An Hour Out

I've done quite well today considering I've only had an hour out tops, in two parts, mid morning and late afternoon.

This morning on Beer Beach, a male Black Redstart popped up in front of me, which was presumably the recent Seaton Hole stunner I thought...

Always great to see these winter beauts

But then I saw it from the side...

No white in the wing and limited black on the throat/upper breast

Yes it was a first-winter male, which means we have definitely got at least four Black Redstarts wintering with us this year. The adult male has been at Seaton Hole almost daily, and on Saturday females were along side him, and in the middle of Seaton Town.  Chances are there's more than four, but at least we have an 'at least' figure. Today's bird was clearly not the first-winter male I had along Trevelyan Road (Seaton) on 16/11/17 as that one was already showing decent pale wing patches. Because of the date, that bird could easily have been a passing autumn migrant so I've not included it in the over-wintering total.

This evening there weren't many gulls along the Estuary to go through, but there was a single adult Med Gull. Was interesting to see it had already lost its winter mask, showing the first signs of a hood...

Only my fourth of the year!

All the Wigeon were on the sea this evening, about 250, due to shooting in the valley. Among them were a few Teal, and surprisingly a female Pintail, our first of the year...

Spot the Pintail! It wasn't always easy in the light and swell...

Eight Wigeon, two Teal (left) and female Pintail (second from back)

On Saturday, two days after 'Twilight Tim' had four Hawfinch at Colyton Church, as I was walking through Colyton with the dog, having seen no Hawfinches at the Church, I was amazed to watch a flock of nine fly in, land on a tree (which is marked with a red dot on the map below), then twenty seconds later fly off back west with a single Greenfinch...

If only flocks of Hawfinches dropped out the sky like this every winter!

Hawfinch Hysteria

This post is not for the faint-hearted. This morning I actually suffered from a Hawfinch-hypo, and you may too by the time you've read this blog post...

What is better than watching patch Hawfinches? Watching ground feeding patch Hawfinches that's what...

Am absolutely delighted that all the time I've spent in Musbury getting to grips with this group of Hawfinches rewarded me so well this morning. Such a thoroughly enjoyable hour and a half of my life that I will relive so many times. Pure Hawfinch heaven.

I saw about six birds in all, including one stunning male (nice comparison of male and female in the middle section of the above video). Listen to the video as well, because in the second section there's lots of 'tic' calling, and during the third section you will hear the 'seep' call a few times.

As well as lots of on the ground views, I enjoyed some nice perched views too...

They are such great birds. Simply awesome. I really hope they never leave...

A Counting Conundrum and Cattle Egret

So what are your counting skills like? Or estimating skills I should say... We popped into Greendale Farm Shop today (along the A3052 near Westpoint) and I was astonished to see the number of Linnets feeding in a neighboring field. I estimated 500 birds when I quickly counted this flock perched up, but what do you think?

I'll post the answer in a blog post on Sunday night, but before that I'd love to read your guesstimates. And I don't mean sit there and count them one by one, take a quick look, count them like you would a large flock of moving birds in the field, and let me know what number you come up with. Be so interesting to see the variation in responses. Is my 500 bang on the money, or would you go higher or lower?

I've been off work this week, and for the last few nights have been trying to get to grips with the Egret roost, but I've kept missing them! They keep switching sides, one night roosting on the Borrow Pit then the next night roosting in Axmouth - and I kept picking the wrong side!  Tonight finally I was in the right spot, and at Axmouth one Cattle Egret (which I reckon is a wintering bird that's been with us since Nov 2017, just been spending the day time north of the patch) and 48 Little Egrets came into roost.

Also tonight there were good numbers of large gulls on the lower Estuary at dusk. Sadly there was nothing better in them than this dodgy looking third-winter (I think) hybrid-type...

And lastly, Sue Murphy saw the two Musbury Hawfinch this afternoon, both from the car park near the Church.  Delighted that someone else has managed to catch up with them.

Right then, get guesstimating folks... 

More Local Hawfinches

Yet again the day's highlight came within the last hour of light... A stroll with Jess and Harry from Musbury up to Musbury Castle rewarded me with two sightings of Hawfinch. One flew low north east over my head and landed in distant trees half way along the footpath from Musbury to Higher Bruckland Farm (just within the patch boundary!). Then when we returned to the car, which was parked in the small car park by the Church in Musbury, I could hear Hawfinch calling. It took some searching but I finally located it in the top of a tree just down and across Church Hill from us. Also saw 250+ Redwing and four Yellowhammer in the fields below Musbury Castle.

Earlier in the day, two adult Dark-bellied Brent Geese were sat on the sea with the Wigeon flock off Seaton Beach. They didn't stay long though, and after five minutes flew off west. January is easily the best month of the year to connect with this bellied-variety of Brent here, although most records are of birds passing offshore.

It was nice to get a mist net up for a few hours today too, my first bird ringing session of 2018. Although it was a modest catch with just eight new birds ringed, there was one rather nice highlight. It's a species that comes into the garden frequently, but up until today has always managed to avoid my nets...

Am sure you all recognise that eye, yes a Jackdaw...

As you can just about see in the above photo, this bird had a few white/partially white feathers in its wings. This leucism is quite common in corvids, although I see it most often in Carrion Crows and less so in the other species...

My Top Five Wildlife Moments of 2017

Happy New Year everyone! I really hope 2018 is a great one for you, and I wish nothing but good health, plenty of happiness and lots of successful wildlife watching for you all.

