A Brief Update...

I didn't want the run of blog posts to completely dry up, not that I've got much to tell!

Goosanders have been seen fairly regularly recently, most often in flight near dawn or dusk in the vicinity of Black Hole Marsh.  A possible 'one that got away' is worth blogging about too; A small grey goose seen with the Canada flock reported by a local to Phil - unfortunately not present when Phil got down there mind.  

Wish I had time to go through the gulls today, as there were huge numbers present at about 2pm. I have given them a couple of scans during the past week or so, but have returned nothing better than a couple of wrong'uns...  One I am pretty sure was a second-winter argentatus Herring Gull but I didn't get to see enough to 100% convince me. And the other, well it was a Herring Gull, but it just had the stance and perfect posture of a Caspian - more so than any Herring Gull I've ever seen before.  I did wonder about hybrid but there's nothing else to suggest that's a viable option...

Just how a Caspian Gull stands... but clearly Herring Gulls can do too!

The end...

Late Little Stint

I jumped into action the other day, when Phil made a surprise discovery of an apparent Little Stint on Black Hole Marsh. He didn't have his telescope or camera with him, so considering the late date (31st Oct) I just had to check it out.....

Phil's impressions were dead right, it was a Little Stint.  The only one we've had this year so it was well worth the effort, although aiming my camera at it probably wasn't as the light was dreadful...

Little Stint

A lone Lesser Redpoll flew over Black Hole during my short visit there, and as well as the stint, on Black Hole there was a male Shoveler and a Greenshank.

This evening I dashed out after work to try and catch up with a tern sp. that was seen on the Estuary mid afternoon.  It was virtually dark when I made it over there so wasn't surprised to miss it, although there was just enough light left to see a redhead Goosander fly down river at about 5pm.

Earlier today it was great to see numerous Redwings and Song Thrushes bombing around my housing estate at dawn, easily the best arrival of thrushes so far this autumn - but hardly surprising given the numbers calling overhead during the previous night. 

Good news on the Cetti's Warbler front.  The snow of last winter knocked out all our local Cetti's Warblers, well singing males at least, there may have been one or two females still hanging on.  In the past it's taken years to get numbers of this species back on the Axe after cold weather wipe-outs, but within the last two weeks alone I've noted two at Lower Bruckland Ponds and two around Black Hole Marsh, then yesterday morning the Axe Estuary Ringing Group ringed four around Stafford Marsh (see HERE). Excellent news indeed.

A Cetti's Warbler struggling in the snow and ice - taken on 2nd March this year

Mostly About Egrets...

I didn't make it out birding at all yesterday which was a massive shame. It was the first still day for a while which saw a significant pulse of bird migration along the south coast of the UK.  I couldn't even cash in on the five Great White Egrets that flew west from Abbotsbury Swannery, and were later seen at Dawlish Warren.  They left Abbotsbury at 09:10, continued west past West Bexington at 09:22, Charmouth at 09:47 and finally Dawlish Warren at 10:30. I reckon they would have gone by here pretty much bang on 10am - right when I was conducting an appraisal at work! 

Oh well, I may have missed five big yellow-billed egrets yesterday, but this evening during a ten minute check of the Estuary, I saw five small yellow-billed egrets!  I don't know how many Cattle Egrets were actually present, as egrets were bombing about all over the place in the half-light, roosting in two different places, but five was my highest definite count.  As I said in a tweet a few weeks ago, to me it now feels like Cattle Egrets are here to stay, unlike their last influx four or more years ago.  Apparently there are up to 95 wintering just in Somerset! 

Here's three of tonight's five (plus)...

It was a pretty decent ten minutes along the Estuary actually, with masses and masses of pre-roosting gulls on show.  I wish I'd had more time to look through them, as a first-winter Yellow-legged Gull stood out in one of the first gatherings I looked at.  Another highlight came in the form of a flock of four Goosanders that flew downriver at 18:10. 

So a rather pleasant end to an all-round pleasant day....

Rebellious Gypos!

Sorry this blog has been a bit quiet this week, it's been a busy one! It's been a bit of a life-changing one too with some exciting news to blog about in the near future. For now though, the birds...

The wildfowl theme from last month continued, with the Barnacle Goose lingering on, a flock of four Greylag Geese on Colyford Marsh on Thursday, and another two Egyptian Geese on Bridge Marsh today. I have to say I can't ever remember seeing any species of goose perched on a fence post before...

