The Beast From The East

We may not have had any significant snow fall here in East Devon yet (that is about to change!) but like elsewhere we have had freezing temperatures and that bitter east wind. It's been seriously cold...

Black Hole Marsh pre-dawn on Tuesday

A 100% frozen Black Hole Marsh on Tuesday

Even the Estuary has had icy edges this week

More Estuary ice

Lower Bruckland Ponds today

Bird-wise we have seen the expected increase in wildfowl and wader numbers, which I will summarise below, but my highlight of the week so far is a passerine. I haven't seen Bearded Tit on patch since Oct '13, so a series of 'pings' emanating from the vast Axe Reedbed this morning, followed by brief flight views of one bird, was a real treat. Only the third time I've ever seen this species here, they are less than annual and often not twitchable.

I haven't seen as many different ducks as I was hoping, for example no diving ducks. But following on from Mike's flock of 20 Pintail (mostly males) that flew in off the sea late on Monday, on Tuesday morning at least three were still on the river. Pity the whole flock didn't stay though - would have been a great sight!

Today the two Ringed Plover and Greenshank were still present, joined by ten Dunlin and later in the day, an impressive flock of 184 Golden Plover feeding with Lapwing opposite Stedcombe Vale.  Jack Snipe and Grey Plover have also been seen on the Axe today, and am sure there's more out there to find. The Marsh Harrier is also still around.

Golden Plover and Lapwing

Ditto

Back to passerines and although there have been more Redwing, Fieldfare and Meadow Pipits about, I've not noticed any major movements yet like the 2010 cold snap.

I'll finish this post with a snap I took this morning of a Fox at Lower Bruckland Ponds. It had curled itself up on the sheltered side of a small mound, with the sun shining upon it. He/she looked absolutely gorgeous and in really good condition...

Fox

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!?

As Cold As Ice

Very cold out and about this morning, with lots of ice about. There was even some on the Estuary...

Not an every day sight!

I've had a couple of tours of the river valley today, but haven't seen that much really. Four Gadwall and a few Med Gulls on the Estuary being as good as it got for me.

I had to go to Axminster mid morning today, so thought I'd drive a little bit further north and look over a certain quarry pool. It's the kind of pool that you know what birds will be on it before you've even lifted your bins up....

That group of birds on the far side is surely going to include too many Canada Geese, a few Mallard, maybe the odd aytha duck and a couple of Coot, possibly even a Cormorant...

Yes I was right!

OH! Hang on a minute...

Yes you guessed it! I went to Chard Junction Gravel Pits to see these two beauts....

two stonking male Ring-necked Ducks

They were nice to see yes, but I hate their guts because they are simply refusing to fly south! Please boys - just one of you will do - you just HAVE to give Lower Bruckland Fishing Ponds a visit.....

Counting Coots

Although it is noticeable milder this morning, it wasn't yesterday morning! In fact, for the first time since this cold weather descended upon us, yesterday morning there was actually ice on the river...

Not a common sight at all!

It is was good day for Coot yesterday; I'm pretty sure I smashed the previous highest day count for the patch. Four at Lower Bruckland Ponds and eight on the Estuary weren't anything special or unexpected, but the flock of 18 on the sea were...

Making a total of exactly 30 Coot!

There was a drake Pochard attached to this Coot flock (though it's nearly entirely hidden in the above photo), and a gorgeous pair of Goosanders flew west, including the first adult male I've seen during this cold snap. Two Eider and five Common Scoter were off Seaton Hole, with a further 14 Common Scoters off Branscombe.

To complete yesterday's sightings; 12 Gadwall were on the river (a flock of 11 and one with the Wigeon), the Yellow Wagtail was still at Colyford WTW and four Chiffchaffs were at Branscombe WTW.

This morning, a look over the sea was again eventful. Another two Goosanders flew west, and landed on the sea near the Chine Cafe (both female-types), a immature drake Eider flew in from the south, then east (with the two still off Seaton Hole with five Common Scoters) and best of all, an immature Velvet Scoter was settled on the sea with three female Common Scoters just to the east. I presume the same bird I found last week?

A quick look up the river valley showed nothing unusual, but at least 1,020 Wigeon were feeding on Colyford Marsh, here's some of them...

This was the densest part of the three flocks

Closer to home, in fact AT home, the garden has been full of birds during the cold weather. Song Thrushes are very scarce here, but we've had at least three hanging about lately...

...always quite skittish though, so this was a hard photo to get!

And most days at least two Blackcaps can be seen, though there were four (three females and a male) on Tuesday morning...

Eyeing up that apple core

And as I write this there's a flock of six Redwing feeding in our berry tree - just a pity there's no Waxwings in with them!!

Lastly, the colour-ringed Med Gull I saw a few days ago; White 3N93. Well I knew I'd seen this bird before, and I had - on the 3rd of Feb this year! (see HERE). Between that sighting and this sighting there's been no other reports of him/her.

There'll be no more birding for me over the next few days, so roll on next week..... Oh, but just before I do go, anyone know who saw the 5+ Bewick's Swans at Colyford Common on 8/12/10!??

Pleasant But Quiet

I woke up to, as forecasted, a very hard frost and ice. Just what winter should be like!

After a brief and unsuccessful sea watch, I headed up to Beer Head. The only birds that could possibly be described as being grounded migrants were a couple of Song Thrushes and a Goldcrest. I was surprised by the eastward trickle of Finches along the cliff edge; it was mostly Linnets with smaller numbers of Chaffinches and Goldfinches, with two Siskins and a Redpoll adding variety.

Two adult Med Gulls were on the Estuary mid afternoon, with the wintering Common Sandpiper - but that's all I've seen of note today.

To end this post, here's a few wintry snaps that I took this morning...

A frosty Axe Valley from Beer Head

The pools opposite Axmouth FC (of Dowitcher fame) frozen over

Axmouth FC pitch

I've heard of 'water off a duck's back' - but not 'ice off a swan's back!!!'