Birds That Aren't Gulls!

With waders and gulls featuring heavily in my last few blog posts, I thought I should fill in the gaps with my other bird sightings from the last couple weeks.

As we approach the end of July, with autumn passerine migration starting to be a feature on the south coast, I gave Beer Head an early morning walk on two days last week...

Looking south west from Beer Head. Such a fantastic location to spend any time!

Both visits showed a similar amount of birds in less than ideal fall conditions.  There were between 6-8 Willow Warblers scattered across the headland on both days, all being my favourite flavoured yellow-lemon juv ones.  There was also a family of Whitethroats in the same place on both visits, as well as the usual breeding Blackcaps.  My second visit however, on 23rd July, did show one more migrant than my previous, with a very charming Garden Warbler feeding on an elder bush in the base of the hollow.  My earliest ever autumn record of this species on patch so a nice reward indeed. 

Just slightly drifting away from the bird theme of this blog post, it was nice to see up to seven Wall Browns during my second visit, which was slightly later in the morning than my first.  This is our most reliable local site for this species...

An underrated butterfly in my opinion, and scarce enough around here to be suitably appreciated

A little inland in the Morganhayes area (woodland west of Colyton), am sure like most conifer plantations in the UK at the moment, there seems to be plenty of Crossbills 'chupping'-around.  Seeing them perched up is a different story though... Why do they always land on the pines just beyond the ones in view!?  On the evening of 20th however one made an error of judgement and actually landed in view, and although it wasn't an adult male it was still much appreciated...

Hello you!  Nice to actually see the cross bill on a Crossbill for a change

Although it landed in view, he/she was never in full view!  

Back down in the river valley, during my recent gull watching sessions other birds have been rudely interrupting my fun.  Take Kingfishers for example, as usual for this time of year they seem to be plentiful, with this one in particular begging to be papped...

A token photo!  Do like the natural framing though so am pleased it stayed put for me :-)

And don't get me started on this Marsh Harrier.  Yes it's a lovely fresh dark glowing-headed juvenile, but it's been around for a week now and not only is distracting, it actually FLUSHES the gulls on occasions!  Not on at all...

My best views were on a gloomy day so pics not great!

Such a striking plumage at this age - love them!

Even a family of Reed Warblers right beside the Tower Hide have been causing me problems, loudly announcing their presence as the beg for food...

A true baby Reed Warbler

Beady eye!

Seemed to be four juvs with at least one adult feeding them

And to complete this post, the final bit of bird news is from today.  Whilst sat at my desk a tern whizzed past my office flying up river - never a common sight on the Axe.  A few minutes later I was outside watching and listening to an adult and a juvenile Common Tern calling to each other as they flew around and around the lower Estuary.  They finally departing when a juvenile Peregrine came diving in.  What a treat. There's a video of them calling away on my Twitter feed, it sure was great to hear.

Wood Sandpiper

Mike B found a Wood Sandpiper on Black Hole Marsh this morning, which was already our third of the autumn migration period.  Having missed the first two however I was really keen to see this one, so headed down to the wetlands this evening...

As you can tell it showed really well for me, affording stunning views in good light from the Island Hide.  Having not seen any pics of this bird before clapping eyes on it in the field, considering the date I was certain I was 'twitching' an adult Wood Sand, but as you may be able to tell it is in fact a fresh juvenile.

In my mind, pretty much all Wood Sands in July, especially down here in the south west, are adults with juvs not appearing until early August (maybe very late July at a push).  I've looked back through my blog and indeed all the Wood Sands I've previously blogged about in July have been adults, so to see a juv in mid July is a real surprise.  An early fledger? Or maybe it was born somewhere a little closer than usual (i.e from one of the few breeding pairs in the UK?).  

If anyone has any thoughts, experience or comments about this then please do let me know!  Am genuinely surprised to be seeing a juvenile so early in the season.

Black Hole and the Estuary were really buzzing tonight.  Four juvenile Little Ringed Plovers were zooming around, noisily, all over the place, with six adult Greenshank an increase from recent days. Also present were three Whimbrel, ten Common Sands, six Dunlin, three Lapwing, two Teal and two juv Med Gulls...