There's also still been regular Goosander sightings, with Tim Wright seeing up to four on several evenings during the last week.

Monday night was great fun. Thanks to news from James Mc at Lyme and Dan J at Sidmouth, just before 7pm I scurried down to Seaton seafront where it was an absolute delight to watch Manx Shearwaters streaming past.  In half an hour I had 254 fly west, along with two Sandwich Terns and a first-summer Med Gull. Early spring evening Manx movements off here used to be an annual thing, often over flat calm seas, but for some reason it's been many years since a movement like this has occurred - presumably a food related change?

I finally saw my first Swallow of the year on Wednesday, and have seen another four or five today. Also today Clive had our first two House Martins of the year over Bridge Marsh, and Kev pulled a bit of a gripper out of the bag this afternoon with an early Cuckoo calling on and off in Couchill Woods. The first (real) UK Cuckoo record of the year?

I might give Beer Head a go in the morning. I won't have long, but hopefully long enough to see some spring migrants.

Curlew Sandpiper

It wasn't just teeming with rain at Black Hole Marsh this morning -  it was teeming with wading birds too!

I've lost count at the number of times I've praised rain on this blog, but it really does makes all the difference. There was a perfect example of this this morning, at 06:15 there were 35 Dunlin on Black Hole Marsh, five hours later there were at least double that! And they were feeding all over the place, not just in one or two tight flocks - looked amazing!

My reason for the second visit was because Mr White spied our first Curlew Sandpiper of the year drop in at around 8am. We often don't see them here til September when the juveniles arrive, although saying that the epic flock of 15 in 2013 arrived in August (right at the end of it though). Tim also reported four Turnstone and a Sanderling - the latter our first of the autumn.

Being early August I was expecting to see a nice red Curlew Sandpiper, but it was surprisingly pale with only slight remnants of summer plumage...

A Greenshank, two Cattle Egrets and six redhead Goosander (first seen yesterday morning by Ian Mc) were also on Black Hole Marsh at 06:15.

It's also worth mentioning that today is the one year anniversary of the Least Sandpiper! Well not for me, that's tomorrow, but Tim Wright first found it on the 2nd. I wonder what this year's autumn Black Hole rarity/ies will be...

Hare, There and Everywhere. But Few Birds...

The weather conditions were absolutely perfect for a spring fall this morning, with a north west wind and really nice thick covering of cloud. There was even a little bit of drizzle not long after dawn!

It started quite well with an early visit to Black Hole Marsh showing that overnight two Reed Warblers had dropped in, with both singing from the strip of reeds up to the Tower Hide. I just love migration, not there one day, singing in full voice the next!  

I then headed up for a good stomp around Axe Cliff, which started off well with a single Tree Pipit over north soon after my arrival. Not a common spring migrant so great to get one on my Patchwork Challenge list so soon.  This was however a false start, with little else passing over and the bushes being incredible quiet migrant-wise.  A singing male Lesser Whitethroat towards the end of my walk did somewhat make up for all the fruitless trudging around mind - another decent year tick. But what really made the walk worthwhile was this wonderful Hare...

I have missed a couple of good birds today. One was a Spoonbill that Phil had briefly drop onto Black Hole Marsh at 1pm, which interestingly looks to be the same Spoonbill that was on Bowling Green Marsh up until 11:30 today.  But more gripping year listing-wise was a Grasshopper Warbler heard reeling for twenty minutes on Colyford Common by a visiting birder mid morning.

I did try tonight for the 'Gropper' in case it started up again at dusk, which they can sometimes do if they haven't moved on, but my plan didn't work out.  It wasn't a wasted trip though as I got to see Goosanders again, with three circling over Black Hole Marsh before dropping onto the Estuary at 20:05...

A drake and two female Goosanders

In my last post I was wrong to presume the lone Cattle Egret that I've been seeing for a couple of days, and the lack of any Cattle Egrets in the Borrow Pit at dawn, meant we were down to just one bird. Twilight Tim has seen seven over the past two days, which actually makes me wonder if the lone bird was bird number seven, which has now joined up with the regular six?

So to summarise today, an okay day but considering the date and the weather it should have been much better. Sometimes I really do wish our patch was somewhere else in the south west, at a real migration hot spot like Lands End, Portland or Charmouth...

