Chiffchaff.

I had seen bugger all, and was just heading back to the car, when I could hear a tristis-type Chiff calling. It was very elusive, and I didn't get enough on it to 'tick off' all the important plumage features, but it was very grey indeed with not a hint of yellow or green. Although you wouldn't know that from the only photo I took of it...

You can barely see it I know!

As I said though, it sounded spot on - nothing like the other calling greenish Chiff that was present.

The best the river offered was a Knot with the Blackwits off Coronation Corner...

Yes another awful photo!

When I pulled up to check the Swan flock near Boshill Cross, they all took off. That was because of this...

After some dinner!

The weekend as usual was a birding free zone for me, although on the way to Kilmington on Saturday afternoon I saw a nice flock of 60+ Fieldfare near Whitford bridge.

And that's that. Hopefully I will keep on top of blogging for the remainder of the autumn. Yes - I still think there is more this autumn has to offer...