Gullmageddon in Seaton

Wednesday's storm must have stirred some food up for the gulls - with huge numbers around this afternoon.

Between 15:30 and 16:30 there were over a thousand large gulls, with about 700 feeding in two large groups off the beach (one off the harbour mouth, and the other to the east off Culverhole) and 300+ resting on the lower part of the Estuary.  Sadly though, I couldn't find anything of note amongst them - I'm certainly pretty confident there weren't any white-wingers in with them. Actually there were unusually few Black-backs, with only three Lesser and probably no more than 40 Greats, which makes 957+ Herring Gulls! 

There were very few small gulls too, with just a few Black-headed Gulls, Common Gulls and Kittiwakes offshore. It was a nice surprise to see yet another adult Little Gull though, which came flying through close west very determinedly at 4pm. Cracking bird.

And now for a quiz, spot the Little Gull...

I'll be quite impressed if someone does find it! It is there I promise, and more importantly, perfectly identifiable.

A Few More Waders

There was a ringing session at Colyford Common today, I couldn't make the 5am start time, but didn't think parking up in the car park at 06:45 was too poor an effort.

A scan over Blackhole Marsh on way to the rendezvous point revealed our first Little Ringed Plover of the 'autumn', an adult...

A very bright-legged individual

There were a few other waders about too; my first autumn Green Sandpiper on the southern end of Colyford Marsh, eight Common Sands on the Estuary and at least six Blackwits still on the Estuary.

Ringing wise, we caught the expected - a few Linnets and plenty of Reed Buntings were nice along with oodles of Reed and Sedge Warblers. Oh, that reminds me, about four weeks ago the group caught a pair of Lesser Whitethroats on Colyford Common - both adults and the female with a brood patch. Now that's good news!

In the hedgerows there were a few Willow Warblers and a Whitethroat - I haven't seen either of these species here since the spring so I presume these were returning migrants?

Right, it's now time to bring everyone up to date with ringing in my garden.... it won't take that long because in the past week or so I have only had time to set a net up in the front garden on one day - a week ago today.

I have ringed 153 birds in total in the garden - 13% of that total being Bullfinches! Anyway, one of the first birds I caught on Saturday morning required me to start a new ring size...

A Chiffy - bit unexpected when the net is set beside bird feeders!

What makes it a Chiffy - the red arrow points to the clinching emarginated sixth primary

The rest of the morning was spent catching the usuals but then had to pack up and do something productive. Later in the evening though, I had a chance to put it up again - so did! I didn't catch many more birds, a couple of Greenfinches and Great Tits. The fifth bird of the evening though meant I had to start yet another new size of ring - a bloody big one too!

I looked at the mist net in disbelief as an adult Herring Gull was flapping about in it - flipping heck!!! I grabbed hold of it pretty quick...it grabbed hold of me even quicker!! Thankfully I'm pleased to report the net is still in one piece.

I wasn't expecting a beast like this, what a handful! A full adult male - bloody massive it was! Anyway, I ringed and processed it, then tried to get a photo of it and me...

... when this photo was snapped it was REALLY hurting me - I seriously thought it was going to break my hand!

I didn't want to handle it much more than I had to, so just settled with this pic...

Here he is trying to eat my ringing smock!

And that's the ringing up to date now. One day I will have to find time to write about three weeks of mothing....

Ringing At Radipole

I was late leaving home this morning, and as I turned in to Weymouth, these three shapes that I spied from behind the wheel on a road side tree made me even later...

Waxwings!

I knew there were three in the Weymouth area somewhere, but didn't know where. So quite jammy really :-)

Anyway, I finally rolled in at Radipole half an hour late, where this was waiting for me...

First-winter Black-headed Gull

We spent the next hour and a bit catching birds, and by the end of the morning I'd ringed two of these...

Coot - this was an adult male

I am starting to 'warm' to Coots, but their sharp claws can be surprisingly painful! I was wearing thick jeans, and I wondered what was stopping me from lifting this Coot away from me...

So powerful!

I processed (meaning they were re-traps which just needed measuring and weighing) two of these...

Drake Tufted Duck :-)

And last but not least, I ringed one of these...

First-winter Herring Gull

So, I hear you ask, how did we (and regularly do) catch this nice array of birds?

Well there's three things you need; bread, grain and Luke Phillips - it is that simple! Mind you, I think the fact the birds here are used to being hand fed is a rather important factor too!

This is Luke baiting the catch area...

And you just gotta watch this - this is Luke in action....

Impressive or what!?

Though not everything always plays ball, like this greedy Mute Swan...


And these two Gadwall that just didn't come close enough...

Just 'too wild!'

The drive home was enlivened by a couple of Black-necked Grebes and 40 Med Gulls in a surprisingly choppy Portland Harbour, and several Scaup - including a couple of stunning adult drakes - viewed from a distance at Abbotsbury Swannery.

What a cracking day :-)

Just An Hour

An early afternoon sweep of the Estuary showed 39 Blackwits (well 37, with two more opposite Axmouth FC) and amongst the Gulls were this nice adult Med...

We only have one or two Meds around at the moment - the other day Brett counted 285 on his patch on The Fleet!

There was also this (very exciting!) thing. At first the mantle shade along with the amount of white on the birds primaries made this look good for my first argentatus Herring Gull of the winter, but it lacked the size and there's a few other things not quite right with it. So I've put it down as just a darker than average argenteus...

It was quite striking in the field, the light conditions were ideal for 'gulling'

There's still loads of birds opposite Axmouth FC. Three Shoveler (one drake) were a 'field tick' for me.

A little later, from Seaton Hole, two Great Crested Grebes and a Common Scoter were all I could spy on the sea.

Am liking the forecast with cold weather predicted, things might get interesting by the end of the week....I hope!

Finally, there was another new addition to my 'birding library' today, this....

It is huge!

It is literally a library in itself, being 746 pages long! But it is an invaluable addition to my collection, and surprisingly up to date too. For example, the Solitary Sandpiper is in there under 'Pending records new to Devon', along with Yelkouan Shearwater, Barolo's Shearwater (Lundy this year), Elegant Tern, etc. Bearing in mind the Sandpiper was only just over a month ago, it is incredibly up to date for a book of this calibre. Well done Mr T I say!