Lyme Regis Little Gull

I took a trip over to Lyme Regis today in the lovely spring-like weather to catch up with James Mc and to enjoy some of his and his wife's wonderful food. Whilst I was there I thought Id take a look at the lingering Little Gull(s) too. 

In the end though, I spent far too much time chatting and eating, and realised as I was wandering back to my car I was twenty minutes over my ticket! As a result all I could do was scurry down to the sea edge with Harry, enjoy thirty seconds of ace Little Gull action, and then hurry back to the car.  This brief encounter with an obliging and close Little Gull in such calm and pleasant weather left me wanting more, so two hours later I was back!  Obviously I can't compete with the long-lenses for pictures, but simply watching it gave me all the enjoyment I needed - what a super little bird...

And a little video...

I've seen plenty of Little Gulls, several hundred, but none quite like this bird. This first-winter is feeding often just a few feet off Monmouth Beach and the Cobb, and coupled with the amazing weather of today, it gave views that are quite simple not the norm for this species. Most the Little Gulls that I've seen over the sea off Seaton have been during strong winds and heavy rain, or as a dot a mile out to sea!  I urge you to fill your boots with this bird while it's there.

Turns out I'm going to have to do a bit of investigative work here too. Although there was just the one bird there today, for the past few days there have been two first-winter Little Gulls. BUT, I've come across a report of a third bird here either yesterday or the day before, an adult.... which may or may not coincide with the disappearance of the adult Ross's Gull from Weymouth... 

Back to the patch, and we still have a nice selection of wading birds on the Axe, including Avocet today. Having missed the three Ruff last Sunday I was pleased to see a stunning male in with the roosting Redshank and single Greenshank yesterday - a right corker too.

Looking at the weather forecast just now, all bets are off for an arrival of Wheatear this weekend...

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.

Gulls Save The Day

This morning was a bit of a nothing morning when it came to birds. I was dog-sitting so spent the morning walking around Colyton and Axmouth with two Golden Retrievers. I could well have been pulled past a few silent goodies, but there were certainly no vocal Yellow-broweds where I walked. Cannot believe I still haven't seen one this autumn! 

This afternoon was much better though, with the highlight being a gorgeous juv Little Gull on Colyford scrape mid afternoon. Sadly it was too distant for pics but what an absolute joy to see - such a teeny weeny dark little thing. And my first patch Little Gull since February 2014 so very much appreciated. Also on the Estuary was this hefty adult Yellow-legged Gull, presumably the same bird that I saw on Saturday afternoon, as I also saw it yesterday morning on the flood water at Colyford Marsh.

Middle bird with head tilted up

Second from right, this photo shows mantle colour, leg length and overall size well

Also on Colyford Marsh and the Estuary this afternoon; two Shoveler, the Barnacle Goose, two Grey Plover, one Bar-tailed Godwit and nine Dunlin.

Not quite the east coast, but hopefully the south west will shine soon..

Gullmageddon in Seaton

Wednesday's storm must have stirred some food up for the gulls - with huge numbers around this afternoon.

Between 15:30 and 16:30 there were over a thousand large gulls, with about 700 feeding in two large groups off the beach (one off the harbour mouth, and the other to the east off Culverhole) and 300+ resting on the lower part of the Estuary.  Sadly though, I couldn't find anything of note amongst them - I'm certainly pretty confident there weren't any white-wingers in with them. Actually there were unusually few Black-backs, with only three Lesser and probably no more than 40 Greats, which makes 957+ Herring Gulls! 

There were very few small gulls too, with just a few Black-headed Gulls, Common Gulls and Kittiwakes offshore. It was a nice surprise to see yet another adult Little Gull though, which came flying through close west very determinedly at 4pm. Cracking bird.

And now for a quiz, spot the Little Gull...

I'll be quite impressed if someone does find it! It is there I promise, and more importantly, perfectly identifiable.

A Little Treat

I was hoping this would be a post containing several photos depicting the chaotic scenes at Seaton this morning. The day that saw the town's worst flooding since 1974. But I've been up since half four and I'm afraid I just don't have the energy.  I just had to post about this little delight though...

A look along the Estuary soon after dawn showed two adult Kittiwakes resting on the water, here's one pictured (very distantly!) with a Common Gull...

Kittiwake on the right

They started to fly around a bit, and being such a scarcity on the Estuary I thought I'd try and get this species on the house list while I could.  So I went straight home to set the scope up in the bedroom, which I peered down for a few minutes at a time every so often. 

