Cold Weather Movement or Spring Passage?

It's been great to see birds behaving as they should be again today, and where they should be. Wading birds and wildfowl on the river, and thrushes in the fields and not in the middle of housing estates. There are still plenty of birds about though...

I've had three tours of the Estuary today and a visit to Black Hole Marsh. Most birds seen were lingerers from the last few days, except for a couple more Avocet and a two fold increase in Gadwall. My highlights were; 

8 Pintail

290 Wigeon

12 Gadwall (two 6's in the morning, an 8 and 4 in the afternoon)

80 Teal

7 Shoveler 
10 Avocet (a double figure Avocet count for the Axe is exceptional!)

700+ Lapwing

9 Golden Plover

1 Grey Plover

72 Black-tailed Godwit

2 Bar-tailed Godwit

2 Dunlin

4 Mediterranean Gull (all adults)

70 Skylark (in the field opposite Colyford WTW)

I was really hoping for a Bittern today, with my thinking being the increased water levels may reveal one that's been lurking in the reeds since the cold snap... If it happened I wasn't in the right place at the right time. No sign of any Ruff or the recent Spotted Redshank for me today either.

What has been so incredible about the recent cold weather movement is the number of wading birds that's been involved. Since last Thursday there has been a staggering twenty species of wading birds recorded on the Axe Estuary. To put this in perspective we usually only have nine species of waders that regularly winter on our tiny Estuary, although it's been eleven this year with singles of Greenshank and Ringed Plover bucking the trend. Twenty is usually only possible in a short space of time like this in May or September - but even in those months it doesn't happen that often. A lot of these waders are lingering too, with the Avocet flock ever building, and the Spotted Redshank, Grey Plover and Bar-tailed Godwits still here from last Wednesday/Thursday. Knot and Sanderling (four of the former, three of the latter) and a whole lot of Dunlin (193!) were the only brief visitors, being seen by new patch birder Billy on Thursday afternoon but not since (he also found the Spot Red and Barwits).  

Watching the Avocets today, and having read something on the Portland Bird Obs website the other day, suddenly it clicked. Let's just think about this, why would an Avocet sat on a snowy Estuary somewhere decide that upping sticks and flying tens/hundreds of miles was the best thing to do, instead of just sitting there and waiting for the tide to drop?

Avocets are a March species for us, no we don't usually get ten, one to four would be a more typical count. But March is clearly the month they begin to migrate back to their breeding grounds. So maybe, although for the Lapwing, Golden Plovers, thrushes and other passerines what we witnessed was undoubtedly a cold weather movement, for other species of wading birds, are we actually seeing spring passage?  We know that heavy rain showers cause migrating wading birds to drop in, so a gigantic snow front that has tracked north across the English Channel, well that's going to ground everything that's trying to fly through it right!?  

Rewind to March 2013 (blog post HERE). Many early spring migrants arrived, like Sand Martins, Chiffchaffs, Little Ringed Plovers, Stone Curlew, Ospreys and Ring Ouzels, but a brisk northeast wind and freezing temperatures meant they all stalled on the south coast and went nowhere for several days.  It was so tragic to watch so many Chiffchaffs struggling to find food on pavements and in gutters, do you remember it? Well I'm wondering whether this is something similar, but as it's happened earlier in the month its not affected the species that we think of as the early spring migrants, but the true early spring migrants like waders, gulls and wildfowl?

And discuss...

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?

Spring Wader Passage?

Just a couple of snippets of interest from the past few days to tell in today's blog post

Friday morning last week saw a slight surprise in the form of a Ringed Plover on Seaton beach. This was probably our first true sign of spring passage as there's not been a Ringed Plover on patch since October 2016. With the temperatures turning mild later this week I wonder if any other signs of spring will emerge?

On Thursday of last week it was nice to see two good-looking tristis Chiffchaffs at Colyford WTW.  The first bird was ringed (presumably the bird ringed here by Mike Tyler on 28th Dec 2016) and came straight in to a recording of tristis song. The second bird was along the lane just north of the WTW, and looked even smarter than the ringed bird with proper 'Daz white' underparts, but it never called. Sadly neither posed well enough for photos, but if they stick around some more hopefully I'll get some shots.

It's been great to see far more Med Gulls about recently. In the first winter period they were so scarce here, but in the last few weeks I've been seeing ones and twos far more frequently. Adults in all stages of head moult and a couple of second-winters too, probably over ten different birds in the last two weeks, including sadly one with a damaged wing by the tram sheds.