Spring Trickles On

Although we have some cloud we need more!  My god you must all think I am just always moaning about the weather on this blog.... well I suppose I am. But a good spring on patch is completely dependent on the weather. A bit of rain would be ideal but I can't see that coming, so just some thick cloud would be nice...

Yesterday there was a bit of action, mostly Wheatear-action, and this was probably more to do with the cold NW wind than the bit of cloud. When there's a strong head wind migrants are far more likely to need to drop in for a refuel before heading on, than if there's little/no wind. I guess flying into the wind uses more energy?  It was really nice to see a load of Wheatears again because they've been scarce since my Wheatear binge on 24th March. There were at least 14 in the valley yesterday, with most (eight at least) at Colyford Common, one at Seaton Marshes and five in the ploughed field opposite Colyford WTW.  

I did also manage to add Sedge Warbler to mine (and the Patch's) year list yesterday, not before time, with one singing on the Borrow Pit. Plus there was a Common Sand flying around here which would have been another new-in migrant.  The final spike of interest for me yesterday were two Goosanders on Black Hole Marsh at dusk, but not the two from the previous night as one of these was a fine adult drake.  This makes me think that the run of Goosander sightings over the last couple of days stem from the same four birds I had drift down the river late on the 27th March (a drake and three females).

This morning I was up and out early again, despite the lack of cloud, and again overall it was quiet but there were a few snippets of interest. Even if I see nothing though being out and about here is ALWAYS a pleasure, especially early in the day when there are few other people to ruin it about...

The Borrow Pit (pictured above) produced the singing Sedge Warbler again and the six Cattle Egrets having another lie in. A Willow Warbler singing here was one of five that I've seen/heard this morning, which is five more than I noted yesterday!

Black Hole Marsh gave a couple of surprises, with our first Green Sandpiper of the year dropping in calling at about 06:45...

And from the Tower Hide my 11th patch Pintail of the year, which is tons by Axe standards! Ten of them have been drakes which is nice...

I ended my last post with Venus, so I will end this one with Jupiter which was showing just below the moon last night...

And here's basically the same pic just with a different shutter speed, as I wanted to try and capture some of the cloud...

I struggled to get a good photo of Jupiter on its own, this is my best effort as you can see three of its largest moons...

And roll on tomorrow. Spring is great as with each day comes a whole lot more potential...

Cattle Egrets Up Close

As I type this cloud is arriving! Cloud!! Fingers crossed for some passerine action tomorrow...

I had a quick scoot around this morning, it was overall still pretty quiet but there were a few nice highlights.

I was really surprised to see four Med Gulls on Black Hole Marsh at dawn this morning, three first-winters and a second-summer. They were a surprise as I've not seen a Med here for about three weeks, and there's only about thirty Black-headed Gulls!  If you can pick out all four in this photo I will be impressed...

Maybe this will help... The second-summer is on the left with two first-winters on the right...

And this really cute and gorgeous subtle first-winter on the post...

There was no sign of the Cattle Egrets on Black Hole Marsh, but a walk around Seaton Marshes afterwards showed why. It was 07:30 and they were still in the roost!  It was so nice to finally get some good views of them...

And one final surprise for the morning was a pair of Pintail east past the sea front during a brief sea watch, along with a drake Common Scoter. 

I had ten minutes out again this evening, which I spent at Bridge Marsh. Two Goosanders were flying around landing on both the Coly and the Axe, just after Tim White reported two from Black Hole Marsh (so I guess they were the same birds?). And that was about it for me today, so all in all a good day even though I've spent most of it at work.

Patch bird of the day though goes to a male Black Redstart. I was sent a photo of one - which looked an absolute corker - present in a private garden near Boshill mid morning today. I know it's not really a rare bird, but a spring male is a good as they get. This was made even more gripping because I haven't even seen a single Willow Warbler today!    

And to complete this post, a few random photos from today around the Patch...

Pair of Yellowhammer at Axe Cliff

Comma at Axe Cliff

Male and female Kestrels at Seaton Marshes this morning

Venus pre-dawn

Slow Day, Busy Evening

I have basically spent today waiting for an Osprey. The weather conditions have been absolutely perfect and so many have arrived into the UK today, but I drew a blank. Not even a token Marsh Harrier.  

