Balearic Shearwater Passage

Although it's been a busy week for me, there is no way I could have ignored the sea considering the weather and last weeks bumper Balearic Shearwater passage off south Devon.  

It wasn't until extremely late that I made it down to the seafront yesterday, 20:20 to be precise. All thanks to a text from James Mc who was at Lyme Regis and reported lots of westward shearwater action.  Upon my arrival I was greeted by a huge feeding flock of large gulls just offshore (the whitebait and mackerel are in the bay I'm told) joined by numerous Gannets too.  And within less than a minute shearwaters came by.  In half an hour I noted; 

Manx Shearwater 44

Balearic Shearwater 27

Common Scoter 15

Pretty much all the shearwaters were at a good range, with many of the Balearics in particularly seemingly being pulled close inshore by the feeding flock, before most then turned and headed back out south/south west.  

With the wind still up this morning, I was back at the Spot On Kiosk by 05:25 and gave it just under two hours.  As soon as my eye met the telescope there were Balearic Shearwaters passing through, I'm sure if I had arrived earlier I would have added so many more Balearics to the tally.  It was  a spectacular show for this species, that far out numbered Manxies today. For the first hour and a bit all flew straight through west, but then a close flock of ten, that at first seemed to be doing the same, decided to land and began feeding offshore.  This in turn tempted most of the remaining Balearics that came in the from the east to land with them.  By the end of the watch there were about 15 birds feeding on the sea with the large flock of feeding gulls and Gannets. Fantastic to watch.

A Velvet Scoter was a real surprise, always is here but especially so considering the date, with an immature female-type high west and then back east at 05:41. I was really hoping it would be picked up further east but wasn't to my knowledge.   The Great Skua that flew west about four minutes later was however picked up again, by Mike at Beer.  My first Skua of the year FINALLY!  Wonderful to see, although distant as this dreadful photo suggests...

Was so far out!  Really restricted white in the wing too, if it were late August I would have labelled it a juv

An adult Yellow-legged Gull in with the large numbers of gulls (400+) feeding just off the beach was another great highlight, a proper heavy billed brute too.  Interestingly single adult YLG's were also seen at Abbotsbury and Portland today so maybe something of a mini-arrival?  Worthy also of a mention was my fist juvenile Mediterranean Gull of the year - always a highlight and quite an early one too.  It was one of several Med Gulls that were offshore/flying west. 

My full totals for this watch were (west unless stated); 

Gannet 200+ (uncounted so an estimate)

Balearic Shearwater 67 (last 15 birds landed and fed offshore, flock of ten the biggest group)

Manx Shearwater 7

Great Skua 1

Yellow-legged Gull 1 (close inshore with gull flock)

Med Gull 5 (1 juv, 1 2nd sum, 3 ads)

Kittiwake 4

Auk sp. 5

Velvet Scoter 1 (west then east)

Common Scoter 20 (clearly some duplication as a flock of 12 flew west then came back east about five mins later)

A very enjoyable watch. I tried again tonight, but twenty minutes showed just; 

Balearic Shearwater 2

Shearwater sp. 1

Common Scoter 3

Med Gull 7 (loitering)

To finish the post - spot the odd one out!  It's a common sight at this time of year to see gulls feeding on washed up whitebait on the beach.  But never before have I seen a Little Egret get in on the action! I even watched it have to briefly take flight on a couple of occasions to avoid the incoming crashing waves...

Look carefully and you'll see it! Was distant and in sea spray

Felt so good to enjoy some decent seawatching off Seaton, especially after the spring we've just had.  Hopefully there are more sea-based treats ahead during the remainder of summer 2020, and fingers crossed they are large ones...

Windy Weather Finally Wains

Today autumn had a chance to breathe. The wet and windy weather of late (which has produced some good birding - keep reading on for that) cleared for dawn today revealing beautifully clear skies with a light northerly wind. Ideal conditions for a bit of migration so as soon as I could (8am) I was wandering around Axe Cliff...