The only bits of interest from today include the wintering Grey Plover still on the Estuary, a drake Gadwall for its second day hanging out below the Tower Hide, and the Brent Goose that has been around since Saturday on Colyford Marsh.

I hate posting photo-less posts, so have a token Kestrel from mid January.  There seems to be a few more of these about than the last few years, with at least five wintering on patch...

The Ton

Well I didn't have to wait that long at all!  I ended yesterday's blog post listing some of the easier species I am yet to see this year, but none of them were my 100th PWC species for 2017...

Yes that's our wintering female Tufted Duck at Lower Bruckland Ponds, along with three new friends. Two drake and a female Gadwall, the ton is done.

Earlier today looking down from Axe Cliff I could see a huge feeding flock out in the bay, of at least 280 Gannets and 150+ auks. From the sea front the light and viewing conditions were absolutely dreadful so I couldn't do much more with them, but hopefully they will hang around for a few days and attract some other species. A mid winter Pom Skua would do nicely.

Ducktastic

Blimey have we had some rain in the last 48 hours!  And that's lead to some pretty serious flooding in the river valley this afternoon...

Bridge Marsh, water as far as the eye can see!

Looking north from the road bridge over the Axe on the A3052

Looking south from the same bridge

The road ALWAYS floods here - that's one brave moped driver!

The flood from Axmouth

Thankfully this afternoon the rain had stopped, but this morning when it was lashing down I did try to go birding.  It was a struggle, but Bridge Marsh (pre-mega flood) was absolutely heaving with ducks so it was well worth getting wet.  This is how Bridge Marsh looked at 9am (compare with my first photo of this post which was taken at about 14:30)...

Great for birds, but not for birding!

Between cleaning my optics and warming myself up with my car heater, the flood water here showed 400+ Teal, 300 Wigeon, 70 Canada Geese, four Pintail (two pairs), four Gadwall (two pairs, first seen yesterday by PA) and a Dark-bellied Brent Goose (the lingering bird). That's my highest counts for four species of duck so far this autumn/winter, in fact it's the biggest flock of Pintail I've seen on the Axe for many years. This afternoon the wildfowl had spread out with the increase in flood water.

Also this morning I finally managed my first Redpoll of the autumn (about two months late!).  I was lucky to time my ten second walk from my front door to my car perfectly as one flew over calling. It really has been a poor autumn for all the finch species, Siskin and Redpoll especially.

Seawatching

I had an early alarm set for this morning, the forecast was promising wind, rain and cloud so I just had to try a sea watch.

Up until about 07:50 the conditions were pretty good.  Although the wind was never that strong it was coming from the south west which is our best direction for sea watching, and with it were a few passing showers that always help to bring birds closer in.  Sadly just before 8 we had a substantial downfall that for some reason killed the wind right off and the sea practically went flat. Still, I held out to make it a three hour watch.

05:55-08:55 produced (all west unless stated):

15 Pale-bellied Brent Goose (one flock)

2 Gadwall (pair at 08:10)

17 Common Scoter (10w, 7e)

9 Great Nortern Diver

1 Black-throated Diver (w/pl landed on sea half way across bay, but never saw it again)

1 diver sp.

92 Gannet (some flew east but there did seem to be a general westerly passage)

406 Manx Shearwater (a decent count, including several flocks of 40+ birds)

16 Whimbrel

1+ Ringed Plover (heard only)

1 Sanderling (came in then flew west)

15 Kittiwake (12w, 3e)

11 Razorbill

I have to say I was disappointed not to get a Skua (made even more so by the fact James Mc had two single Bonxies off Lyme Regis, one of which went west but never made it to me), but I love a sea watch that gives a nice variety of species, and this one certainly did. So all in all I was happy with my haul.

One Swallow Doesn't Make A Summer...

....but does two?

I was very happy to see (and hear) two Swallows with ten Sand Martins over Lower Bruckland Ponds this afternoon.  Throw in about five Chiffchaffs (two singing) and it should have felt very spring like.... well it didn't at all!  It was absolutely bloody freezing grotty weather with rain and gusty winds, and then 'tchak-tchak-tchak'; 45 Fieldfares flew over low east! It felt more like the middle of winter.

Always like to get a pic of my first Swallow of the year but the dull conditions didn't help

Part of the Fieldfare flock. You can actually just about make out a Sand Martin in the bottom left hand corner of the shot too.

