Waders

This drastic weather change has seen a significant pulse of wader passage on the Axe Estuary, which is to be expected with rain in late April.

This morning the star bird was a Ruff briefly on Black Hole Marsh, before flipping over to the Estuary. Obviously we all know how stunning/bizarre spring males are, but this was a she, and she was truly beautiful.  A really small and dainty bird, probably not that much bigger than a Curlew Sand, but so exquisitely marked.  Just look at those tiger-striped tertials and greater coverts, absolutely stunning...

I wonder where she's been wintering and where she may be heading off to breed?

Hello there Mrs

Also today, probably the same Grey Plover I saw from the house last week, and which Phil heard a few days ago, was showing distantly on the Estuary. Along with a single Bar-tailed Godwit, four Whimbrel and a few Dunlin and Ringed Plover...

100% winter plumaged Grey Plover on this side

But a few black spots on this side, with a Bar-tailed Godwit and a Whimbrel

Good to see there's still some gull passage going on, with two first-winter Common Gulls and at least 25 Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the Estuary this morning... 

All ages - I keep reminding myself there's still time for a late white-winger

Yesterday I took my exercise walk in the afternoon, and was delighted to see a flock of thirty odd Dunlin on the Estuary. Then in true spring fashion, in came another flock and I was now looking at 64 Dunlin and five Ringed Plovers.  In birding I don't find much more exciting than being amongst spring wader passage, when out of nowhere flocks of breeding plumaged waders drop in en-route to their tundra breeding grounds, having wintered somewhere south of the UK.

So many waders! Never a common sight on the Axe.

Always feeding in such a frenzied way!

More rain tomorrow so possibly more waders to come!? Stay safe everyone...

More Stormy Weather

Cracking weather here last night and today, big seas, strong south west wind and plenty of passing showers.  I gave the sea as much time as I could, but sadly no Leach's Petrels came past when I was looking. There were plenty of Gannets out there this morning moving west, along with a lone Shearwater sp. (looked Balearic but mega distant) a few Kittiwake and Auk sp. and one Common Scoter. 

A nice bonus was a Sanderling that flew around with three Ringed Plover for a short while before pitching down briefly on the beach...

I've also spent time today checking the gulls on the Estuary, there were excellent numbers of Great Black-backed Gulls but nothing better in with them. I suppose the highlight was this first-winter presumed intermedius Lesser Black-backed Gull. Although the photo is pretty bad (taken in strong sunlight) it does shows how fresh this bird looked. It basically looked like it had only just come out of the nest, by now a first-winter graellsii should be far more worn than this...

Excellent Gull Passage

What an exciting few days. February is a great month for gull passage and the last few days have not disappointed. Today I had quite a bit of free time and could barely tear myself away from the Estuary.  It was nice to spend time gulling with Gav too, just like the old days!  What was telling was that he wasn't even working in the area today...

Iceland Gull was the rarest of the days birds, found by Ian Mc at about 08:55 down by the tram sheds. It was a first-winter/juv, so not last weeks bird and probably my third different Iceland Gull in as many weeks!  I would have been able to post a nice photo of it here but for the bait digger who decided to flush the lot just after my arrival, so this is my only pic of it...

The middle bird. Yes I know it looks to have dark in the wing tips but that's just shadows

Next best bird was this second-winter Yellow-legged Gull.  I first saw it mid morning but sat with a bunch of Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the rain it looked short legged and rather unimpressive in overall structure, so I put it down as a probable hybrid-type. But Gav picked it up again later and we both watched it for much longer and in better light, and he soon managed to change my mind. Yes it was not long legged at all, and didn't have a strong bill, but everything else was absolutely perfect for second-winter Yellow-legged Gull. It was such a smart and clean bird, really pristine looking, hybrids always seem to look 'messy'. So a small female Yellow-legged Gull it is, but do drop me a line if you (Tim/Mike/Matt?) don't agree...

For me though today was all about the Lesser Black-backed Gulls.  There were 75 along the Estuary mid afternoon, but with birds coming and going all day, and no fewer than 40 birds on the river at any one time, who knows how many really passed through? As always with Lesser Black-backed Gulls at this time of year they came in a variety of mantle shades...

One of them was colour-ringed though, and it looks like 'V6VU' was ringed in Denmark. I will let you all know when I hear back about its ringing details, as this would be a confirmed intermedius if it originates from here. I do wonder whether all these spring passage Lesser Black-backs are intermedius though - even the slightly less black mantled birds!?

I only saw two adult Med Gulls today, but at least one of them was different from the five of yesterday. The five yesterday included a green-ringed second-winter, which was another new bird for me.  The last few weeks have seen a steady turn over of Med Gulls, I've seen at least 20 different individuals on the Axe this month, only two second-winters and one first-winter though.

Also yesterday the Lesser Black-backed count got to 44, and there were 135 Common Gulls which is more proof of gull passage.

Right let's leave the gulls for now, and I'll try and tidy up all my other patch birding sightings for the last few days. I'll start with the sea, and that's where I started today (as usual!). In 45 minutes I had eight Red-throated Divers and three Common Scoters west, along with a lovely pod of Bottlenose Dolphins.  There were at least six animals, including three calves that were jumping around all over the place, but they always remained distant and quickly headed off west.