Lots of Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails

Try as I might I couldn't turn anything scarce up - but the volume of birds was seriously impressive.  The Golf Course looked as good as I've ever seen it, with large numbers of Meadow Pipits, Pied Wagtails and Linnets feeding on the greens...

A closer view

The bushes and fence line between this and the fields hosted a Stonechat, five Yellowhammer and three Reed Bunting...

Female Reed Bunting

In the stubble fields were 20+ Skylark and a few more Meadow Pipits and Linnets.  The bushes at first seemed quiet, but looking down into the Undercliff Chiffchaffs were almost constantly filtering through, along with a couple of Goldcrests.  The sky was also pretty busy, mostly hirundines and Meadow Pipits going over along with a few Skylark and Chaffinch.  So yes, disappointing to not score a goodie, but exciting nevertheless to be among some true autumn magic.

Spent a bit of time late morning/early afternoon hoping to see some fresh Long-tailed Blues at Axmouth Harbour, but the sunshine didn't deliver the goods.  Good to see two Tufted Ducks on the Estuary though, Gav saw them earlier from the same spot...

We don't see many diving ducks on this Estuary!

There's been a Cattle Egret hanging around recently, and I was lucky enough to see it on Colyford Common early Saturday morning...

However common these become I will always enjoy seeing them! Am pretty sure it's an adult although they are tricky to age.

I often find Cattle Egrets strike unusual poses and postures compared to Little Egrets!

Size difference with a Little

On Sunday afternoon a wander around the Wetlands with Jess' family showed singles of Ruff and Green Sandpiper on Black Hole Marsh, but sadly not the Spotted Crake that I've been hoping to jam in on! 

Green Sandpiper

And now to the sea.  Following the record breaking Balearic Shearwater day as detailed in my last post, I've enjoyed some more time looking at the sea.  We've had a few really lean sea watching years here, so it's been nice to be blessed with not only the right weather, but actually some birds too.

On Sunday morning (29th) I shared the Beer shelter with Ian Mc and Phil from 07:15 - 09:00 and it was excellent!  My totals were (all west);

2 Red-throated Diver

48 Common Scoter

3 Great Skua 

3 Arctic Skua

22 Kittiwake

2 Golden Plover (in-off)

1 small wader sp. 

12 auk sp.

Flock of Common Scoter flying west

I didn't count the Gannets but they really were plentiful. The six skuas were easily the highlight for me, and as usual injected a good amount of adrenaline into the watch.  Four of them (two each of Arctic and Great) passed at fairly close range - just brilliant to watch. Good fun ageing them too!

My other sea watch was on Tuesday 1st from Spot On Kiosk in Seaton 07:15 - 08:45 and showed (all west);

350+ Gannet

9 Balearic Shearwater

2 Shearwater sp.

12 Common Scoter

1 Arctic Skua (pale-phased)

3 Kittwake

6 auk sp.

So all good.  And I suppose if there was a moral to this blog post, it's you don't need to see a rarity to have a good time out birding!

Great Surprise Skua

A key component of a good Axe year list is plenty of good sea watching. And for good sea watching you need the right weather... this is something we've not had at all so far this spring!  In fact all year the sea has been poor, dire in the winter months for divers, grebes and ducks, and dire this spring for anything because the weather has been so far from right (we need Atlantic storms - there's been none!). It's 24th April and I haven't even seen a Manx Shearwater yet, in previous years by now flocks are streaming by during the evening.

Amazingly I have managed to see a skua though! On Saturday afternoon I noticed that although the sea was flat calm, there seemed to be quite a few Gannets and gulls feeding out there - which could only mean there must be some food.  So later that evening I went back expecting to see a few Manxies, but instead bagged a jammy Great Skua! My first skua of the year :-)

It flew west, and was the closest bird of them all, but it was unusually high up. The further west it flew the higher it went, and I lost it as it seemed to fly west over Beer Head.  It was so weird watching a skua off here in blue skies with no wind, but I have seen a few Arctic Skuas over the years behaving similarly in similar weather conditions. I once saw an adult dark phased Arctic fly straight in from miles out, gain height by soaring up a bit like a raptor, then fly in off over Seaton and away inland.  