I've checked the Estuary gulls several times today, as we are well overdue another white-winger. Nothing really, with the only 'oddity' amongst the larids being this...

"oh crap - water water and water, where do I go? I need a car to run in front of quick!"

Over on Seaton Marshes, I failed to see any Wheatears again, with only the lingering drake Gadwall being notable...

A very underrated duck

A Huge Dollop Of Jam

The moment of jam came just before 1pm, when I was driving down to the Estuary for a check of the gulls.  

Just as I was approaching the end of Scalwell Lane, my brain - that was busy dreaming about the Ring-billed Gull I was about find - had a sudden shock.  I could see a very distinctive shape flying east (well east south east to be precise) probably only less than 10m above roof top height, right opposite me. In the few seconds it took me to pull over and grab my bins, I had already sussed it as a medium-sized harrier-like long-winged raptor. Bins up - Hen Harrier!  I was looking at a bloody Hen Harrier!!! As it continued on east (and as I was causing a traffic incident!) I got good views of its upper parts (nice big fat square white rump - so am happy I eliminated both the smaller harrier sp. despite the relatively brief view) and the birds left upper wing.  I phoned Gav, and quickly sent a text out, then shot round to the Estuary in the hope it was going to hang around.  Stupidly I went to the farm gate, when really I should have stopped near Tesco and scanned Seaton Marshes, as this is where it would have passed over if it continued flying in the same direction.  I soon bumped into Gav. Sadly neither of us bumped into the Hen Harrier.

This is only the second Hen Harrier I've ever seen on patch - I ticked it as recently as Oct 2011. And as far as I'm aware, this is our first mid-winter record (though I could well be wrong).  Hen Harrier certainly kicks Goldeneye off as my 'most precious patch year tick' so far.  It was totally off the radar too - my brain has been thinking about waders, wildfowl, gulls and finch flocks - I haven't once thought about a bird of prey. We do have a lot of food about for it, so there's got to be a chance its going to linger. It may even roost in the valley, if not, maybe Trinity Hill or Gittisham Common? Got to be worth a look.

So, how has the rest of my day been?

Well Gav saw the Goosander again late yesterday afternoon on the Estuary, so I was out before dawn today hoping to finally get it on the year list.  She's certainly an early riser - as yet again there was no sign of it.  Two Gadwall on the Estuary just north of Coronation Corner were very nice to see though, another cold weather-related year tick.  I think my best photography year tick too...

In my defence  it was still fairly dark!

I then went for an hours sea watch off Beer, which would have been seriously dire were it not for a five minute spell of action.  There was nothing too exciting, but 15 Wigeon, 10 Common Scoter, four Red-throated Divers, a Teal (with the Wigeon) and a Shelduck flew west.  Outside of this five minute period, three more Common Scoters east (a pair and a single) were as good as it got. 

This afternoon, after the raptor excitement, the Estuary showed nothing better than two adult Med Gulls.  One looked like this...

Not quite the 800 at Ferrybridge!

 And the other looked like this...

Already getting a bit of a hood

With two year ticks today, and another just prior to work yesterday (in the form of Common Sandpiper from Coronation Corner at 14:45) - that's three year ticks since my last blog post.  Hopefully soon after I've posted this I'll notch up another.  For the first time this week, I am able to be where a Goosander should be at 4pm.  It's been here at this time for the last three days, but each day I couldn't be there. Today I can, so let's wait and see. Keep an eye on my twitter feed to the right, you'll read it there first!

A Catch Up

And I'll try and keep it as brief as possible...

Early morning visits to Black Hole Marsh on Tuesday and Wednesday failed to reveal the biggy, but the Tuesday visit did show; 28 Teal, 25 Blackwits, 23 Dunlin, 11 Common Sands, four Green Sands, four Ringed Plover, two Lapwing, a Whimbrel and a Wheatear. On Wednesday it was slightly different with; 28 Teal, 24 Blackwits, 24 Dunlin, 15 Common Sands, 14 Green Sands (my biggest count of 2012), nine Ringed Plover, two Gadwall, a Redshank and a Snipe.

The two Gadwall

The Dunlin flock right in front of the hide!

Another look over Black Hole Marsh on Friday (I was a 'Guide in the Hide' for three hours) showed lower numbers of everything, but an adult Med Gull was my first in the valley for several weeks.

I've done a bit of sea watching since my last post too, although a twenty minute watch on Wednesday morning was the only one worth talking about, as a Balearic and 24 Manx Sheartwaters flew east.

