Some South Easterly Seawatching

The raw east wind that's been hammering us for about a week edged more southerly yesterday, and this morning we woke up to a decent south east gale.  I'm not a fan of sea watching here in south easterlies, it's almost always disappointing and every time we are completely trumped by Chesil - embarrassingly and frustratingly so!

I didn't miss much this morning from what Ian Mc and Phil reported, but tonight I was keen to give it a go after work - am dead pleased I did!  An hour at the Spot On Kiosk from 18:50 produced (all east);

2 Teal (why weren't these Garganey!!??)

54 Gannet

128 Manx Shearwater (18 the biggest single flock)

1 Arctic Skua (a sleek pale-phased adult at 19:04)

5 Common Gull

12 Sandwich Tern (6, 4 and 2)

1 Arctic Tern (flew in then over the beach, gained height but then flew back out again!)

11 Whimbrel 

5 Dunlin

So not too shabby at all by Seaton standards, with the two Arctic's being the highlights.  The Tern just kept coming closer and closer, to the point I could even see the bill detail which was nice! And as for the Skua, well this was my first Skua of the year which is always a highlight - but this one looked particularly dinky and streamline and the plumage simply stunning in front of the dull grey sea.

Although I have been at work all day, it's clear there's been a constant arrival of hirundines. Every time I have been outside small groups of Swallows/House Martins have whizzed through quickly north. This evening whilst sea watching I must have seen twenty Swallows arrive in-off too. 

No photos from today I'm afraid, but here's a dreadful photo of a female Goosander that did a lap of Bridge Marsh in front of me on Saturday evening, with 60 Sand Martins and ten Swallows also on show...

A blur which shares some similarities with a female sawbill!

More of the same please Spring 2019!

First Redstart and Iceland Gull

Yesterday morning was a dull and misty one, often conditions we don't do that well in during migration time. Still I thought it was worth a wander around Seaton Marshes, so took little Harry out for an early morning walk...

Next month he'll be a year old, how did that happen!??

Although in general the bushes were quiet, a cracking highlight came in the form of a smart male Redstart in the north west corner of the Borrow Pit, our first of the year. And it really was a stunner. Many spring male Redstarts actually have quite restricted orange on their breasts, with a mostly white belly, I've always put these down as second-year birds. This one though was orange the whole way down the breast to the vent area, so presumably a full adult male.  Pity it didn't stay put for another ten seconds as I'd be able to post a photo of it if it had!  Half an hour later Phil and Ian Mc had a female Redstart here, and Kev had a third bird (another male) in Couchill Woods later in the day. Clearly something of a Redstart-day!

Otherwise all I saw in the bushes were four Chiffchaff and two Blackcap, but the skies above were busy with low flying hirundines, about 50, and they spent lots of time perched up on overhead wires...

All three species here

Can you spot the two House Martins among the Sand Martins?

A House Martin flanked by Sand Martins

Three White Wagtails at Cowhayne Lane during the afternoon was the only other highlight during the rest of the day.

Today the weather has been tasty, but sadly I've had such little time out - I reckon the sea would have been worth a watch, especially this evening.  I did just about manage a look along the Estuary mid afternoon, which showed there had been a decent influx of gulls. Not the Little Gull I was hoping for but 69 Common and a first-summer Med Gull were north of Coronation Corner, and among the large gulls was - hugely pleasingly - my first Iceland Gull of the year...

It was always pretty distant from my viewpoint

Always love a white-winger!

Despite the distance, I'm happy it's a second calendar-year bird, and to me it looked a fairly hefty and especially long-winged individual. I could see it wasn't the bird Tim Wright had on the Estuary at the start of the month, and when Ian Mc twitched it he was certain it wasn't any of the three Iceland Gulls that he's seen on the Axe this year (he has done really well for them!). So I'm happy it's a 'new bird'.

This Iceland Gull just proves that even if you only have the shortest window of time to go out birding, use it...

Slow Going

I don't think it is just here that spring seems to have stopped for the time being. Although I've not had much time out this week (an hour or so in the field both first thing in the morning and last thing at night) it's clear that it's really quite quiet.  In fact I hadn't had a year tick at all this week (so unusual for the last week in April) until just before 7pm tonight...