Other than this Bonxie, I've not seen too much since my last blog post, although haven't had that much time out really.  Many places have seen some wader passage over the past few days, but all I've noticed here is an increase in Whimbrel numbers...

Seawatching

May is my favourite month for sea watching without a doubt. Everything is in fresh spring plumage and the variety of what can fly past is as good as it gets (skuas, terns, shearwaters, divers, wildfowl, waders, etc) and we often do get a good blow at some point during the month.  I love it!  

But this can cause problems....  Birders know just how painful it can be when you are tied up with 'daily life' and there is a bird or are birds you want to see. It could be a rare, a movement or fall and you're stuck at work/in the middle of a shopping trip/have the kids for the day - I'm sure we've all been there. Now I'm very lucky, first of all Jess is very understanding, and has now learned it is always best for everyone if I just go.  But I am sensible about it, and I can cope with missing most things now except for 1/ a patch tick and 2/ may sea watching.  Although with sea watching you can kind of predict what you are going to see, there is just something so magic about watching birds migrating over the sea as they head to their breeding grounds. I find it so SO hard to leave/ignore a busy spring sea.  

The weather looked good for Monday 2nd May, not great but good enough, so I watched from the Spot On Kiosk on Seaton seafront 05:55-08:20 and 14:00-15:00 and saw;

4 Great Northern Diver (1 s/pl e, 2 s/pl w and 1 w/pl on the sea)

1 Black-throated Diver (w s/pl w)

16 Pale-bellied Brent Geese (w in one flock at 06:08)

31 Common Scoter (all w, biggest flock was seven)

122 Manx Shearwater (40 in morning and 72 in afternoon, all west)

1 Great Skua (w at 07:45, Dan J had it past Sidmouth just under half an hour later)

2 Arctic Skua (2 d/ph hassled gulls then flew e at 06:30, they were later seen past West Bay and possibly the same two through Chesil Cove at 07:50 per John Down)

4 Kittiwake

6 Sandwich Tern (two groups of three w)

2 Whimbrel

2 Ringed Plover (two singles w along beach)

4 Sanderling (two two's w with Dunlin)

210 Dunlin (a very impressive movement with flocks of up to 40 flying w, they dried up by 8am)

So although I have had much better May sea watches, there was a real nice variety and some decent movement.  The skuas were the first one's I've seen on patch for almost 18 months (missed the few we had last year) and the Dunlin movement was really quite spectacular. It's just a pity there wasn't a bit more rain about because then the waders would have come on to the beach and up the river valley instead of just passing.

I didn't manage to video any of the real goodies, but here's the Brents, a Whimbrel and a Fulmar...

The relatively new phenomenon that is the spring Pale-bellied Brent migration is fantastic. We don't get flocks of geese down here in this small valley, so it is about as 'Norfolk' as birding can get for us. The flock past the sea front was great, but I had an even better sight that evening...

The girls and I were enjoying a wander around Lyme Regis, and just after we arrived I noticed on twitter a flock of c60 Pale-bellied Brents were flying around over Weymouth (Julian Thomas) and then flew west through Portland Harbour. I knew they were coming so kept one eye on the sea, but I actually nearly missed them because of this....  They left west from Weymouth at 17:13 and at 18:05 I was suddenly aware of Brents calling. I turned around and was greeted with the beautiful sight and sound of 70 Pale-bellied Brents flying rapidly west between us (on the end of the Cobb) and the town. It's a short clip, but just listen to that sound!! (and not my wife asking if it's a ship or a boat!)...

A quick calculation indicates they were traveling at about 28mph - love being able to work things like this out! I fired off a quick text to let the other patch birders know that there were heading for Seaton, and Tim Wright managed to make it down to the sea front just in time to see them/some of them pass by.

