More Snow!

Like many other places in the south west today, it's been snowing here in Seaton from dawn until dusk. One snow event in a year is exceptional enough for us, two is unprecedented! 

The view from my bedroom window late this afternoon

The heavy snow didn't start until about mid morning, and it was amazing to see how quickly the birds reacted to this. Just proves they really do need to be able to feed constantly, and as soon as they realise they can't, sitting it out just isn't an option. They have to move.

I could do nothing more than have sporadic looks outside today, but these have shown incredible numbers of Fieldfare and Redwing flying west, thousands upon thousands, along with several hundred Starling and Golden Plover and smaller numbers of Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail, Chaffinch plus a single Reed Bunting.  All seen from the centre of town. Incredible scenes.

The passage did seem to dry up mid afternoon, and unlike the last snow event, apart from a few Meadow Pipits there doesn't seem to be many birds struggling for food in gardens. Not a single Redwing in the road I live in late this afternoon, compared to about 500 two weeks ago! So although as things stand, this cold weather period doesn't look to be as severe on birds as the last, the timing is probably a bit worse.

Some local birds will have started nesting now, especially Blackbirds. Disaster for all these early breeders. And then there's the early arriving migrants, small numbers of Wheatears, Sand Martins and Chiffchaffs have already arrived in the UK after a long migration - and they now have to face this. There have been several reports of struggling Chiffchaffs today in particular, and late this afternoon I was deeply saddened to find this in the corner of a carpark in town...

Dead Chiffchaff

Sorry mate, you didn't quite make it

This beautiful Chiffchaff probably spent the last week or so traveling hundreds and hundreds of miles as it migrated back towards it's breeding grounds somewhere in the UK. All the obstacles it would have had to overcome, all the energy it would have used up. And all for this. Lying dead in the snow in Seaton. So so sad.

Seaton Snow and Epic Cold Weather Movement

What a day. Truly a day to remember. Here in East Devon we have seen the most significant snow fall that I've ever witnessed (have lived here since 1991) and the reaction from the birds was completely mesmerising.

With only light snow at dawn, I jumped in my car and had a scoot around the Estuary. The tide was in and there wasn't much new obvious, although a pair of Gadwall north of Coronation Corner were new arrivals and new for the year...

A distant pair of Gadwall with Wigeon

Whilst I was out I noticed a few flocks of Lapwing and Golden Plover flying over, but it wasn't until I returned home that I realised there was actually a sustained passage of these two species taking place.  A watch from my back garden 08:20 - 11:10 (whilst I wasn't needed indoors!) gave the following incredible totals (all west); 

6250 Lapwing
1720 Golden Plover
5 Snipe
12 Fieldfare
28 Redwing
2 Blackbird
12 Starling
2 Meadow Pipit

So not many passerines, presumably because they were still able to find enough food as we hadn't had any significant snow fall by this time, but the Goldies and Lapwings were just incredible. Flock after flock after flock, many very low, some pausing briefly in nearby fields, but all clearly on the hunt for non-frozen ground. An unforgettable passage.  What's even more amazing is I would have missed so many flocks, I know there were flocks passing out over the sea which I can't see from my house two miles inland. Not to mention the fact that flocks were still passing over right up to late this afternoon, so the true numbers of Lapwing and Golden Plover that have flown west over here today is probably completely mind boggling, If I had a stab in the dark guess I'd say tens of thousands of Lapwing and maybe ten thousand Golden Plover have flown west over here today.

Lapwing

Golden Plover

Golden Plover

And to give a bit of a flavour of this incredible passage, here's a short video clip of some Golden Plover passing over. Love their mournful call...

The time was now about 11:40, and the heavy snow still wasn't in. So I jumped in my car and gave the Estuary another look, and I'm glad I did because greeting me at the lower end of the Estuary was this...

A Spoonbill!

A rather grumpy looking Spoonbill at that - I don't blame it mind!

Spoonbill head on to the cold east wind

What a beaut!

Our first Spoonbill of the year, and not a species I was expecting to see today. Two Avocet were another bonus that briefly dropped in (Ian Mc found these), but despite excellent numbers of gulls, still no white-winger for Steve this year...

So many gulls!

Then the snow really came in. And it didn't stop until about 8pm. Incredible scenes... 

The Co-op car park in Seaton

The Jurassic Play Park in Seaton

From the moment it started snowing heavily, wherever I went Golden Plover, Lapwing, Snipe, Fieldfare, Redwing were flying around.  I even had a Grey Plover fly low west over the middle of Seaton!  But the day ended with a sad note for me, and a reminder that just how difficult this weather is for our birds. All this Goldcrest wanted was to find somewhere warm and dry to rest up after I watched it battle against the wind and snow flying through the middle of town...

This little guy was clearly in real trouble

I felt so sorry for this bird

A timely reminder that however much enjoyment and excitement us birders get from these incredible cold weather movements, at the same time countless numbers of birds will undoubtedly be losing their lives...