Yesterday the sea gave twelve Red-throated Divers, but little else.  And on Monday I gave it an hour despite how quiet it was, and was rewarded with a fine drake Pintail close west with a Wigeon. Also two Red-throated Divers and a Razorbill.  I just WISH I stayed on an extra ten minutes or so though, as Ian Mc from another spot had a Velvet Scoter fly west shortly after I packed away my telescope. So gripping!!  I've given the sea so much time and effort this year hoping for something like this, and each watch one or two Scoters go by, but for me so far none of them have had white secondaries.  I suppose something like this was always going to happen though, I can't watch the sea all the time!

The Brent Goose is still knocking around with the Canada Goose flock in the valley, but another bad miss was a Goosander seen by others flying down and then upriver at dusk on Monday. Bums.

Dark-bellied Brent Goose

On the western boundary of our patch there's still Golden Plovers about, had 16 last Wednesday and 47 on Sunday morning. Also saw 50+ Snipe today in a field near Hangman's Stone (the Beer turn off on the A3052) which was a bit of a surprise.  

It's been nice to finally see some more Siskin about, I had 15 alongside the River Coly just north of Chantry Bridge last Saturday, and another couple over Lower Bruckland Ponds (yeah on my PWC patch finally!).

And last but by no means least, Chiffchaffs. Both Colyford and Branscombe sewage works are still home to plenty of Chiffchaffs, with many of them singing in recent days too which is nice.  The ringed tristis is still at Colyford WTW and there were at least two grey birds at Branscombe too.

Even wetter and windier tomorrow, can't wait to see what the Estuary has to offer us...

A Day Late...

I wish I had had time to go down to the sea front and look over the waves yesterday afternoon/evening, because Sooty Shearwaters were passing the south coast en masse. Portland had 60 and Start Point over 300!  I'm pretty sure I would have been rewarded with a patch record count if I'd given it time, but I reckon even if I had a spare half an hour I would have seen some Sooty action.  What a pain in the arse!

To try and compensate I was out at 7am this morning, and sea watched for an hour from 07:08 from the Spot On Kiosk.  Annoyingly the conditions weren't that great...

Blue sky and small waves = not good for sea watching

I'm pleased to say though I did manage a Sooty Shearwater! YEAH! :-)  The views weren't great as I got on it late, but it was at a pretty good distance for here so it wasn't all that bad.  It came by pretty much bang on 8am.  It was nice to see four Red-throated Divers too, three of which flew through west, and the fourth looked to be doing the same until it plonked down on the sea infront of me.  My first of the autumn.

So anyway, the full totals of this watch were (all west):

1 Common Scoter

4 Red-throated Diver

110 Gannet

1 Sooty Shearwater

9 Balearic Shearwater

2 Kittiwake

2 Auk sp.

So although I did see a few bits, I basically 'did a Josh'. (That's a new phrase meaning 'to miss a good seawatch').

Don't know why I'm bothering to post this, but I like Gulls, and I really like Lesser Black-backed Gulls, so this little group on Black Hole Marsh in my opinion deserve the effort of going up here...

You probably won't agree though!

Don't Forget The Gulls!

Over the last few days I have noticed a high proportion of Black-backed Gulls on the river - this is always an obvious sign that there's some decent gull passage going on.  There wasn't anything of note amonsgt them yesterday, but a look along the Estuary late morning today revealed this amongst the 92 Lesser Black-backed Gulls...

 

Yellow-legged Gull

A cracking near-adult Yellow-legged Gull!  I say near-adult due to its relative dullish bill and legs, and streaking around the eye - I may be wrong though!

The middle photo shows a nice comparison of mantle colours, with Lesser Black-backed Gull at the back, Yellow-legged Gull in the middle and argenteus Herring Gull at the front.  This photos also shows the typical square-headed appearance of Yellow-legged Gull.  The lower photo (although slightly fuzzy) shows just how long-winged it looked in the field.

The count of Lesser Black-backed Gulls was notable in itself really, with all ages and many different mantle colours on show.  Although I counted 92, in reality today well over a hundred I'm sure would have visited the Estuary.  There were lots of Great Black-backs too, but I didn't count these (at a guess c160).

Wader wise, both the Bar-tailed Godwit and Greenshank were still on the river, with the two two's still opposite Axmouth FC (two Wood Sands and two Ruff).

A Few Days In One

Just a few snippets of interest to mention from the past few days on patch.

On Wednesday a check of the Estuary mid afternoon revealed three adult Med Gulls and this weirdo large Gull. It could just be a Lesser Black-backed Gull at the pale end of the scale, if not it's certainly got Lesser Black-backed in it somewhere...

Sorry for the grainy photos - full digital zoom used!

At home, I netted yet another female Blackcap! My ninth of the winter so far.

Yesterday all I had time for was another Estuary sweep, nothing but a couple of adult Med Gulls.

Today, mid afternoon the Estuary showed three Med Gulls (two adults and a first winter) and a surprise Ringed Plover! They are a regular spring and autumn migrant here, but actually quite rare in the winter months...

If only it was a Killdeer...

Lastly, just a note to please be vigilant - or keep your ears open at least.

On Thursday evening two wildfowlers were shooting ON Seaton Marshes. This is a Nature Reserve and I think is disgusting behaviour - not to mention totally illegal. The Police were called but the shooters had gone before the Police arrived. If anyone sees them return then please phone the Police immediately. Shooting is obviously permitted on Colyford Marsh and other areas of the valley that are not owned/managed by EDDC.