I would really love to know where these Brents come from, maybe Holland or France?  They only seem to appear at around Portland, fly west along our part of the coast then always seem to settle on the Exe Estuary for the rest of that day.  It is such a predictable passage now that it clearly is a movement of birds from a regular wintering site to their breeding grounds, presumably in Canada. AMAZING!

Isn't the weather looking promising for the next week. Not for sea watching, but it's looking good for some rare herons, warblers, maybe something better... and surely a tan!? 

Not A Nice Post To Write...

The stormy winter months haven't just been devastating for many people in the UK, but they have been for our seabirds too.

An arcitle on BirdGuides reveals that a survey during the weekend of 22/23rd February along the coast of the Bay of Biscay, France, showed 21,341 dead birds (mostly Puffins). On top of this, 2,784 ill birds were taken into care and fisherman were still reporting seeing carpets of dead birds floating at sea. Such disturbing news.

Along the Devon coast, Kev Rylands of the RSPB has said around 200 dead birds have been found. I know that south Dorset, particularly Chesil Cove, have had large numbers too, and Cornwall.  Wales is in the same boat now also and I presume Ireland is as well.  The true number of sea bird that have died, considering these numbers, and the fact most are probably still floating at sea, is scary. Must be around or above 100,000 birds surely?

Seaton beach sadly has had its share of this. Local birder Alan Bibby has found most of the birds, but I've been down a few times also keeping an eye on things.  Personally I've seen 16 dead birds; 10 Guillemot, 3 Razorbill, 1 Kittiwake, 1 Great Skua and 1 Manx Shearwater.  I know of a further four dead birds that have been found, including a Puffin. This selection shows how many different species have been affected.

And now, I'm afraid, some pictures...

Sadly many of the Guillemots, like this one, were in pristine summer plumage and looked in good shape (except for being dead obviously!).

A Razorbill.

A dead adult Kittiwake, this was the only bird I've seen with obvious oil.

This I found the saddest sight. Great Skua's are the bullies of the sea, a proper dominate pirate species. Not this one anymore.

A head shot of the Great Skua, such a powerdul bird.

A Manx Shearwater (which is still in my back garden!) - we usually see these gracefully gliding just above the waves.

Hopefully my next blog post will be a bit more positive...

Black Hole Marsh, Butterflies and a Balearic

Black Hole Marsh looks EPIC at the moment. There's lots of mud and it absolutely stinks, which means there's lots of lovely flies and bugs for wading birds to eat.  This afternoon Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank and Common Sands were spread about all over it - as were Green Sandpipers, 13 of them (with a 14th on Colyford Marsh).  Highlights were a stunning juv Ruff, and this juv Little Ringed Plover...

It's been here several days now

Two Med Gulls included an adult and the usual juv...

Starting to moult into first winter plumage

Yesterday morning the wading bird situation was pretty similar, just with the addition of a Turnstone which flew around calling for a few minutes as I was leaving. There were also three Teal (come on Garganey!).

Before yesterday's visit to Black Hole Marsh I had a 45 minute sea watch. I would have stayed longer but I just couldn't get out of the wind! Numbers were represented by Gannets (lots, with birds going both ways) and Common Scoter - 17 of them. There were a few notable singletons too, with a Balearic Shearwater west, a Bonxie east (my first Skua of the autumn) and a Turnstone that flew out from the Estuary. 

It's not been hard to notice the excellent numbers of butterflies flying since the suns reappearance, I thought I'd photograph a few of them too...

Peacock

Painted Lady - such a stunning underwing

Gatekeeper

The underwing of a Comma - and that's why they're called Comma's!

What A Walk To Work!

Well it's about time I caught up with things, and tell all about the excitement following my last blog post.

Tuesday afternoon I headed off to work, and walked along the cycle track into Seaton. As I came down to the marshes the first bird I saw was a male Whitethroat - my first of the year! Pleased with that, I walked a little further south to the water treatment works on the edge of Seaton Marshes. There were a few Willow Warblers flitting about, but I wasn't expecting what I saw next - a male Pied Fly! 