That leaves me with today to mutter about. My phone was busy this morning, with Beer showing good numbers of grounded migrants. So I decided it would be a great idea to take Jess for a walk around the Beer Cemetery Fields :-). Lots of Willow Warblers about, along with four Spot Flies and a nice male Redstart. Sadly no shrikes or rare warblers though.

And now for moths! Although the total of 134 moths of 35 species wasn't very impressive at all, some of the species were...

Best of all was a new species for the garden, there were two of them in fact...

Hoary Footman - ok it may not look great, but they certainly made my day!

These represented one of the four species of Footman in the trap, with the other three species being Buff, Common, and this...

Male Four-spotted Footman - one of my favourites

There was also one of these...

Crescent Dart

Two of these...

Iron Prominents

And four Silver Y, including this very black individual...

The blackest one I've ever seen!

I will not leave it so long until my next post I promise!!!

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....

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining...

Or to flip it... Every silver lining has a great big black cloud in it!

Yesterday was an excellent day for wader passage, I thoroughly enjoyed it. In the morning I had 14 Ringed Plovers, in the evening there were 14 Ringed Plovers - but at some point during the day a 15th plover dropped in and was photograghed by Ian McLean just before it flew off north...

ULTRA GRIPPING!! All photos (c) Ian McLean

We have had Kentish Plover before, Clive watched a male by the tram sheds many many years ago - but the record was never submitted so this is 'officially' the first record for the patch. I'm pleased we've had one - but gutted at the same time for missing it. Why couldn't it have dropped in before I had a look along the Estuary - why did it fly off before I had a second look along the Estuary! To make it worse, I was going to go to the tower hide at 12:30, but a funeral was taking place in the cemetery and the entrance blocked - so I turned around and came back. Whether the KP was there at that time though who knows...

Oh well, here's some Gadwall...

Three of the Gadwall on Black Hole Marsh yesterday afternoon

Today, after I woke up (rather late!), and had heard there was no sign of the KP, I went up to Beer Head.

It was another great morning up here. I was joined by Ian half way round, and he stayed longer as I was keen to get down to the Estuary in case the KP reappeared on the falling tide. My totals were:

3 Wheatear
3 Yellow Wagtail (over)
3 Redstart (2 male, 1 female - 1 of the males was singing! Ian had another 2 females)
3+ Garden Warbler
6 Blackcap
30 Whitethroat
8 Willow Warbler
3 Chiffchaff
1 Siskin (over)
1 Redpoll sp. (seen on deck but only distantly/partially, unfortunately looked too brown to be anything other than Lesser despite being rather deep sounding).

Also plenty of Swifts, Swallows and House Martins flying in and NE.

The Redpoll - very very distantly!

And here's a video of the song of the male Redstart - I have never heard one singing on Beer Head before, so a first for me...

After this the Estuary and a look over Black Hole Marsh and from the Tower Hide showed:

4 Grey Plover
6 Ringed Plover
70+ Dunlin
7 Whimbrel
8 Barwit
1 Blackwit
2 Reed Warbler (my first of 2012)
3 Sedge Warbler
3 Whitethroat
0 Kentish Plover :-(

Whimbrel

Finally, thanks to all the Twitter comments, and for people clicking to follow me. I promise this won't just be a 'whim', I'm going to keep it up because I'm actually enjoying it.

The First Hint Of Spring?

I've been away for a couple of nights - I had a few bird surveys to do near Plymouth (though just over the Cornish border).

This morning, just before I began the journey back home, I had a quick look off Torpoint. There's a small flock of pale-bellied Brent Geese wintering here, and two of them are colour-ringed. I've not seen them close enough to read the rings though, so I dropped in this morning on the off chance they were nearer....they were about a mile away as usual! It was certainly a worthwhile stop though, as I noticed this just offshore...

A Sandwich Tern!

This is the first February Sandwich Tern I've ever seen... Sand Martins and Wheatears next :-)

I was back on patch by midday, and had a bit of a look about before coming home. First stop was Lower Bruckland Ponds, where at last (this winter) there was a diving duck...

A female Tufty

I wonder if she came from the diving duck flock at Chard Gravel Pits!??

Also in this look about, a Knot and ten Ruff. But that's about it!

I forgot to mention on this blog that last Friday a flock of 16 Gadwall were grazing on Colyford Marsh - including ten drakes. That's a bloody big flock for us!

