A Serin Surprise

Well there's nothing like a nice little find to pump some life back into a hibernating blog...

Over the last couple of weeks I've decided to get off my backside and walk to work most mornings, it takes me about 40 minutes but it's a nice route.  During yesterday's walk - well almost at the end of it as I was two minutes from my place of work - I was stopped in my tracks by a bird call. Oh yes, birds, I remember them... 

It was a quiet call, but still sounded close, in fact it seemed to emanate from a couple of almost see-through buddleia's no more than 15 feet from me (I was stood on Riverside Way looking east).  I stopped and stared, couldn't see anything, but then heard it again a couple of times before seeing the back of a small silent bird fly away. Annoying.

The best way I can describe the call is that it was like a short Brambling, but much less harsh and dry, higher-pitched, with a Siskin-twang to it. Something like "tsswee'.  It's not the call of Serin I am used to, that delightful rapid trill, but for some reason it just sounded like a Serin to me - presumably uttering an alarm-type call.  Frustratingly due to the time I had to push on to work, but during the last few minutes of my walk I sent a quick message out on the local WhatsApp group...

"Just had a VERY probable Serin. It's on the old Racal site... blah blah blah... needs checking out"...

Gladly Ian, Kev and Gav must have seen something genuine in my message, as they all spent some time looking for it later that day. To no avail however.

That evening I gave Xeno-canto a few minutes, which made me even more convinced, so I put out another 'call to arms' plea on the WhatsApp group.  This encouraged a text from Gav saying he was going to try again in the morning, and let's roll on to this morning...

Gav kindly offered to pick me up a good half-hour before I was due into work, giving us ample time to wander around Riverside Way and discuss the things we always seem to discuss when we get together; Gulls, dodgy birders, 'phasing' and countless statements such as "I have always thought that ditch looks good for a [insert name of a rare bird here]".

I have to be honest and say in my gut I was sensing we were on the road to failure. It just didn't feel like anything was going to come of it.  But then a small bird flew over us, silent, but as it looked quite bouncy in flight we both felt it needed following.  Lucky for us it appeared to drop down not all that far away, and even luckier for us, when we approached the area up flew a small finch with a bright yellow rump! Our luck continued further as it didn't then continue to fly, but landed on a small bare tree right in front of us.  There sat a Serin. A proper Axe rarity. I think we were both a bit shocked!

I quickly fired a message off as Gav was snapping away, which alerted Kev and Clive who were unbeknown to us mooching around close by.  However at this point it then did decide to fly off, trilling just as a Serin should, as it flew back east.  It was at this point I also had to head off, and although there was no sign of it for several hours, eventually at around 1pm it was relocated in pretty much the same area where it showed off and on for about an hour.  This is when Dave Helliar managed to get these rather nice snaps of it...

A streaky thing of beauty (c) Dave Helliar

Look at that rump! (c) Dave Helliar

Am pretty confident we can conclude this is a first-winter female, which is the dullest of all Serin plumages - although still looks amazing to me!  That vivid yellow rump, beautiful feather edging and of course the characteristic stubby little bill.  And as I said a few paragraphs up, a proper Axe rare.  

This is only the second Axe record of Serin, the first flew past me during an Axe Cliff vis mig watch on 6th Nov 2007, so it could be said I have graciously unblocked this one for others... could...

It is actually really surprising how rare Serin is proving here, especially considering our location and vast array of habitats. I'm simply amazed we've not logged a few more fly-throughs over the years, or even a settled spring singing male or two, but it's just not happened... Which is why a mid-winter brown streaky one feeding on waste ground will do just fine :-)

Might even give you a second blog post this month if you're lucky....

Lorry Load Of Jam = Patch Life Tick!

I'll just get on and tell it how it was. What an amazing late afternoon/evening yesterday was!

After Jess finished work yesterday, we had a tea then went for a bit of a wander seeing as the weather was quite nice.  We walked from our place, along Harepath Road to Colyford, then turn back down towards Colyford Common, and through Black Hole Marsh then back up to ours from Colyford Road. It's a really nice loop walk which can be done in an hour.  Anyway..

As we got to Black Hole Marsh, Tim White was stood on the platform so we stopped for a chat.  This is no lie, just as Tim said how he's missed ALL the decent raptors so far this year (four Ospreys, three Red Kites and two Marsh Harrier to be precise!), the gulls went up on the Estuary.  They didn't go Osprey-crazy, just got up and started to loaf around in the air, they weren't even making much noise.  Some sky scanning revealed nothing, but Tim then noticed a shape flying below them heading west over the marsh.  I looked at it through my bins and was shocked to see a ring-tail Harrier! A small one too!!