Whenever I've been around in the evenings over the past few weeks I've been checking the little pre-roost gathering of up to twenty Pied Wagtails that can usually be found either on Bridge or Colyford Marsh. A White Wagtail would have been nice enough (still not seen one this year) but a pair of Yellow Wagtails on Colyford Marsh this evening were way more exciting!  Hard to beat a spring male Yellow Wag if you ask me - I just love 'em! And a year tick too :-)

Otherwise today has been poor, as was yesterday. Tuesday was a little better though with the increased water level on Black Hole Marsh at dawn offering 16 Dunlin, six Ringed Plover (both notable increases), a Greenshank and a Common Gull, plus five Cattle Egret over north and seven Whimbrel on the Estuary (been this many pretty much all week).  Walking back from the Island Hide I briefly caught sight of a large yellow bunting and crossed everything that it was going to turn out to be a Cirl Bunting...

...It was a Yellowhammer. Still really notable though, I can't recall seeing many/any Yellowhammers on the deck in the river valley. I have had a few fly over, but not perched up in a bush which is promising, it would be great if they started nesting here. It was nice to see a Sedge Warbler quite well too for a change...

At both ends of Tuesday there were at least 200 hirundines feeding low in the valley, by far my biggest gathering this year and no doubt congregating low due to the bitterly cold north wind. They were mostly Sand Martins and Swallows with the odd House Martin mixed in.  It was fascinating watching them during the evening, because when a huge dark cloud came over and the light level dropped instantly, they all flew up and started behaving like a murmuration of Starlings...

I have been keeping an eye on the sea since my Great Skua, but it's been as quiet as the land. I had four Sandwich Terns fishing offshore on Tuesday, a Ringed Plover flew east on Wednesday and today the lingering Common Scoter remains...

I'm actually well impressed with the above photo, as the Scoter is at the very least half a mile out!  

Having moaned in my last post about the lack of sea watching weather this spring, I am literally salivating at the forecast for Saturday evening/Sunday.  I've asked Jess to keep our imminent arrival in there til Monday at least...

 

Some Nice Variety

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty decent day.  The only migrants about in quantity were hirundines (about time as I've only seen small numbers so far this year) with 200+ at Bridge Marsh during the morning, mostly Swallows but also several House and Sand Martins...

Was really hoping for a Red-rumped...

Although there wasn't anything else about in quantity yesterday I did have some nice snippets of quality, including my second Lesser Whitethroat of the year rattling away whilst watching these hirundines. Amazingly I have still not seen or heard a Common Whitethroat on patch this year, so to have two Lessers before any Commons is just weird. Sometimes I don't see any Lessers in an entire spring, compared with tens and tens of Commons. 

Just prior to this, I had a Grasshopper Warbler reeling for about twenty seconds lower down the Estuary near the Riverside workshops. Really thought I'd missed out on one of these skulkers this spring, they've been few and far between like many other passage species.  

I did Beer Head as well, but after flogging the eastern half of it I thought it was going to be a complete write off, the bushes were dead. When I reached the old Coastguard Lookout though a nice double whammy made it all better...

A fairly shy but very vocal male Redstart, only my second of the spring

This gorgeous male Whinchat, also my second of the year

I spent a lot of time with the Whinchat, it was a pity to leave him as he was such a stunner...

And now to today, which has been pretty disappointing.  I was up at 5am, and at Beer Head for 6am with my mist nets and poles. To me the weather looked perfect for a fall, the wind had switched round to the south west overnight, and was light, plus there was 100% cloud cover. I also checked some European satellite images last night which showed a high pressure sitting over the Med with virtually no cloud between us and southern Spain.

By 8:15 I had caught just three birds, two Chiffchaffs (both possibly local breeders) and a Robin. The only other grounded migrant I saw was a Sedge Warbler in full song - which was a bit of an odd one.  That was it for the bushes, pitiful and far from a fall. Two summer plumaged Golden Plover over low west were nice mind, with eight Whimbrel doing the same a little later. 

By this time last spring I had trapped and ringed 127 birds at Beer Head, including 76 Willow Warblers. The three birds I caught here this morning were the first three birds I've ringed up here this year.  I have tried, I've woken up at 5am on five mornings this month, but all sessions have been no good.  On three of these visits the net sites were completely blown out by an easterly wind (my rides are fairly sheltered from anything northerly or westerly, but exposed to easterly winds), on another thick fog and clear skies above deemed the session a fail before it begun, and the fifth attempt was today - when there just weren''t any migrants about.

The best sight of the morning was during one of the daily dog walks, when a flock of 16 Pale-bellied Brent Geese flew close west past the sea front...