As Cold As Ice

Very cold out and about this morning, with lots of ice about. There was even some on the Estuary...

Not an every day sight!

I've had a couple of tours of the river valley today, but haven't seen that much really. Four Gadwall and a few Med Gulls on the Estuary being as good as it got for me.

I had to go to Axminster mid morning today, so thought I'd drive a little bit further north and look over a certain quarry pool. It's the kind of pool that you know what birds will be on it before you've even lifted your bins up....

That group of birds on the far side is surely going to include too many Canada Geese, a few Mallard, maybe the odd aytha duck and a couple of Coot, possibly even a Cormorant...

Yes I was right!

OH! Hang on a minute...

Yes you guessed it! I went to Chard Junction Gravel Pits to see these two beauts....

two stonking male Ring-necked Ducks

They were nice to see yes, but I hate their guts because they are simply refusing to fly south! Please boys - just one of you will do - you just HAVE to give Lower Bruckland Fishing Ponds a visit.....

Cold Weather At Last!

Still no white-wingers, but a bit of cold weather movement has fired me up a little...

This afternoon on patch, a nice flock of 12 Gadwall were floating about north of Coronation Corner (eight drakes), and on Bridge Marsh were these seven Golden Plover...

Can you spot them all?

Also on Bridge Marsh, 220 Wigeon. Back to the Estuary, and amongst the gulls were eight Med Gulls; seven adults (one near summer plumaged and one white-ringed) and a single second-winter bird.

Earlier in the day, I was in Exeter so popped down to Dawlish Warren to have a look at the wintering Surf Scoter. Despite the choppy conditions I soon picked it up off Langstone Rock, along with a single Slav Grebe.

I was feeling lazy, so tried to scope the American Wigeon from Cockwood. Epic fail! The Wigeon were miles away, and they were all a hazy blur! A bit of a surprise here though were two Egyptian Geese on the water's edge, near to Railway Saltmarsh. However they obviously didn't like it much, as they soon took off and flew up river. Bloody typical that I left my Lumix in the car - they flew right past me (half way between me and the wreck).

So, let's hope this cold spell continues to produce...a drake Ring-necked Duck or two would be nice :-)

A Day (And A Post) With A Bit Of Everything

Today has been a day of a bit of everything! Gardening, visits to the local tip, shopping (well Argos anyway!), county recorder work, watching sport, birding and mothing!! I shall start with the latter...

This morning I was very pleased with my 35 moths of 6 species. This included no new species for the garden, but several (in blue) were new for the year...

22 Common Quaker
5 Twin-spotted Quaker
3 Hebrew Character
2 Oak Beauty
2 Early Grey
1 Small Quaker

Here are a couple of pics...

Oak Beauty - one of my early spring favourites :-)

Examples of the three species of Quaker, I'm sure you can work out which one is Twin-spotted and which one is Small!?

The birding today hasn't been too exciting, a first-year Med Gull on the Estuary and a drake Gadwall on Blackhole Marsh being the best it got...

Distant - but still exciting.....yeah?

I'm ashamed to say it, but yesterday was the first time I'd been to Blackhole Marsh since a whole load of work has taken place here. We have a new...

...car park

...field studies centre - very posh it is indeed!

....and track, though this won't be opened until the new hide is up and running

To make up for that shockingly bad photo of the drake Gadwall above, here's a pic of a male Wigeon taken on the Estuary yesterday. Just for interest, this is the original photo...

Good old Lumix, you just have to do what it 'says on the tin' - point and shoot!

But then, after a bit of 'playing', I can post this....

This is why I love my Lumix even more - you can crop ruthlessly and still get a decent enough image!

Since my Sand Martins the other day, there has been little more evidence of the imminent spring, although in the garden a male Blackcap has been singing well over the past couple of days - very pleasant. Whilst talking about the garden, I must mention that I've just been watching a Marsh Tit out the front room windows - a very scarce and highly irregular visitor to our garden.

This weekend it is the Grizzly race, an annual cross country run which starts and ends in Seaton. So I have been in a bit of sporty mood today, and whilst out and about this afternoon, couldn't help thinking how any one out 'being sporty' and 'fit' should be prepared as dull rain clouds were encroaching fast. So when I saw this chap cycle past...


I just couldn't help but analyse his 'gear'. I personally give this keen (and I have to say very quick!) cyclist 9/10....

If you can't read the writing, click on the image to enlarge it

And why not 10/10? Well, I think he could do with a red woolly hat ;-)