I can't see much river at all from my house, in fact during low tide I can't see any at all, just the air space above it. But when the river valley is flooded, I can see this much...

Still not much, and most of what I can see it partially obscured by trees. To be (almost) precise, the Estuary is about 1.900 km in length, and I can see roughly 150m of it, and of that small section, only half the width of it.

Several short watches revealed no Kittiwakes, and with the wind having dropped by late morning I figured they'd probably made a break for the sea.  I kept watching though, and at midday had my reward with a cracking adult Little Gull feeding close to the surface of the water.  I saw it several times from the bedroom over the next couple of hours, before I just had to go for a closer look from Axmouth...

It was superb to watch, feeding exactly like a Storm Petrel pitter-pattering over the surface of the water with incredible elegance and ease. What a cracking bird!!

More 'bedroom birding' later in the day revealed yet another house tick, a Med Gull. I really should have seen this species from the house long before today, as they probably fly past every day of the winter! I obviously haven't been looking hard enough when one has passed. It was an adult circling over Black Hole Marsh with Black-headed and Common Gulls at about 4pm.

And now people, with my head literally resting on my laptop's keyboard, it's time to sign off for the night. But expect a post crammed full of photos in the next day or two...

A Lazy Sea Watcher

Normally I am quite an intense sea watcher. Pockets full of clickers, a notebook and pen, there for dawn. But not today, yet it was probably one of the greatest spring sea watches I have ever had on patch! And this was pretty much my first attempt at a proper sea watch this year!

Last night, Bun texted to say he was going to be sea watching off Beer from 7am. My alarm went off at 6:10am, but I hit snooze...and again....and again.... I finally got up at 7am, soon received a text from Gav simply saying "sea busy", then made my way to join Bun at Beer with no clickers and only a scrap piece of paper. Bun was running late, and we both arrived at the shelter at about 07:22. In the first scan, several flocks of Manxies were in view - oh goodie!

Top bird number one came at 7:30, when I picked up a first-year Little Gull flying in from the east with five Sandwich Terns. The Little Gull then spent the next ten minutes or so feeding fairly close in. Another one, or the same bird, reappeared at 08:30ish. I'm more inclined to say it was a second bird, as it appeared to fly in strongly from the east.

Next highlight was after a tip-off from Gav, who was sea watching from Seaton. At 07:45 two pale-phased Arctic Skua flew in from the east, at close range. They came into view with two Kittiwakes, but soon lost them when they spotted a small group of fishing Sandwich Terns. The Skuas spent the next half an hour offshore, often resting on the sea near to the fishing terns, only flying up when they had 'pirating' to do! We got excellent views of these two beauts.

The final highlight was without doubt the best. At 8am, we had kinda given up and were just chatting about all sorts of rubbish, when I fixed my scope on a bit of sea that had a summer plumaged Black Guillemot flying over it!!! SHOCKER!!!! I shouted to Bun, and despite his shaking hands and noticeably panicky voice, he quickly got on it.

It was distant, but the light was brilliant. We both managed to lose it soon after, me whilst I was hopelessly trying to photograph it, and Bun when he moved his scope. For Bun it was a patch lifer, but I saw a single moulting bird off Branscombe in Feb 2005, followed by two in summer plumage there in March. As it's a Devon A rarity, and didn't photograph it, I quickly penciled out a sketch of it on the scrap bit of paper in my pocket - much to Bun's amusement! Needless to say I will not be posting it up here!!

This is the full list of what we clocked up this morning (west unless stated);

2 Common Scoter
1 Great Northern Diver (east)
1 Red-throated Diver (east then landed on sea)
40+ Gannet
200+ Manx Shearwater
10 Whimbrel (see photo)
2 Arctic Skua
8 Kittiwake
1+ Little Gull
8 Sandwich Tern
10 auk sp.
1 Black Guillemot

My first of the year - they gained height and appeared to continue west over Beer Head

Another short sea watch from Spot On Kiosk, Seaton, 11:30 - 12:15 revealed the now westerly wind had pretty much killed it. Except for Sandwich Terns, of which 29 flew west. It was nice to see hirundines trickling in off the sea, including my first House Martins of the year (at least six).

Despite almost immediately alerting other Devon birders about the Tystie, it wasn't seen off anywhere else. So I'd certainly advise a look off Branscombe in the morning - the sea should be a bit calmer too.