Over all today has felt quiet.  A few Sand Martins and Chiffchaffs dotted about, my first Willow Warbler of the year singing in Axmouth which was nice, and amazingly a patch first!  Ok, I can't actually tick it, but it was novel seeing a Swan Goose with the Canada Goose flock for most of the day...

Massive bill!

Bizarrely there seems to have been an influx/breakout of Swan Geese in the last week, with replies on twitter informing me of singles at Lodmoor and Langford (Wiltshire/Hampshire border) in the last few days. Odd. Even odder was that people were replying to my tweet with the word "gripping!". Really!??

I am really glad I kept plugging away today despite the apparent lack of birds, because I had an excellent hour out tonight. Although still no Osprey!

Three Little Ringed Plovers had been on Colyford Marsh all day, and tonight they were joined by a fourth bird and a Water Pipit.  It's hardly surprising to come across an Axe Water Pipit in late March, but in summer plumage (although this one was only half way there) they are always a delight to see.  The total Axe Little Ringed Plover count this evening was six, as just after seeing the four on Colyford Marsh I nipped around to Black Hole Marsh where two were showing well (and had been seen earlier in the day).

There was one further surprise to the day, when at 19:45 (oh how I love BST!) four Goosanders came floating down river. A drake and three females, which you can just about make out here...

A three year tick day. Excellent!

Lastly a bit of late news from yesterday, with the six Cattle Egrets south over Black Hole Marsh at 19:20. Nice to know they are still around, but how much longer will they stay?

Wildlife in the Limelight

I love Christmas. An event that brings so much joy and happiness to the world in the midst of winter is always going to sit well with me. I am one of those annoying people who can't get enough of it, and it doesn't matter what the date is!  Within the last week various retail outlets have been showcasing their 2016 Christmas adverts, and anyone who has any interest in wildlife and conservation MUST be delighted at what is on offer.  

Although the main character in the John Lewis ad is a dog, two foxes, a badger, a squirrel and a hedgehog play major roles. In fact John Lewis have partnered up with the Wildlife Trusts - they are their chosen charity campaign partner, superb news!

Already being delighted by this, imagine my excitement when I first saw the Waitrose Christmas advert. The whole advert is about the treacherous autumn migration of a Robin from its breeding grounds in Scandinavia to its winter home in the UK (yes, nothing to do Waitrose!).  Back of the net for UK wildlife.

You may well be a Christmas humbug, but if you are a nature lover then please just be happy that our wildlife is taking center stage in something that is so much anticipated, far reaching and positive. Result.

And now usual service resumes...

I only need a paragraph to summarise today's bird sightings. A lovely male Goosander that flew up the River Coly at Colyford mid afternoon was the highlight, with the Estuary offering the Little Stint, two Grey Plover, 13 Dunlin, an adult Med Gull and a large dark mantled Gull that could only have been a hybrid of some sorts (it was too pink-legged, streaky headed and the wrong shade of dark grey for a Yellow-legged).

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!

Wrong Choice

Yesterday, the number of gulls on the Estuary during the afternoon were just too much of a pull for me - I spent all the birding time I had looking at them...

Stuff of dreams...

Despite numerous visits and scans, the best I managed was a probable third-winter Yellow-legged Gull.  There's no reason why it wasn't one, but I just didn't see it long or well enough to be absolutely sure a hybrid could be ruled out.   There was an impressive number of Lesser Black-backed Gulls about too, with 80, all of the graellsii race for a change - we tend to have darker backed birds drop in when the wind is up. Amongst the small gulls were two Kittiwakes and three Med Gulls...

One of the adult Meds

During the morning I had given the sea ten minutes, and was impressed with the number of Kittiwakes on the move, I also noted another four Med Gulls. But this is exactly where I should have been looking during the afternoon, as Portland, Berry Head and even Budleigh recording excellent numbers of sea birds.

The wind kept up over night along with showers, so I didn't want to make the same mistake this morning and was at the sea front for 7am.  Sadly the passage had died off, probably because the wind had much more west in it and visibility was much better.  Still, staying there until 08:30 did give me a pretty nice selection of birds, my favourite being the lovely juv Pom that flew west at 07:30.  Full counts:

16 Brent Geese (7 west, 9 east)

13 Common Scoter

4 Red-breasted Merganser (in one flock, flew west)

1 Goosander (female/juv flew west along the beach)

1 Red-throated Diver

1 Black-throated Diver (very close west, flew into Seaton Hole)

1 Pomarine Skua

3 Med Gull

2 small wader sp. (looked chunky and pale, gleaming white underwings and dark bits around the face, but there were just too distant to clinch - although I think I know what they were.)

