Red-throated Divers

A nice flat sea this morning encouraged me to start my day on Seaton Beach...

As expected there was next to nothing flying over it, but on it were my first two Great Crested Grebes of the winter and a locally respectable count of eight Red-throated Divers. Unusually six of these divers were really close in, presumably indicating we've got some pretty good feeding conditions close in. Really enjoyed watching them...

This was followed by a quick look along the Estuary, which showed a single Knot with the roosting Redshank. Another quick look later revealed an Avocet too, another bird that first dropped in yesterday.  I then had just enough time to confirm the continued presence of at least three Water Pipits opposite Colyford WTW (which I continued to photography abysmally!)...

Find of the day however goes to Mike, who turned up an extremely late Whinchat on Beer Head this afternoon.  Can't be far off Devon's latest ever?

A Red, Red Knot

Clive found this lovely summer plumaged Knot on the Estuary today. It remained distant whilst I was there but still such a pleasure to watch...

There was a Common Sandpiper just to the right of shot as well

Not been out birding much lately although I have done a bit more mothing, the highlight from this being a new species for me. Yes it's one I should have seen long ago, but I have just never caught one of these at Mum and Dad's. A cracking Bordered Beauty from Fran's garden...

Such a stunning moth and so vibrantly coloured

Staying on the insect theme - after what for me was the worst spring and early summer for butterfly numbers that I can recall, it's been great to see excellent numbers about this month.  All the usual species seem to be out in good numbers making the absolute most of this warm weather, including this Comma from Lower Bruckland Ponds...

So smart

Little Gull Interrupts Sea Watch

With a passage of Velvet Scoters through Portland over the last few days (but nowhere else - not seen anything off here at all lately!) the increased southerly wind meant I was back at the seafront this morning. Well as soon as I could be anyway as we had a new washing machine delivered this morning, which amazingly arrived prior to 07:30 - impressive!

The sea watch was briefly interrupted when Ian Mc rang at about 08:45 with news of a first-winter Little Gull on Colyford Scrape.  The last year I did a year list I missed out on this species, so I hot footed it straight to the Farm Gate at Axmouth where the Little Gull was viewable distantly on the scrape - exactly where I saw my last one last year...

Distant phone-scoped pic

Also saw my first two Swallows of the year here, which I picked up whilst scanning for the Little Gull that briefly went missing when I first arrived.  There's got to be a slight chance the Little Gull is the same one that's been on Bowling Green Marsh (Exe Estuary) for a few weeks, as there's no sign of it there today. If it is hopefully that gorgeous Bonaparte's Gull will follow it east...

I was keen to get back to the sea as quickly as possible, although the first half hour of the sea watch was completely dead, the wind turned from south to south west, and after that a few more bits and pieces began passing.  Full totals for 08:00 - 08:45, 09:00 - 09:45 were; 

31 Common Scoter 

1 Red-throated Diver

1 Diver sp.

1 Razorbill

1 Curlew

11 Sandwich Tern

So although it wasn't a big haul, the regular small groups of passing Common Scoters were more than enough to keep me there. Sadly no white secondaries in with them though. It was nice to see my first Sandwich Terns of the year too, with a further four west at 13:45 this afternoon.

Yesterday Knot was added to my Patchwork Challenge year list, with one keeping the Grey Plover company on Black Hole Marsh in the morning. Good to get that one on the list nice and early in the year.

Knot Good

High tide is around dawn at the moment, so for the last two mornings Black Hole Marsh has been the obvious place to see the new day in. 06:10 - 08:15 yesterday from the Island Hide showed;

2 Grey Plover

14 Dunlin

1 Knot

3 Common Sandpiper

7 Bar-tailed Godwit

3 Water Rail

3 Sedge Warbler

Out of that list, maybe just a handful of Dunlin and the Knot were the only 'new' birds. Not quite the arrival of waders I was hoping for.  Very sad tale to the Knot though, as shortly after I picked it up flying around over the marsh, it struck an overhead cable right in front of the Island Hide. Poor thing dropped like a stone...

A very sorry sight

I thought it was dead, but it got itself together and swam to the nearest island and out of view.  Neither of the wings looked broken, and I was pleased to see Tim White report the presence of a Knot at Black Hole mid afternoon, so hopefully it lives on.  So sad though to think it has just flown all they way from Arctic only for this to happen.