Bums

Dunlin and Little Stint taken on Tuesday - isn't the size difference so obvious!

Black Hole Marsh was cracking on Tuesday afternoon, with a 'new' Curlew Sand present amongst 19 Dunlin, 12 Ringed Plover, 4 Greenshank, 3 Ruff and a Knot...

Juv Curlew Sand moulting to 1st winter plumage

An hour after I came away from Black Hole Marsh on Tuesday, I was scoping Colyford Scrape from the Farm Gate as a juvenile Little Gull had been found. It wasn't doing much when I saw it, but nice to see this beautifully marked miniature Gull never-the-less.

A photo of a Little Stints bum isn't the only reason I called this post 'Bums'... it is because, as per usual, we missed out on most the sea watching action that other parts of Devon enjoyed on Tuesday. I spent three hours sea watching from Seaton seafront during that morning and noted; 4 Balearic Shearwater, 35+ Manx Shearwaters, 2 Arctic Terns and 4+ commic Terns. Yes - that was it! I even missed the Sooty Shearwater that came through during the time I wasn't looking at the sea!

The following morning (Wednesday), an hours sea watch showed it was even quieter, although at least one Storm Petrel could be seen feeding distantly. A single Balearic Shearwater flew west and a single commic Tern loitered behind a boat.

And now to today, and I've been looking rather intently for an American wader as they are popping up everywhere!! No luck as yet, in fact Black Hole Marsh had very much a 'samey' feel to it. Saying that though, whilst watching the 15 Ringed Plover, 21 Dunlin and single Curlew Sandpiper - another flock of 20+ small waders came whizzing south past the Island Hide low over the Marsh - but they didn't stop and just kept flying...bloody annoying really! On the Estuary there were five Bar-tailed and 13 Black-tailed Godwits, one of the latter being an Axe Estuary colour-ringed bird (Red, Orange, Lime).

I won't have much time out and about over the next three days, if I do get any time though I will try and make the most of it....

What A Contrast!

I took these photos just after half past midday...


And I took this photo less than two hours later...


All morning it was absolutely horrendous - torrential rain with a very strong south easterly wind whipping the waves up a good'un! But early afternoon, it was as if someone flicked a switch; not a breath of wind and blue skies! The sea remained pretty choppy though.

Mid morning, the flood opposite Axmouth FC was graced by a gorgeous adult Little Gull. Unfortunately, as I was attaching the camera to my telescope, everything took to the air and it buggered off! Also here 12 Snipe and 8 Dunlin (with a further 14 Dunlin on the Estuary).

A few hours later, whilst sea watching from the shelter of Axmouth Yacht Club, another adult Little Gull flew through east. Although the sea watch was very poor (we never seem to do very well in really rough conditions), the Little Gull wasn't the highlight.

I picked up a Great Skua flying into the bay quite a way to the west of me, which then started to fly east along the beach. I broke from the shelter of the yacht club building and ran to the shore where I was soon treated to my best ever views of a Bonxie on patch! When it came level with me, it double-backed and hung in the wind no more than ten metres above my head, looking down at me! I have to say, I felt intimidated, but it's moments like this that make birding so enjoyable for me. What a stonking view of a terrifically powerful bird...it was the kind of view you'd only expect to get during the breeding season on Shetland!

I returned to the shelter of the building, and took a few snaps as the Bonxie continued to fly up and down the beach...

A long way from Mark Darlaston quality - but not bad for Seaton!

And that's pretty much my highlights for today, but for two adult Med Gulls; one on the Estuary and one on flood water south of Boshill Cross.

Early afternoon I gave the new hide at Colyford Common a go for the first time...

This is no 'box' anymore!

A vast improvement! It is now comfortably spacious, and the added height helps no end. Best of all though is the much improved panoramic view, with the north end of the main scrape on Colyford Marsh now easily visible. Excellent work again EDDC :-)

There were plenty of birds to be seen here, like for example at least 400 Wigeon, but nothing out of the ordinary. Two Green Sands on Colyford Common probably being the best.

Now, it's days like today that I think food plays an important part in the birding regime. There hasn't been much mention of food on this blog of late, but during one of my brief returns to 'base', this helped me along no end...

Note the healthy seeded multi grain bread

And then I thought I'd get a taste of the festive spirit soon to be upon us...

Note the small slice I've cut off for myself; this was the only slice I ate, promise...