Now this may not seem like much to many birders, but to us it's a big event...

The twitch!

A Pied Fly of any form at any time of year is notable for us, with autumn being the best time (although we never get more than a handful).  Spring Pied Flies are rare here, and rarer still are spring male Pied Flies.  This is only the third of this plumage I've ever seen on patch, with the other two being on Beer Head - the last four years ago. It's not just about the rarity value though - they are such stunning birds.

I thought I'd best grab a record shot of it when I first saw spotted it, in case it was to disappear...

Still looks amazing despite the awful pic!

Thankfully it did remain, and Karen got some excellent snaps of it, see HERE. Sue also got some great pics of it, along with some shots of the lovely Yellow Wag on Black Hole Marsh earlier that day, see HERE.

It wasn't just birds I saw on this walk in, but plenty of Butterflies too. I only saw Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells, but there were lots of them...

Peacock

Today, all I've had time for was an hours sea watch from the Spot On Kiosk, where I had arranged to meet Gav at dawn.  The conditions weren't great, and I wouldn't describe it as being busy, but it was great to see a few sea birds at last. 

Best of all were three stunning Great Skuas that flew fairly close west together just after 7am. Two adults and one clearly a younger bird with a paler belly and less prominent white wing flashes.  It was also nice to see some Manx Shearwaters finally, with 16 west (two and a distant flock of c14). Other than this I saw a few distant Terns and Kittiwakes, six Common Scoter, two Red-throated Divers and a distant large Diver sp..

Tomorrow looks as though it may be good for some more grounded migrants. Fingers crossed!

Ducks

I have only had chance for a whistle-stop tour of the river mid morning. The best spot was Bridge Marsh, with MASSIVE numbers of ducks on what water was left over from yesterday...

Tons of ducks!

There were 410 Wigeon and 90 Teal on this pool. I looked hard for a vertical stripe amongst the Teal, or some nice salmon pink flanks amongst the Wigeon...but not today (either would be an over due patch first!). Two drake Gadwall were notable though, out first of the autumn I believe.

Whilst downloading these pics, a couple of Raven flight shots dropped on to my computer that I'd taken yesterday...

Croak croak

In the last week I've learnt of a 'new birder on the block'. Rodney who lives in Axminster cashed in on the Little Gull influx yesterday with a first-winter on his part of the Axe at Axminster. Much more gripping though was the juv/female Long-tailed Duck he had on 30th Oct during a sea watch in stormy conditions from Seaton Beach. His exacts words were "it was flying so close to the beach it was almost within touching distance"....GRIPPED!! But an excellent record nevertheless! :-)

Back to my Bonxie experience of yesterday, I did try to take a video as it flew around above my head, despite being stood right besides the crashing waves in gale force winds and torrential rain! I knew it was going to come out rubbish and wasn't worth posting, but that hasn't stopped me before....

This video doesn't do it justice at all, but it does show how it just stayed above my head!

What A Contrast!

I took these photos just after half past midday...


And I took this photo less than two hours later...


All morning it was absolutely horrendous - torrential rain with a very strong south easterly wind whipping the waves up a good'un! But early afternoon, it was as if someone flicked a switch; not a breath of wind and blue skies! The sea remained pretty choppy though.

Mid morning, the flood opposite Axmouth FC was graced by a gorgeous adult Little Gull. Unfortunately, as I was attaching the camera to my telescope, everything took to the air and it buggered off! Also here 12 Snipe and 8 Dunlin (with a further 14 Dunlin on the Estuary).

A few hours later, whilst sea watching from the shelter of Axmouth Yacht Club, another adult Little Gull flew through east. Although the sea watch was very poor (we never seem to do very well in really rough conditions), the Little Gull wasn't the highlight.