Later on yesterday, five Ringed Plover were on the Estuary.

This morning Black Hole was no different, except for the light conditions...

 Beautiful isn't it.

 It's also upside down!  This is right way up...

And here's a less cropped version to prove it...

The reflection of the sky looked absolutely stunning. Really beautiful. Good job too because the bird situation was pretty dismal. Still a couple of Grey Plovers about and 14 Dunlin again but nothing new.  I even resorted to photographing a Little Egret...

Autumn Returns

You may have picked up on some frustration in my recent blog posts that despite daily visits, Black Hole Marsh has remained very samey - except for the lovely juv Sanderling on Friday 9th that is.  

Thankfully though, yesterdays frequent thunder storms and heavy rain showers seem to have got things moving again.  A flying visit mid afternoon yesterday showed a nice due of Curlew Sandpiper and Ruff new in... 

Juv-1w Curlew Sandpiper

I was back down there for dawn today, and saw;

1 Avocet

6 Ringed Plover

22+ Dunlin

1 Curlew Sandpiper

1 Knot (juv)

14 Black-tailed Godwit

6 Bar-tailed Godwit

2 Ruff

3 Common Sandpiper

1 Green Sandpiper

2 Snipe

Out of that list the Avocet is the stand out bird.  Although they are annual on the Axe, this is the first that I've ever seen on Black Hole Marsh. I'm also pretty sure this is our first of 2016 following a blank spring.  I didn't have time to walk to the Tower Hide so you will have to make do with an ultra distant record shot...

Good job Avocets aren't little brown things!

The second Ruff and the Knot were also new arrivals, as was a second Knot on the Estuary about half an hour later.  

It's not just been a wader day, seems to have been a good one for passerines too.  Colyford Common mid morning showed six Wheatear and two Whinchat...

Love autumn Whinchats!

Whinchat on the baordwalk

A Wheatear and Ruby Red Cattle

A late morning visit to Axe Cliff was also fairly rewarding, despite the heat and the time of day. 

What a view!

10:45-12:10 here produced;

1 Golden Plover

12 Wheatear

7 Whinchat

50+ Meadow Pipit

1 Tree Pipit

1 Sedge Warbler

3 Whitethroat

1 Willow Warbler

3 Chiffchaff

90 Linnet

The Golden Plover was my first of the autumn, and flew over west. Thankfully I picked it up on call so didn't need to worry about the Lesser varieties. The Whinchat count was decent (a five and a two) and the Tree Pipit I flushed out of long grass.

I'm not sure if it is good to see so many Meadow Pipits. When they replace Yellow Wagtail as the most frequent fly over migrant you know you've moved into the next phase of autumn migration. I've been hearing them going over fairly often now for the past three of four days, and have only had one Yellow Wag. Autumn rolls on...

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

Knot One, Knot Two, But THREE!

Sorry, but Knot puns are just too tempting....

Knot is one of the last 'pretty much guaranteed' species to fall on my 2013 patch year list attempt. It fell on Tuesday morning, and as you can maybe tell from the post title, there were three of them (which I think is my single highest count for the Axe!)...

A Redshank leading the Knot along the Estuary.

 

Waders have been fantastic - and it's looking ever better now a bit more water is coming on to Black Hole Marsh.  Dunlin have been numbering just less than 50 (48 Wed, 46 today), Ringed Plovers 30ish, literally millions of Curlew Sands (most often about ten), two juv Little Ringed Plovers and a lovely juv Little Stint. Sadly the two Spotted Redshank didn't hang around at all.

The most focused rarity hunter would be best just sitting in the Island Hide all day - but I've got year ticks to find, so have been covering some ground (when I've been able too anyway!).  There's got to be a Wryneck around here somewhere...

I went up to Beer Head later than usual yesterday, I got there at 9ish, and stayed for an hour and a bit. At first it looked dead, but around the Sheepwalk there were birds all over the place! It was clear why too, because there were flies everywhere, which meant pretty much all the birds were sat out flycatching and showing really well - not always close though.

Garden Warblers

Spotted Flycatcher

In all I had three Spot Flies, three Garden Warbler, three Whitethroat, at least eight Blackcap, a handful of Chiffs/Willow, two Wheatear and overhead singles of Grey Wagtail and most unusually, Greenshank!