Three distant LRPs. Later they were on the Estuary.

Whimbrel with a sleepy Dunlin

A very cute juv Med Gull

Distant but posing nicely and I like the composition

If Black Hole keeps up like this we are in for a great autumn!

Black Hole Beckons

With storms and rain showers overnight, and wader-inviting water levels, I knew Black Hole Marsh needed a thorough look over this morning. So at 06:00 I whisked Harry down there and we stayed until about 07:50.  It was so worthwhile - today has proved to be the best wader day of the autumn so far.

I was amazed at how quickly the water levels had dropped, this was taken at 13:00 yesterday...

And this at 06:50 today...

This was another part of the marsh this morning - lots of lovely (and lovely plumaged) wading birds...

My totals were;

3 Teal
32 Little Egret
1 Ringed Plover (autumn first)
1 Little Ringed Plover (ad)
20 Dunlin (also had six flying over the Estuary, unsure if they joined the Black Hole flock so maybe 26 present)
3 Greenshank
53 Redshank
12 Black-tailed Godwit
7 Common Sandpiper
1 Green Sandpiper
1 Med Gull (juv)
2 Kingfisher
 

When the marsh is in this condition birds seem to constantly trickle in, so expect these totals to be way off by this evening, especially after a high tide. Exciting times!

The Ringed Plover and Little Ringed Plover stayed close to each other, this allowed for some nice comparison shots. Ringed Plover upper bird in both shots, just look at the overall difference in size (particularly bulk) and shape...

The two Greenshank that remained together, although both adults, looked completely different to one another (left bird still very much in summer plumage)... 

And I simply cannot get enough of juv Med Gulls, enjoy them before they moult...

If you ever find yourself in the Tower Hide with a camera, do make sure you keep an eye on the post just underneath the hide on the Black Hole Marsh side. This little fella can easily sneak in and out without being noticed...

In the voice of a stern tennis umpire... "More rain please!"

Autumn Passerines

Friday of last week was a lovely day, with plenty of sunshine and not a breath of wind.  And it was nice to finally see some autumn passerine migration...

Over Lower Bruckland Ponds several large flocks of hirundines flew west, along with a few Swifts and my first Tree Pipit of the autumn.  In the bushes were several Willow Warblers, Reed Warblers, a Whitethroat and a Marsh Tit - the latter being my first for the Ponds. 

Chiffchaff (rear) and Willow Warbler - both young birds. There was an 11mm difference in wing length!

I was really pleased to finally catch Kingfisher here too, two of them in fact...

Thanks for the extra pair of hands, James.

Seeing as this whole post has been about Lower Bruckland Ponds, I must just point you towards the Lower Bruckland Ponds website.  You'll see my monthly updates here that summarise how the wildlife of the ponds changes as the year progresses: http://www.natureindevon.co.uk/

Some Snipe Action

Got a few more patch year ticks today, although most of them were 'expected' species...

Excellent!

Bird of the day goes to Jack Snipe.  I met Gav at 8am at Colyford Common, and we soon had seen two of these lovely little birds. Along with several Snipe, two Cetti's Warblers (there's at least four on the Axe wetlands, the most we've had since the cold weather in 2010) and a Kingfisher (a real one!).

A quick sea watch showed very little (just a few Kittiwake, Razorbill and Guillemots), and then I dipped a Firecrest. Bums.

After breakfast, Jess and I decided to take our 'New Year health kick' up another level by going for a five mile walk. Basically we walked to Colyton and back, which gave me Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Siskin and excellent numbers of thrushes - including a flock of over 200 Redwing near Holyford Woods. There were also lots of birds around Colyford WTW, where we bumped into Phil (wherever there's birds there's Phil!). Sadly neither he or I could see anything different.

On our return home, I tried for Bun's Redpolls at Seaton Marshes - but that proved to be dip number two of the day. Ho Hum.

Tonight, we've been busy taking down all the Christmas decorations - including the Christmas Tree. Now I know why my old man always insisted we had an artificial one...

Jess is still hoovering!