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

Firecrest Fun

The beautiful blue sky this morning tempted me over to Branscombe, so I could catch up with the Firecrest that's been wintering around the Water Treatment Works. It took about three seconds to find, and I enjoyed it for the best part of half an hour, showing exceptionally well at times...

After about twenty minutes, suddenly there were two male Firecrests in front of me! They had a brief stand off and chase around, then split up, with the second bird feeding around the entrance gate to the WTW. Often ON the entrance gate in fact...

Also around the WTW, 10+ Goldcrest, two Chiffchaff and this Treecreeper (never an easy species to photograph)...

No visit to Branscombe is complete without a sea scan. There were quite a few auks out there this morning, along with a lone Great Northern Diver, three Red-throated Divers and rather unusually, five Teal.

A couple of visits to some woodland near Colyton over the past week has shown Woodcock on both occasions, four and three. I also had at least three Crossbill here the other day, which is more than notable.  Nice to see and hear male Siskin song-flighting too.

And lastly, yesterday as I was driving along the A3052 between Seaton and Beer, a flock of 18-20 Golden Plover flew past going the opposite way. They seemed to land near Stafford Cross where Ian Mc had 15 today. Heaps of Lapwing around there too.

Odds and Ends

First of all, thanks to everyone who's made kind comments about the article I've written for the November edition of Birdwatch magazine. I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to pen a three page article all about birding the Axe Estuary and Seaton Wetlands during the winter months. I was even more delighted in the fact the Axe had been given so much magazine space! If you want to read it, when you're next in a Newsagents look for this front cover...

It's worth paying the price for the Sibe Blue Robin story and photos alone!

I've just got a few odd sightings to report from the last few days on patch, not that I've done much birding...

Last Thursday I had several sightings and 'soundings' of a Brambling bombing around where I live. Never saw it perched, but it was clearly perching somewhere.

The following morning (Friday) I saw my first Black Redstart of the autumn, with a female-type on roofs along Beach Road, Seaton. Offshore were big numbers of gulls, Kittiwakes and Gannets feeding, although mostly far out.

Sunday morning a calm sea revealed a lovely Great Northern Diver at first off Seaton, then off Seaton Hole. It came quite close inshore at times, but the light made photography tricky...

And today, my best sighting was of thirty Golden Plover with Lapwing in the usual fields alongside the A3052 by the Honiton turn-off. Sadly no small grey ones among them. There seemed to be a few birds moving this morning, from the back garden I had a few Chaffinch and Redwing, and a flock of six Fieldfare NW.

Hopefully I'll manage to get out a bit more during the remainder of the week.
 

Excellent Gull Passage

What an exciting few days. February is a great month for gull passage and the last few days have not disappointed. Today I had quite a bit of free time and could barely tear myself away from the Estuary.  It was nice to spend time gulling with Gav too, just like the old days!  What was telling was that he wasn't even working in the area today...

Iceland Gull was the rarest of the days birds, found by Ian Mc at about 08:55 down by the tram sheds. It was a first-winter/juv, so not last weeks bird and probably my third different Iceland Gull in as many weeks!  I would have been able to post a nice photo of it here but for the bait digger who decided to flush the lot just after my arrival, so this is my only pic of it...

The middle bird. Yes I know it looks to have dark in the wing tips but that's just shadows

Next best bird was this second-winter Yellow-legged Gull.  I first saw it mid morning but sat with a bunch of Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the rain it looked short legged and rather unimpressive in overall structure, so I put it down as a probable hybrid-type. But Gav picked it up again later and we both watched it for much longer and in better light, and he soon managed to change my mind. Yes it was not long legged at all, and didn't have a strong bill, but everything else was absolutely perfect for second-winter Yellow-legged Gull. It was such a smart and clean bird, really pristine looking, hybrids always seem to look 'messy'. So a small female Yellow-legged Gull it is, but do drop me a line if you (Tim/Mike/Matt?) don't agree...

For me though today was all about the Lesser Black-backed Gulls.  There were 75 along the Estuary mid afternoon, but with birds coming and going all day, and no fewer than 40 birds on the river at any one time, who knows how many really passed through? As always with Lesser Black-backed Gulls at this time of year they came in a variety of mantle shades...

One of them was colour-ringed though, and it looks like 'V6VU' was ringed in Denmark. I will let you all know when I hear back about its ringing details, as this would be a confirmed intermedius if it originates from here. I do wonder whether all these spring passage Lesser Black-backs are intermedius though - even the slightly less black mantled birds!?

I only saw two adult Med Gulls today, but at least one of them was different from the five of yesterday. The five yesterday included a green-ringed second-winter, which was another new bird for me.  The last few weeks have seen a steady turn over of Med Gulls, I've seen at least 20 different individuals on the Axe this month, only two second-winters and one first-winter though.

Also yesterday the Lesser Black-backed count got to 44, and there were 135 Common Gulls which is more proof of gull passage.