Just about got them all in frame!

They flew past me at 09:52, I tweeted Dawlish Warren and texted Lee C, and later learnt Dave Jewell had them off the Warren fly in from the east then south at 10:27. Always love it when migrating birds are tracked, and it's really interesting to know it takes a Brent Goose flock about 25 minutes to fly just under 20 miles.

By the time they reached Dawlish they must have lost the 17th bird of the flock. Can you spot the Brent Goose-wannabe?

You don't fool me Mr Carbo

Flood!!

Well it was a rough one this morning! This was the view from the Beer shelter when I got there at 06:30...

Windy, wet and lots of white-topped waves!

Phil, Bun and Karen were already here, although all wished they hadn't bother because it was was quiet on the bird front. I had another look a little later from Seaton sea front, it was better with a Bonxie and a commic Tern, along with a strong passage of Manxies (70 in ten mins). The sea still looked as impressive...

I thought the remaining beach huts were going to get another bashing - but they got away with it today!

Up the valley, lots of flood water about. I love our valley when it is like this - the habbo looks superb for so many species. In this view you normally wouldn't be able to see ANY water...

Flood!

There were large numbers of hirundines and Swifts over the valley today, but for me the flood opposite Axmouth FC was the best spot. The Egyptian Goose James found yesterday was still present...

Our first one for several years - for a few years it was a guaranteed year tick on the Axe!

And this afternoon, a lovely flock of Whimbrel, Blackwits and Barwits were here. There were five of the latter, with two in stunning summer plumage...

In the top photo there's three species but five different plumages!!

The flood came over the A3052 at Colyford today. Not surprising, and not the first time I've seen this. But I thought it deserved a photo...

It was always passable though

Before I post this, I must just mention another new local patch blog! And I am already very impressed with the photography on show on it! Sue Smith has started a blog, and you just HAVE to check out her stunning Whinchat photos from today... http://bicyclebirderontheaxe.blogspot.co.uk/

A Four Way Sea Watch

There were four 'shifts' of sea watchers this morning from Beer.  Phil did the early stint, with Bun and Karen dropping in just after 6:30.  I rocked up at 7:50, staying til 08:35, not long before Ian Mc arrived to continue the watch!

We never seem to do that well for numbers in south easterlies (except sometimes Terns), and today was no exception!  I think there was too much rain as well, with several Gannets visible resting on the water.  All I noted were (all west):

2 Manxies

7 Whimbrel

1 Med Gull (second-summer)

1 Common Gull (first-summer)

14 Sandwich Tern

A little later I had a quick look off Seaton sea front too, where I noted a single Common Tern flying close in east, and a Dunlin whizzing backwards and forwards over the beach.

Mid afternoon, a quick tour of the valley showed AT LAST good numbers of hirundines.  At least 450+ were feeding in the valley.  Swallows were most numerous, with House Martins probably at the 100 mark with only a few Sand Martins.

It was so good to see this sight again!

A look along the Estuary revealed four Common Sandpipers, three Whimbrel, but nothing else of note.

This one was just north of Coronation Corner 

Since when did blogger change the posting format!?? I don't like it - I want the old style back!

Mr Nasty

Well it should be Miss Nasty really, as I'm pretty sure our lingering Caspian Gull is a female (on size).

Yesterday I spent half an hour watching her, from Coronation Corner - and boy was she in a bad mood! Every few minutes she would just have a go at anything near her. The funny thing is though, she would often lose! I did feel sorry for an unsuspecting first summer Black-headed Gull though, which was just sitting there minding its own business, and the Casp must have run for about 15m along the mud just to have a jab at it! For absolutely no apparent reason! What a bully...

It must be the time of the month!

Also yesterday, a wander around the Beer Cemetery fields showed little, except these four Wheatears which looked like they were shortly going to be continuing with their northward migration...

Three males, and my first female on 2012

Today, all I've had time for was a ten minute watch from Coronation Corner just before 9am. This proved worthwhile as a winter plumaged Sanderling flew north up river and around the corner. A minute or two later though it reappeared, flying around with two Dunlin, before nipping over the tram line and appearing to drop down on Black Hole Marsh.

Saw three Swallows whilst driving too, south of Musbury. Although there are nowhere near the amount of hirundines around that I'd expect by now, maybe these - along with two Sand Martins I saw yesterday over town - signal the start of a mass arrival?