It really felt like an Ickey was going to pop out at any point. If it did, it was after I left...

Water = Waders!

Yes lots of water about the patch today - it really did tip down during the night.  As a result, and despite other things going on in my life at the moment, I was keen to get out and check it all.

My original idea was for a vigil from the Tower Hide at Black Hole Marsh, but this was almost immediately foiled. I knew I should have put my wellies in the boot...

The path to tower hide - and this was at low tide!

Black Hole Marsh was very quiet, I didn't see a single wader on it.  Although a Green Sand and two Dunlin did fly over it - both heading north. 

Next stop was the Axmouth FC scrape - of Long-billed Dowitcher fame!  A nice juv Curlew Sand was a surprise here, and looked very out of place, with a Ruff, 21 Wigeon and a Yellow Wagtail also present.  

I had then hoped for a look over Bridge Marsh, but the A3052 was closed due to a diesel spill and multiple accidents, so I headed for the Farm Gate.  From here, on the Estuary were 51 Black-tailed Godwits and a single Knot, and on Colyford scrape two Wood Sandpipers (first found yesterday) and a Greenshank.  My last action of the morning was a walk along Seaton Beach, which gave just a single Ringed Plover.

This afternoon, at about half two once I had heard the A3052 was now open, I headed back out.  A quick check at Black Hole Marsh showed a Little Stint (relocated by my old man an hour or two earlier), and then I headed for Bridge Marsh.  One of the Wood Sands was now here, and what I thought was going to prove to be the earlier Axmouth FC Ruff - was actually a second bird.

Axmouth FC scrape showed the Ruff still (this one is a big male), and also a Bar-tailed Godwit and drake Gadwall.  It was then back to the Farm Gate.  

Scoping across to the Colyford scrape I was a bit taken aback when this flew through my field of view...

 

Juv Marsh Harrier Colyford Marsh

It was great to watch this gorgeous juv Marsh Harrier hunting over the marsh, at first alone, but soon joined by Karen.  It disappeared into the reeds just before I left, although I have heard it's been seen again.

And now I'm back home!  So although I didn't turn up the rare wader I was hoping for, I have seen 16 species of wader on patch today (a high total for here!) - let's hope it is tomorrow that I find species number 17! And that it's a good one!

A Much Needed Patch Update

Well I've got a few days to talk about in this post. And because today has produced the best bird, I'll start here and work backwards....

Thursday 17th

It was a non birding morning for me today, well pretty much a non birding day. But at about 10am I had a phone call from Ian Mc, he had a wader on Colyford Scrape from the hide that was ringing alarm bells. An hour later when I was almost available to twitch it, I found out it had yellow legs - but had flown off.... FLIPPING HECK!

At half 11 I was back on patch, and Gav had seen it and was convinced it was a Temminck's - Devon's first November record I believe. By the time I had got to Colyford hide all the key features had been seen.

Don't get me wrong, it is a cracking bird, with bright yellow legs, and a proper patch rarity - only our second ever. But a yellow legged stint in mid November, after the autumn that the UK has had, just a bit gutting....

Cracking bird like I said though - mustn't be ungrateful!

It's with a Lapwing flock rather oddly, and every time the birds on the scrape were flushed by a Peregrine, it always flew around with them before returning to the scrape.

Wednesday 16th

With a whole load of Desert Wheatears turning up in the UK the previous day (including a corker my mate Dave tripped over on Skomer - lucky bugger!), I just HAD to walk this first thing in the morning...

What wonderful Desert Wheatear habbo!

I walked the whole of the beach! At the very start of the walk I saw these two crackers...

Just a pity the sun didn't come out for me!

And by the end of the slog - that was still all I had seen! Oh well, it had to be done.

I then had a quick look up the estuary, and was excited when my eyes could see about seven brown blobs on Bridge Marsh...

Ooohhhh - grey geese!

Bugger it - they were Greylags! There were still 12 Brent Geese on Colyford Marsh, and about a billion Canade Geese.....well about 70!

Tuesday 15th

Today was the day I did the dirty on the patch (see my previous post!), but not until I had given the Beer Cemetery Fields a good look...