Think I might try again in the morning if the weather is right - we are due a Little Auk or two.

A New Blog Is Born

First of all, I must highlight a new blog that has appeared on my blog list; gobirdingexmouth.blogspot.com.  

Ace bird finder Matt Knott has joined the 'darkside' and started blogging. Well worth following as he is a dedicated and very hard working patch birder, and is proving that the more you look, the more you find.  My only gripe is despite Lapland and Snow Bunting, Richard's Pipit, White-fronted Goose, 2+ Turtle Dove, Purple Sandpipers and the 1000's of others waders and several hundred wildfowl, he's claiming to have had a 'disappointing autumn'. Matt you need to bird over here a bit more often mate - I'd be more than happy with that in an autumn!  Just shows how high his standards are. Anyway, top bloke, so I can bank on it being a top blog.

This morning, it was nice to get a mist net up for the first time in months.  Didn't catch that much, but it's been so long that I even enjoyed being attacked by Blue Tits!!  After a few hours of this, the flat sea was just too tempting and I headed down to the beach.

Three brownhead Goosanders close in were a surprise, and shared the sea with two Red-throated Divers, a Great Crested Grebe and the two Long-tailed Ducks.  I didn't actually see the latter, but they were seen about an hour after I was there.

The Goosanders were later on the Estuary at Coronation Corner, where they were fishing at low tide...

Very nice to see

Also saw two Greylag Geese with the Mute Swans opposite Stedcombe (which first appeared yesterday) and the two Tufted Duck again at Lower Bruckland Ponds.

Right must dash - time for work!

Feeling Flat

Feels a bit stagnant out there at the moment - wherever you are it just feels flat; the marshes, bush bashing, sea watching. It does make you question why you're bothering but you just gota keep trying. After all yesterday was 'Audouin's Day' (the sixth anniversary!).

Have been up Beer Head the last two mornings, VERY early this morning in fact!  I was there for sun rise, although didn't stay long as there was clearly nothing happening.  Mind you, it felt the same the previous morning but I netted a Beer Head tick when a Goosander flew west just offshore behind two Mallard...

Proof....just about!

Luckily better views were had about five minutes later when the Goosander flew back east on its own, over Beer Head heading for the Estuary. 

After my shortened Beer Head visit today, a twenty minute sea watch showed a surprising number of Gannets.  There were bloody loads of them, with many blogging but others purposely flying west (some close and large groups) - I counted 168 doing this.  Otherwise I noted just 13 Common Scoter and a Sandwich Tern west.

Hopefully my next blog post title (and post itself!) will be a bit more exciting! 

Buttons, Birds and Building Things

Yesterday was a day of putting things together.  Not the kind of day I enjoy at all, because not only do I dislike making things, I'm also rubbish at it.

There were two rather nice breaks from our day of DIY'ing though.  First one was just as we had got underway, when Gav popped over to present me with these very yummy Buttons (which came in very useful during the afternoon/evening!)...

Just look at my over-joyed face! Chocolate!!!!!

The second break also came about thanks to Gav. He had found me the bird that has been bugging me since 14th January, number one of my 'most worrying gaps' on my 2013 patch year list, Goosander. Well GoosanderS actually, with two resting on the Estuary just north of Tower Hide. RESULT! Many thanks for staying with them Gav - best Goosanders I've ever seen :-). The male was an absolute cracker too.

Ok, so what about the putting things together. Well, this was our back garden yesterday afternoon...

Something for the birds

And I'm pleased to say, this is how it looks now...

Success!

To be honest, that was pretty easy.  This was more of a struggle though. The Chocolate Buttons saved my sanity...

There was one disaster, we had to redo all four chairs half way through building them. Personally when it says the left side of something, I always take that as meaning the left side, not the right side. Grrrrrrr. Stupid instructions.

Still, this morning, we enjoyed eating our breakfast on this...

There are two more chairs, fully made, upstairs

Yes, it is nice to say we have built these - but that certainly doesn't mean I enjoyed it!