Right let's leave the gulls for now, and I'll try and tidy up all my other patch birding sightings for the last few days. I'll start with the sea, and that's where I started today (as usual!). In 45 minutes I had eight Red-throated Divers and three Common Scoters west, along with a lovely pod of Bottlenose Dolphins.  There were at least six animals, including three calves that were jumping around all over the place, but they always remained distant and quickly headed off west.

Yesterday the sea gave twelve Red-throated Divers, but little else.  And on Monday I gave it an hour despite how quiet it was, and was rewarded with a fine drake Pintail close west with a Wigeon. Also two Red-throated Divers and a Razorbill.  I just WISH I stayed on an extra ten minutes or so though, as Ian Mc from another spot had a Velvet Scoter fly west shortly after I packed away my telescope. So gripping!!  I've given the sea so much time and effort this year hoping for something like this, and each watch one or two Scoters go by, but for me so far none of them have had white secondaries.  I suppose something like this was always going to happen though, I can't watch the sea all the time!

The Brent Goose is still knocking around with the Canada Goose flock in the valley, but another bad miss was a Goosander seen by others flying down and then upriver at dusk on Monday. Bums.

Dark-bellied Brent Goose

On the western boundary of our patch there's still Golden Plovers about, had 16 last Wednesday and 47 on Sunday morning. Also saw 50+ Snipe today in a field near Hangman's Stone (the Beer turn off on the A3052) which was a bit of a surprise.  

It's been nice to finally see some more Siskin about, I had 15 alongside the River Coly just north of Chantry Bridge last Saturday, and another couple over Lower Bruckland Ponds (yeah on my PWC patch finally!).

And last but by no means least, Chiffchaffs. Both Colyford and Branscombe sewage works are still home to plenty of Chiffchaffs, with many of them singing in recent days too which is nice.  The ringed tristis is still at Colyford WTW and there were at least two grey birds at Branscombe too.

Even wetter and windier tomorrow, can't wait to see what the Estuary has to offer us...

Little Bunting

Although it's off patch, I just had to pay the Little Bunting that James Mc found on Trinity Hill late Saturday a visit. Full marks to James for this great find, who (thanks to news from Sue Murphy) kept on checking the flock of up to 80 Reed Buntings that are feeding/roosting here. A great example of how some clever thinking, and persistence, can pay off.

The weather this afternoon was dreadful, and Trinity Hill was fogged out and wet. You couldn't make out anything further than about 25m away, so I chose to just stand by some bushes and wait. About 30 Reed Buntings and 20 minutes later, 'tic tic'...

What a terrific little bird. Although when I say little, not that much smaller than a Reed Bunting if you ask me. Clearly shorter tailed though.  It was great to hear it call several times, so Robin-like but just a little cleaner, not so liquidy if that makes any sense.  If you're going to try and see it yourself hopefully this map helps, the red cross is where I stood...

Now back to the patch, my PWC patch to be precise. It took until today for Golden Plover to be added to my PWC list, despite up to 70 being present for most of this winter about two miles outside my PWC patch boundary!  There seemed to be a load more Lapwing in the valley too, and 'the golden one' was with a small group of Lapwing in the field opposite Colyford WTW at 9am.

My other recent PWC year tick (my first for a week in fact!) was a Little Owl on Saturday evening near Lower Bruckland Ponds. It's nice to know there are still three local spots for this declining species, but there are most definitely fewer around than five years ago.

For a damp, dreary and dull late January day, it's not been too bad at all!

A Lovely Late Autumn Day

I had a lovely wander around town and along the sea front this morning, the clear blue skies and chill in the air made it such a pleasurable outing. Really seasonal. 

Wood Pigeons have been moving in fairly small numbers each morning since my last blog post, but the stronger northerly wind this morning ensured they were all sticking tight to the coast and remained fairly low.  Flocks were still of mostly between 200-400 birds, so no massive flocks or really impressive numbers yet, but it's always great to see Pigeon passage whatever the numbers...

The sea was quiet, with my first Red-throated Diver west the only notable sighting. There was a distinct lack of birds on the flat calm sea, I do hope we get some settled sea duck off here again this winter.

Over the last week there's been up to four Black Redstarts around Seaton. Sadly I didn't find the adult male that Phil had yesterday, but I did see three female/first-winter types...

The situation is much the same in the valley. Waders include the lingering Little Stint (will it over winter?), three Grey Plover and about a dozen Dunlin. Among the Canada Geese the first-winter Dark-bellied Brent Goose is still with us, and two Shoveler were on the upper section of the Estuary mid morning.

On Saturday morning four Golden Plover were with Lapwing along the A3052 by the Honiton turn off, a typical cold weather sighting.

Lastly, here's an absolutely stunning first-winter male Blackbird from the Borrow Pit this afternoon.  The all dark bill suggests it's a Scandinavian bird, which is probably true as so many of our wintering thrushes originate from here...