It was all over too quickly though, as it rapidly continued south west over Black Hole Marsh, we probably only saw it like this for no more than 10-15 seconds. About a minute later I could see it again, but very distantly as it flew south west towards Seaton along way south of the marsh. By this time I had already sent several texts out to the other local patch birders, but don't think anyone else saw it.

So what did I see on the bird!? Well it was small and slim winged, and in the field I could see just three obvious primaries at the wing tip. I also looked for a collar, and didn't see one, so I'm pretty sure I'd ruled Pallid out of it. I didn't see the upper parts at all, but did get a fairly good (albeit brief) look at the under wing.  It had to be a Monties!!  Montagu's Harrier though is a Devon A rarity, and I certainly hadn't seen enough to put a convincing description together - this could easily have been a 'near definite' that had got away....

Luckily though, Tim White is an ace photographer, and has ace kit...

All photos (c) Tim White

Tim first sent me these pictures when we were tucking into a 9" deep crust at Pizza Hut, Exeter. Turned out to be the best Pizza I've ever eaten!!!

This is only the second patch record of Montagu's Harrier, Gavin had the first over Axmouth on 12th September 2008. So it's one heck of a grip back!  And I have to say, it's nice that we've finally had a decent spring rarity this year - about time!

There's been some more excitement this morning, when a text came through from Ian informing me of a Velvet Scoter on the sea off Seaton. I rather rapidly got up, got dressed and headed down there - I wasn't expecting what I saw though!

I can only describe it as being ridiculously close in, and 'it' was an adult drake!!! A STUNNING BIRD!  You will be seeing some nice photos later on Karen's and Gavin's blogs. Easily the best Velvet I've ever seen here - probably the best one I've ever seen anywhere!!

A Huge Dollop Of Jam

The moment of jam came just before 1pm, when I was driving down to the Estuary for a check of the gulls.  

Just as I was approaching the end of Scalwell Lane, my brain - that was busy dreaming about the Ring-billed Gull I was about find - had a sudden shock.  I could see a very distinctive shape flying east (well east south east to be precise) probably only less than 10m above roof top height, right opposite me. In the few seconds it took me to pull over and grab my bins, I had already sussed it as a medium-sized harrier-like long-winged raptor. Bins up - Hen Harrier!  I was looking at a bloody Hen Harrier!!! As it continued on east (and as I was causing a traffic incident!) I got good views of its upper parts (nice big fat square white rump - so am happy I eliminated both the smaller harrier sp. despite the relatively brief view) and the birds left upper wing.  I phoned Gav, and quickly sent a text out, then shot round to the Estuary in the hope it was going to hang around.  Stupidly I went to the farm gate, when really I should have stopped near Tesco and scanned Seaton Marshes, as this is where it would have passed over if it continued flying in the same direction.  I soon bumped into Gav. Sadly neither of us bumped into the Hen Harrier.

This is only the second Hen Harrier I've ever seen on patch - I ticked it as recently as Oct 2011. And as far as I'm aware, this is our first mid-winter record (though I could well be wrong).  Hen Harrier certainly kicks Goldeneye off as my 'most precious patch year tick' so far.  It was totally off the radar too - my brain has been thinking about waders, wildfowl, gulls and finch flocks - I haven't once thought about a bird of prey. We do have a lot of food about for it, so there's got to be a chance its going to linger. It may even roost in the valley, if not, maybe Trinity Hill or Gittisham Common? Got to be worth a look.

So, how has the rest of my day been?

Well Gav saw the Goosander again late yesterday afternoon on the Estuary, so I was out before dawn today hoping to finally get it on the year list.  She's certainly an early riser - as yet again there was no sign of it.  Two Gadwall on the Estuary just north of Coronation Corner were very nice to see though, another cold weather-related year tick.  I think my best photography year tick too...

In my defence  it was still fairly dark!

I then went for an hours sea watch off Beer, which would have been seriously dire were it not for a five minute spell of action.  There was nothing too exciting, but 15 Wigeon, 10 Common Scoter, four Red-throated Divers, a Teal (with the Wigeon) and a Shelduck flew west.  Outside of this five minute period, three more Common Scoters east (a pair and a single) were as good as it got. 

This afternoon, after the raptor excitement, the Estuary showed nothing better than two adult Med Gulls.  One looked like this...

Not quite the 800 at Ferrybridge!

 And the other looked like this...

Already getting a bit of a hood

With two year ticks today, and another just prior to work yesterday (in the form of Common Sandpiper from Coronation Corner at 14:45) - that's three year ticks since my last blog post.  Hopefully soon after I've posted this I'll notch up another.  For the first time this week, I am able to be where a Goosander should be at 4pm.  It's been here at this time for the last three days, but each day I couldn't be there. Today I can, so let's wait and see. Keep an eye on my twitter feed to the right, you'll read it there first!