Dartmoor

I've been lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time on Dartmoor over the last few weeks, and will be spending a heck of a lot more time up here over the next 11 weeks...

The weather really has been mixed, the above photos were taken on the nicest day, on other mornings we had to sit out snow and hail showers, and the first day saw a raw east wind whip up late morning.  

As expected it's been nice to see plenty of the usual Dartmoor summer birds; Cuckoos daily, Curlews, Redstarts, Whinchat, Snipe, etc. A Fieldfare on the 28th was my biggest surprise, the latest I've ever seen one in the county, but considering the temperature at dawn was -1 it was probably feeling at home...

When we are out on the moor we don't have much time to hang around, none at all really.  But when this Fox appeared in front of me I just had to stop and film it for a short while, and luckily for me it did a full on mouse-pounce...

Now back to the patch. I'm really pleased that the Hoopoe is still here today, and remained in view pretty much all day for the constant trickle of visitors, there's some stunning photos of it appearing online.  It's clearly been quite a good day today, I've not gone out birding at all but two dog walks and an eye open from my back garden has given me some nice birds. Allhallows mid morning showed ten Wheatear, two Willow Warbler and a Whitethroat. A wander around Colyford late afternoon showed a female Whinchat, and from the house this evening a female Goosander flew up river and my first Swift of the year flew south.  

Wish I had gone out birding today after all!

Patch Hoopoe

Hoopoe's are pretty much annual on patch, with some years delivering maybe two or three - but most of them come and go with out being seen by a single birder.  So an obliging individual is always much appreciated and after one was seen briefly last night near Lower Bruckland Ponds, gladly it was still present today and remained faithful to the same area from about 10:30...

I-Player Link

Here's the promised link for any who missed it...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b02yx2tc/?t=18m

One Show Tonight...

Unless I'm on the edit room floor, I should be on the box tonight...

A Mixed Day

The day didn't start all that well...

I had just had my windscreen replaced thanks to the nice men from Autoglass (£75 - ouch!). There I was sat waiting for the glue to dry, being a good boy doing as I was told....

First came a text from Kev Rylands 'I'm at Portland, at least 100 Wheatears here'...

About three minutes later came a text from Karen 'Male Ring Ouzel Beer Head in the Dell'...

SOD THE GLUE - I WAS GONE...

Ten minutes later I was at Beer Head with Ian Mc. Karen was nowhere to be seen - but thankfully the male Ring Ouzel was! It only showed briefly, but it was nice and close - only the third spring Ouzel I've ever seen on patch! There were several Wheatears (including my first females) dotted about, and Meadow Pipits were heading north in small flocks quite frequently.

The Monarch of the Dell!

All this migration action fired me right up I can tell you - I was up for some excellent spring birding so decided to head to the Estuary and marshes for the rest of my birding day. This included two visits to Blackhole and Seaton Marshes, single visits to Colyford Common and Lower Bruckland Ponds, two looks out to sea, and two jaunts along the Estuary..... I saw absolutely naff all!

Well when I say naff all, that doesn't include the Hoopoe that's still present in Axmouth. I had two drives around Axmouth Camp Site today, the first one drew a blank, but I struck lucky on visit number two...

One sexy bird!

I'll end this post with a short, and rather uninspiring video of it. I do love the way they move though...

Hoopoe!

As I'm sure you will have seen by now from other local blogs, this afternoon we were graced by a (twitchable!) Hoopoe. A nice pre-work distraction - and certainly worthy of a second blog post :-)

As you will also have already read, Bun's nephew found it in Axmouth, whilst walking home from his school bus. The local grapevine worked well, with almost all patch birders on site within twenty minutes!

At first, although we all saw it, the views were quite frustrating...

In coming!

Until it landed long enough for me to rattle off three (very distant) shots...

At least in this photo it is identifiable!

It quickly flew up and off though, and went missing for another twenty minutes. The assembled birders spread out a little, then all of a sudden, Bun relocated it on a small lawn right in the middle of us...

A little closer

It remained here for a minute or two before flying over the main road. A little later though, after I'd left, it was back in roughly the same spot.

Hopefully this is a 'taster' of the spring ahead of us....