Big White Birds

Just a quick update, but one that does include plenty of pictures of big white birds!

On Sunday night Phil found a Great White Egret on Black Hole Marsh (although a tram driver reported to me an egret that looked larger than a heron earlier that day, but from experience I've found sometimes driver's bird ID can be a bit ropy!).  I was stuck home Sunday evening, but a glance out the bedroom window was all I needed because there it was sat on a tree alongside the Tower Hide!  It stayed there about twenty minutes 'til it got too dark to see.  Please excuse the quality of the phone-scoped pic...

My second GWE from the house

This morning Jess suggested an early morning walk in Lyme - which I didn't vote against seeing as Richard let me know the night before that an unringed White Stork roosted near the Cobb.  I thought we had missed it as it was last reported flying east over town, but soon after our arrival there it was flying over town coming back west...

And much to our disbelief, it landed on the RNLI Station which we were stood right next too!!

Amazing views! After about half an hour it took off and flew west a little way out to sea, but seemed to turn back east and drop back in towards Lyme...

As we drove off a little while later, I could see it again in flight and heading west, so as we came back into Seaton I suggested we briefly stopped off at the sea front in case it kept on flying west.  And amazingly this greeted me...

Incoming Stork!

And it did exactly the same as it had in Lyme, it landed right next to us!  On a roof I'm more used to seeing Black Redstarts on...

The big white bird on the roof!

A White Stork on patch!

Soon after I left it, Kev watched it fly west over Beer Head and it's been seen today on the Exe, and finally this evening on a pub roof in Sidmouth!

Sadly though, although the sheer joy of seeing this amazing bird still lives on, the feeling it's given me inside has completely withered....  Look closer at the open wing shot on the RNLI building and there's clearly been some sort of human intervention with the tips of these primary feathers...

And despite the lack of rings, it's wearing some sort of satellite tag.  If anything this makes it even more intriguing though, why tag it and not ring it!??

So come on, own up, who is tracking this Stork!? Please get in touch!

Lyme Regis

An enjoyable family wander around Lyme Regis this afternoon revealed the lingering immature drake Eider distantly off the Cobb...

And 13 Purple Sandpiper feeding along the shoreline off the eastern end of the sea front...

Just a pity the sun wasn't out!

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...

Off-patch Turnstones

Not really sure why Seaton is such a black hole for Turnstone, but I don't think there's ever been a record of an over-wintering bird here. However if you travel eight miles to the west, a small flock are ever present on Sidmouth sea front virtually pick-pocketing for food, or six miles to the east of us this lovely little gang can be found around the Cobb at Lyme Regis...

And at both sites they allow super close views...

Top birds. Always great fun to watch, but clearly stubbornly site-faithful!

The End Is In Sight...

..which means hopefully I'll be able to go out birding again!  Although from reading other blogs/websites it looks like the summer doldrums have already hit! Saying that though, this post has taken about three hours to write because I've just spent an hour or so with Gav on Seaton Marshes waiting for a Black Kite - it never came. Hopefully we are still in with a chance though.

During the last week we've had some excellent sea watching conditions, and I've tried to squeeze in the odd short watch as and when. To be honest with you, considering how little time I've been looking at the sea I haven't done too bad.

Last Friday I was down the sea front for 05:25, and gave it until 7.  Best of all was the passage of Great Northern Divers, with 11 west, many in full summer plumage. Sadly no Black-throats for me - still!  It was good to finally see a small skua too, with a dark phased Arctic Skua chasing Kitts close in at about 05:40 before flying off east.  There was a bit of wader passage as well with five Sanderling, two Dunlin and a Ringed Plover west.  Then it was the weekend...

Saturday I was up early again, really early in fact to lead a Dawn Chorus Walk at Black Hole Marsh on behalf of the EDDC. I'm pleased to say the weather was kind to us, and 21 people joined me for the two hour wander which was finished off nicely by bacon butties and bird ringing!