I picked up a Great Skua flying into the bay quite a way to the west of me, which then started to fly east along the beach. I broke from the shelter of the yacht club building and ran to the shore where I was soon treated to my best ever views of a Bonxie on patch! When it came level with me, it double-backed and hung in the wind no more than ten metres above my head, looking down at me! I have to say, I felt intimidated, but it's moments like this that make birding so enjoyable for me. What a stonking view of a terrifically powerful bird...it was the kind of view you'd only expect to get during the breeding season on Shetland!

I returned to the shelter of the building, and took a few snaps as the Bonxie continued to fly up and down the beach...

A long way from Mark Darlaston quality - but not bad for Seaton!

And that's pretty much my highlights for today, but for two adult Med Gulls; one on the Estuary and one on flood water south of Boshill Cross.

Early afternoon I gave the new hide at Colyford Common a go for the first time...

This is no 'box' anymore!

A vast improvement! It is now comfortably spacious, and the added height helps no end. Best of all though is the much improved panoramic view, with the north end of the main scrape on Colyford Marsh now easily visible. Excellent work again EDDC :-)

There were plenty of birds to be seen here, like for example at least 400 Wigeon, but nothing out of the ordinary. Two Green Sands on Colyford Common probably being the best.

Now, it's days like today that I think food plays an important part in the birding regime. There hasn't been much mention of food on this blog of late, but during one of my brief returns to 'base', this helped me along no end...

Note the healthy seeded multi grain bread

And then I thought I'd get a taste of the festive spirit soon to be upon us...

Note the small slice I've cut off for myself; this was the only slice I ate, promise...

Another Murky Morning

I woke up to another wet, dull and misty morning....so stayed in bed a little longer than I really wanted to! At just gone seven I finally dragged myself up and headed down to Blackhole Marsh, before the workmen arrived.

It was worthwhile, as with the small wader flock was my first patch Sanderling of 2010 - I think a first for the marsh! Sanderling is a scarce bird on the river, with most of our records concerning birds on/past the beach in late spring. As I've already said, it was misty and drizzly, an excellent excuse for posting a photo of this quality...

Yes I know - crap! Smart bird though :-)

Other birds on the marsh included: 2 Oystercatcher, 39 Ringed Plover, 42 Dunlin, 2 Ruff, 3 Greenshank, 3 Green Sandpiper, 3 Common Sandpiper and a Water Rail which was showing very well in the north west corner. Spotted Crake next please :-)

So how much work did the workforce manage yesterday - a day of almost constant rain. This is how it looked this morning...

Well they've put another pair of posts in the ground!

At about 8am, I suddenly realised the weather had cleared, and the noticeable south west wind lured me to the seafront and my favoured sea watching spot for 'rough but dry conditions' - the Spot On Kiosk. It proved a good move as between 08:20 - 09:40 I notched up the following:

1 Great Crested Grebe - flew west, I always think these look stupid in flight!
2 Common Scoter
4 Balearic Shearwater - 1w at 08:25, 3w at 9am (1 v.dark bird)
2 Great Skua - juv west at 08:35, adult west at 09:20
2 Arctic Skua - 2 west also at 09:20, too distant to age
3 Kittiwake
2 Common Tern
9 Dunlin

1 Curlew

One of the Common Terns passed quite close, so I just HAD to whip the Lumix out...

...just a pity I was a little late in 'whipping it out!'

Numbers of large Gulls on the Estuary during this rough spell of weather have been surprisingly poor, though both sizes of Black-backed Gulls are making up a higher percentage than usual. In the small collection present on the river early this afternoon was this rather black mantled and long-winged Leeb...

intermedius-type!? Although it doesn't look that dark in this pic, it wasn't far off GBBG colour

The more observant blog browsers may have noticed a change in the name of this blog (not to mention a total re-vamp in layout!). I thought I'd go for a short, simple and obvious title - I should have changed it yonks ago really!

If you are a fellow blogger and have my blog in your blog list (for which I am much obliged), if the name change doesn't show up can you remove then re-instate me, that should do it. Thankyou :-)