Just before 2017 is out, I thought I'd share my top five birding/wildlife moments of the year, but first there was one last treat for me in the year.  A Boxing Day family stroll in Branscombe gave me absolutely knock out views of a male Firecrest. I watched it for about fifteen minutes feeding at eye-level along the ground and perimeter fence of the Water Treatment Works. I simply could not leave it, to the extent that it took me ten minutes to catch back up with Jess, Harry and Honey! What a Boxing Day bonus.

And now to my top five wildlife highlights of the year...

5. Red Kite influx on 24th May 2017. This was two days before Harry was born, and I missed a better passage on the 25th when even more were seen over Seaton. But it was amazing to watch 18 Red Kite fly west over the patch in the space of a couple of hours mid to late afternoon, and out of the blue too! Many of them passed really low overhead.

Red Kite

4. Slapton Humback Whale. The only off-patch entry to the list, but it just couldn't be ignored. What a privilege to see such an incredible animal off the coast of Devon, and so close too. We made the journey down on 4th May and were treated to some amazing views of this monster from the deep.

3. 30th April 2017.  This was my best day of the spring, and was just what I needed after a very uneventful (and mostly sunny) month. My full account of the day can be found here, but in brief it included a superb morning sea watch with sea birds, wildfowl and waders passing through, a Marsh Harrier over Colyford Marsh and on the Estuary some stunning waders in absolute stunning plumage - next stop the Arctic! Migration is just so SO exciting to witness, and it really makes you marvel at the journeys these birds have to make. 

Bar-tailed Godwit

2. Hawfinch influx. Although the patch has seen only the very smallest of slices of the incredible nationwide Hawfinch influx this winter, just having the feeling of the very real prospect of seeing Hawfinch any time I've stepped outside has been really exciting. An influx on this scale is possibly a once in a lifetime event, so I urge everyone to make the most of it while you can. I have managed to find three on patch, all in Colyton, and off patch five in Exeter and a single in Axminster (whilst delivering Christmas cards!). I don't think anyone would argue that they are such super impressive birds.

Hawfinch

1. That Pomarine Skua flock. As they flew out of view, I knew right there and then they simply could not be topped. And I honestly think they would take the top spot in an all-time version of this list (and I've seen some cracking birds here over the years!). I was delighted to share the amazing and close flock of nine Pomarine Skuas with Richard at the Spot On Kiosk, and numerous other sea watchers as the flock was tracked all away along the south coast to Sussex! It was the morning of 12th May, and was the cherry on top for my best spring Skua tally for many years here which included 12 Poms, 5 Arctics and two Greats. I will finish this post with the best birding video I have ever taken, enjoy...

A Frosty Morning and Another Patch Hawfinch

What a stunningly beautiful morning, with the temperature gauge showing -4 when I stepped out the front door pre-sunrise. I've been feeling left out with all the snow photos coming in from north and east of us, but this morning helped quash some of this jealousy...

I saw quite a few bits and bobs too, including this Mink. This species always makes me feel a bit odd when I see it. I don't see many, but when I do I feel like I should be excited, but then remember the havoc they cause...

On the bird front, just by where the Mink was a flighty Water Pipit proved a bit of a surprise, as they have become a real scarce winter visitor here in most of the recent years. On the Estuary, four Shoveler were resting with Mallards...

There were plenty of Redwing and a few Fieldfare scattered about all over the place, along with a few more Skylark than usual. At Stafford Cross a brief look showed at least ten Brambling, but the main prize came during my journey back through Colyton.

Driving along Burnards Field Road (our Hawfinch hotspot) I caught a glimpse of the unique shape of a flying Hawfinch, heading low south parallel with the road. Thankfully it did the right thing and pitch down in a Field Maple (I think), which it fed in for the next ten minutes before I had to leave...

Hopefully this one will stick around!?

Hawfinch Hotspot and Patch Update

Having not seen any more Hawfinch on patch since my Colyton duo earlier in the month, I've been keen to get to Shute where James Mc found 3+ birds in the Churchyard a couple of weeks ago. Shute is only a couple of miles outside the Axe patch, which makes the fact we've not had any more here even more frustrating!

I spent a couple of hours wandering around the lanes of Shute on Thursday morning and heard/saw 10-15 birds, including groups of five and four.  I didn't have any in the Churchyard at all, and my god they could be elusive little blighters - it's a good job they were so vocal!   Most views were similar to this...

But this more distant bird perched up nicely for a few minutes...

There's plenty of Yew, Hornbeam and Field Maple around Shute and most birds seemed quite mobile, but I've highlighted on the map below where I saw most of mine. They are still being seen around the Church as well so don't walk past here without checking the Yews carefully.  I can't stress enough how useful it is to know the various different Hawfinch calls before visiting, particularly the 'seep' call. It's an unobtrusive and subtle sound, but distinctive once learned - they're still not particularity easy to pin down though even when they are calling!

Back to the patch, and I'll quickly summarise my patch highlights over the past week or so...

I had two Brambling with a large flock of Chaffinch at Stafford Cross back on 14th Nov, and a return visit on Thursday morning showed there were at least five now present...

Female Brambling

Male Brambling

I saw another Brambling yesterday, along Clay Lane in Colyton. This afternoon, a Facebook message from a visitor from London, Mark Knivett, reporting two Black Redstarts feeding along the cliff edge on the West Walk, reminded me of this lovely first-winter male Black Red I had along Trevelyan Road on 16th Nov...

It's proving to be an absolutely stonking autumn/early winter for thrushes around here. So SO many Redwing about, in other years we often don't get good numbers of grounded winter thrushes until after Christmas...

Redwing

And I think that's it from me for today, so I shall bid you all a good night...

Seaton Beach looking towards Beer Head on the evening of 17th Nov.