The usual songsters sang well, and it's always good to hear Reed and Sedge singing together - just a pity the singing Lesser Whitethroat didn't come closer.  One of the best sounds were the Whimbrel though, with a few small groups over, followed by a very noisy flock of 17. A Bar-tailed Godwit was amongst them, and other sightings included a Hobby low north at about 06:30 and a Greenshank on the Estuary.

This week, a few glances at the sea on Monday showed little, but my alarm was set for 5am Tuesday morning with a forecast looking good.  I got up but the weather didn't seem that good so I settled down with my laptop. This proved a mistake, as texts began coming through from Gav informing me I'd missed three year ticks! I tried to ignore all these message, but at 08:20 gave in and headed to the beach...

The first thing I did was take a walk along the beach in case Gav's Turnstones were still about. No waders at all, but a glance out to sea showed a skua chasing gulls off the harbour mouth - I ran back to the car to get my telescope. As I was setting the scope up by the Spot On Kiosk I could see a skua flying west just off the beach with my naked eye, and I was overjoyed when a look through the scope showed it to be a cracking sub adult Pom! A stonker! It got better too, as following it was a fully-spooned pale-phased adult! So so soooo close as well - I was treated to epic views, probably my best EVER Pom Skua views. I can't tell you how overjoyed I was (although you can probably tell!) because I normally have rotten luck with this species on patch.  Gav and Ian M saw them too from other locations, which is always good. After I'd watched them for a bit, I realised they were probably close enough for a photo. Sadly I was slow of the mark and they were further out when I tried to get some snaps. All I managed was this pic of the sub adult...

This dark shape doesn't so it jutice, but I'd say this is identifiable as a Pom!

I had about 40 minutes for this sea watch, and as well as the Pom's I clocked up two Great Northern Divers, several Whimbrel, Gannets and Kittiwakes and a Bar-tailed Godwit.

This flock of Whimbrel landed on the beach

After a several hours at home, the rain and wind tempted me out again at about 11:30 for an hours sea watch. This was quieter but it was very worthwhile as I had excellent views of a close Storm Petrel feeding off the river mouth - result!  At least three Stormies were seen on Tuesday, which I found really surprising as we normally need persistent and VERY strong winds for these. They were all close too.

Only other birds I saw on this watch were a Bonxie west, and a few blogging Sandwich Terns... 

Fishing Sandwich Tern

Wednesday was a very surreal day for me. Before heading off to Lyme Regis I had a walk along Seaton Beach. A single Dunlin and three Ringed Plover made it just about worthwhile. Didn't see to be much over the sea except this Gannet which was unusually close... 

I know it doesn't look close, but you can see it flew in front of Beer Head

Then I headed off to Lyme. And why did I go here? Well keep your eyes on The One Show. Hopefully I make the final edit, and if I do I'll try and let everyone know when it will be on...

Lyme Black Red Update (Updated!)

Well I was planning to go to Chew Valley Lake today, it took me an hour to get to Chard, and I couldn't really be arsed so was thinking about turning back. See, I told you I was the world's worst twitcher!

Anyway, the final straw came when Mike Langman phoned me, expressing interest in that Black Red - I'm glad at least one person reads my blog! (cheers Matt ;-0)... Anyway, I headed for Lyme Regis instead!

It didn't take long until I saw it, but it was bloody elusive at times and could be a right bugger to pin down. I somehow flukily managed a pic of the underwing coverts though! And when I looked at the pici on my camera screen they looked nicely orange, but when I got home and got them up on my laptop, as you can see below they aren't much more than buffy. Still, it is a very interesting bird, and nice to see it causing some interest this afternoon....

But is it the real McCoy?

Unfortunately not one of my pics show the wing formula - which apparently would pretty much clinch it. Drat!

As well as the obvious, there's another thing I think looks just a bit odd with it - its head and face. I can't quite put my finger on what, but there's something 'not typical Black Red' about it.

UPDATE: I have a picture, and a cracking one at that, from Dave Helliar, which shows the primaries...

I think this rules out a hybrid doesn't it!??