There was very little grounded, it was in the air where of the action was happening. With the south easterly wind, all vis mig was heading that way - including loads of Wood Pigeons! In just over an hour I counted 17,600...

It was quite a spectacle!

Also overhead my first Brambling of the autumn, 20 Redwing, two Fieldfare and a Mistle Thrush.

Monday 14th

I put lots of leg work in with very little to show for it, despite a couple of flocks of Redwings flying low over the house soon after dawn. My first stop was Lower Bruckland Ponds, where the previous day James Mc had seen a very grey Chiffchaff.

I had seen bugger all, and was just heading back to the car, when I could hear a tristis-type Chiff calling. It was very elusive, and I didn't get enough on it to 'tick off' all the important plumage features, but it was very grey indeed with not a hint of yellow or green. Although you wouldn't know that from the only photo I took of it...

You can barely see it I know!

As I said though, it sounded spot on - nothing like the other calling greenish Chiff that was present.

The best the river offered was a Knot with the Blackwits off Coronation Corner...

Yes another awful photo!

When I pulled up to check the Swan flock near Boshill Cross, they all took off. That was because of this...

After some dinner!

The weekend as usual was a birding free zone for me, although on the way to Kilmington on Saturday afternoon I saw a nice flock of 60+ Fieldfare near Whitford bridge.

And that's that. Hopefully I will keep on top of blogging for the remainder of the autumn. Yes - I still think there is more this autumn has to offer...

I Wish I'd Had More Time

I only had time for a couple of quick glances at the sea this morning; 10:10 - 10:30, and at about 11:20 for ten minutes.

In the first watch I was rewarded with five Balearic Shearwaters west - three came through together at 'close range for Seaton', shortly followed by two distant singles. A single Common Scoter and few Gannets were the only other birds I saw passing (aside Gulls).

The second watch showed a few waders; a Turnstone flew west in the company of five Knot, and ten Ringed Plover and a Dunlin were on the beach.

Looking at the forecast I am very excited about the week ahead. Rain really does make the difference for us, and it looks like we are going to get a lot of it! Watch this space...

Knot Worthy Of A Blog Post

There was a lone Knot on the Estuary from Coronation Corner this afternoon. Also managed a good count of 162 Teal, split almost exactly 50/50 between Colyford Marsh and Axmouth FC.

Earlier today, a sea watch 08:00 - 09:00 revealed:

6 Red-throated Diver (west, in three lots of two)
1 Great Northern Diver (showing well on the sea)
6 Common Scoter (5 east and 1 drake on sea, later there were 2 females on the sea)
90+ auk sp. (I can't say I saw a single Guillemot though)

What an exciting birding day.......

A Bit More Habbo

I've been keeping my eyes on this patch of flood water over the past few days. Today it was heaving with birds...

opposite Axmouth FC

There were 600+ Black-headed Gull, 40 Curlew, one Blackwit, three Ringed Plover, 50 Pied Wag, three Meadow Pipit and 80 Starling. Looks excellent for a Pec/Citrine Wag/Yank Gull. I'll keep looking...

Black Hole Marsh this morning gave singles of Greenshank, Green Sand, Curlew Sandpiper, six Dunlin, four Ringed Plover, and tonight a Barn Owl.

The Curlew Sand

On the Estuary mid afternoon I could see seven Barwits, 12 Blackwits, one Knot, one Little Stint and overhead...the Osprey! I really thought he had gone, but must have just become less predictable!

I thought I'd end this post with a totally random photo! My least favourite birding habitat in the world...

conifer woods.....yuk! (though I must add, Scottish ones are much more inviting!)

Making Peace With Wrynecks

It seems as though the birding Gods ingested the unhappiness I mentioned on this blog yesterday about not being able to see - let alone find - a Wryneck.

A midday visit to Waggs Plot was where my luck changed a little, as after twenty minutes of looking this beauty flew up from the bank beside my parked car....

That's more like it!

After this view, it dissapeared into the hedge and went missing for another ten minutes, before showing again a couple of times in an adjacent garden....

...more distantly though

Now time to find one :-)

I haven't done much other birding today, except for a rapid sweep of the Estuary where two Knot, six Bar-tailed and 16 Black-tailed Godwits were on show...

Four of the six Barwits - a decent number for our Estuary