Merry Christmas

I have a seven month old son, yet I'm still the first one up on Christmas morning! So this is the perfect opportunity to fire up the laptop and wish you all, my lovely friends and blog readers, a very Merry Christmas...

 

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!?

Water Pipits

Wow what a lovely day it has been, a proper cold frosty wintry one. Lovely. It's days like these that I really enjoy being a dog owner...

Honey playing in a puddle of ice

Really gorgeous scenes at Lower Bruckland Ponds this morning

As the title suggests this post is mostly about Water Pipits.  This species used to be a regular winter visitor to the Axe, in particular Colyford Marsh where up to double figures could be seen feeding in the long grass beyond the main scrape.  During the winter of '03/'04 numbers peaked with up to 18 on a field next to Colyford WTW - this was quite a sight.  

Since then though numbers have declined drastically and over the past four or five years we haven't had any over winter with us at all, the peak month now is April when spring birds pass through.  It's really odd why they have become so rare as the habitat they use is still the same, in fact more of it has been created - a true mystery.  On Saturday though Phil had at least five on Bridge Marsh, so on Monday I gave this area plenty of time as I was keen to seen some.  After twenty minutes of looking Water Pipits began to make themselves known and I saw at least seven (all perched on a fence at the same time) although I think there were probably more like nine present.  It's so great to have them back, let's hope they begin to winter with us once again.

Portland

Had a nice day out today with Jess and Honey. Went a little further east than usual, which was nice as I haven't been here for several years...

Didn't appear to be many sea birds offshore despite three pairs of eyes looking...

We enjoyed a really nice walk up to the slopes past the Coastguard Lookout, through the Top Fields to Southwell, back down across the the Bill Road through Eight Kings Quarry then along the East Cliffs back to the bill end.  

It wasn't a birdie trip, but was nice to see a few Wheatear, heaps and heaps of Stonechats (15 in one field!), a few Chiffs, Blackcaps and Goldcrests, loads of Mipits, and to finish the walk off perfectly...

The resident Obs Quarry Little Owl

The best bird of the day was during the journey over; a single Marsh Harrier circling by Abbotsbury Castle before it flew high east along the Fleet. Pity I didn't see the two Ibis that were going the other way though!

The Birthday Girl

In the absence of any bird news (it's turning out to be a very poor spring for common migrants, really hope it picks up quick) I thought I should blog about the birthday girl...

 

It's hard to believe Honey is already one. It's been a steep learning curve for us both, but especially me as I've never owned a dog before - in fact I used to be scared of them. When I was five I jumped into a bed of stinging nettles because a dog was running at me barking!

I have now completely changed and am very confident around dogs, thanks to Honey.  She is a wonderful animal with such a good and relaxed temperament, and is a great companion in life.  Another way she has changed us is that we now get even more peed off with irresponsible dog owners.  I'm sure everyone has seen how often 'dogs on leads' signs are ignored - don't think some dog owners can read.  As for picking up the poop, there is never an excuse not to. Really winds us up, way more than it used too.

Anyway, back to Honey, and she's actually now a famous dog. Although this isn't all factually correct (dam press!) it was great to see her in the Bridport and Lyme Regis News...

But although she's one, it doesn't mean she's grown up...

Play Time

Haven't done many Golden Retriever focused posts, well haven't done any really as this is a birding blog, but it's time for one I think as she is such a big part of our life now.

We took Honey to see her sister Bella at the weekend - Honey is more golden than her sister but otherwise they are very similar in pretty much every way.  Both 'teenage' Goldies had an absolute ball of a time...

And at the end of the long muddy walk they both had the same idea....

This was the second time they had seen each other since leaving the 'nest' last summer. They first met up late September - when they looked like this...

Amazing to think I used to be scared of dogs as a kid! I once jumped in to a bed of stinging nettles when a barking dog came running at me...

Grrrrrrrreat Shearwaters

Over sleeping wasn't an option for this morning, as I knew there was a chance of a Large Shearwater patch tick.

Impressive numbers of Cory's and Great Shearwaters have been reported from the pelagics off the Scillies for about a week or so, with numbers peaking just a couple of days ago. During the early hours of today the tail end of Hurricane Bertha was forecasted to hit our shores, which had the potential to push some of these birds this way.  Unfortunately it could have been a lot better, the wind turned westerly at about 9am which killed all passage, and more cloud cover was needed as the sun shone from about 08:30 here.  There was plenty of rain though, and the wind up until 9am was perfect for sea watching.

I was up at 05:30, but despite the above paragraph I didn't go sea watching straight away.  It was absolutely lashing down and knew that I probably wouldn't be able to see the sea let alone birds over it - so I went to Black Hole Marsh.  Here were my first two Little Ringed Plovers for almost a month (juvs), along with a Wood Sandpiper, four Ringed Plovers and 18 Dunlin.

Could only see the one today, there have been two for a few days.

Then it was to the sea, and the Beer shelter at 7am.  Here I found Ian M, who had been sat for some time but hadn't seen much due to the heavy rain. Luckily though from when I arrived, the visibility improved for the most.  There were still some showers during the first hour but they all moved through fairly rapidly.

The first half hour was quiet, only a couple of Manxies and the usual Gannets. But when it cleared a little more, an Arctic Skua came through west along with a few more Manx.  Then came a text from Lee "Great Shearwater lingering off Dawlish Warren". This was the best news - at least one big shear was in the bay!  And if one was in the bay, there could be more...

We continued watching, a Balearic (my first of the year) came through with some Manx, 27 Common Scoter flew by (2w, 25e), then another two Balearics passed close west.  But no big shears.

At about 08:30 my phone rang, it was Lee who had kindly phoned to let me know Matt had seen a further two Great Shears past Exmouth, which he had also seen from the Warren.  For some reason though this news didn't excite me further, but totally deflated me. I just knew we had blown it; the sun was beginning to shine and sky turning blue, the wind had started to veer west and as a result sea passage had dried right up.  We were just that little bit too far east. And even if Matt's two Great Shears had come past us, it would probably have been when we were engulfed with heavy rain.  Gutted - absolutely gutted. So near yet so far.

There are still only three species of Shearwater on my patch list. 

Still need to work hard on that "Find the Great Shearwater" command...

Before I sign off for the night, must just mention a few nice highlights from Black Hole Marsh over the past week. The Curlew Sandpiper that was first present on Monday was joined by a cracking summer plumaged Knot the following day (see Tim's excellent pic of it HERE).  Gull passage seems to have eased off a bit lately, with this Med Gull being the only one that I've seen all week...

I have seen it several times though

Busy Busy Busy...

Am falling behind with just about everything at the moment - the blog is low on the list of priorities but here's a quick one.... 

I'm pleased to say, and blimey has it jumped up on us, the wedding is coming up soon. So we are busy rushing around finalising details and emptying our bank accounts to pay for the last few bits.  Who's idea was the chocolate fountain?

Then of course there's this little lady - who has already grown considerably...

Honey looking like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth!

She's certainly taking up some time, but we are really impressed with so many aspects of her - especially sleeping so well at night and staying dry.  Still not impressed with the lawn digging though!  Not being able to take her for walkies yet is incredibly frustrating but hopefully the next four weeks will fly by...

I do have a few bits of bird news, with first returning waders (I presume) seen over the last few weeks including Greenshank, Green Sand, Lapwing (three) and Bar-tailed Godwit. I missed a summer plumage Grey Plover sadly but pleased with what I've seen never-the-less.  Black-headed Gull numbers are also ever increasing, sadly no Ross's, Bonaparte's or even Little, but a first-summer Med Gull circled over the house a few days ago.

Also from the garden, have seen three Red Kites in the past two weeks. They really are loving this high pressure!

Haven't been ringing for a few weeks, frustrating as I know how many unringed Siskins are waiting for me at one of my sites...

Some of the last birds I did ring included this lovely House Martin...

And this even lovelier young (3J) Skylark...

The Garden Is Done!

Well it's about time I revealed this exciting news.  The garden is compete - all thanks to Phil and his family who spent several days up here grafting. 

So, this is what we started with (as you all should know by now!)...

First step was to remove all the decking and patio - and all the wood that came with it.  I've shown this done in previous posts, this took a couple of weeks. Next step was the new patio and the surround to what would be our lawn...

Then came the top soil...

Which was followed by a morning of James Mc help (a pro gardener), who helped prepare the soil...

And then later, turf it!  Here's me laying the first bit of turf (along with customary bacon roll)...

And here I am laying the final piece (with customary builders bum!)...

So by the end of the day it looked like this...

What a transformation!  A week later and the grass has taken well, and is really growing. This is how it looked at just after 6 this morning...

Oh, did I forget to mention something!?

Yes, as of yesterday there's an addition to our family. Meet Honey our 8 week old extremely adorable Golden Retriever...

 

Honey absolutely loves the garden - although she is doing the best she can to undo all the work James and I did laying the lawn....