The last day of March offered the Axe even more wildfowl variety, with two new geese for the year.
This morning Ian Mc found a Greylag on Bridge Marsh, which remained in the valley all day. Late March/early April often sees a spike in Greylag records for us, suggesting it must be some sort of spring passage, although from where to where who knows...
Greylag Goose standing proud
Then this evening Tim Wright located a Barnacle Goose, the same one that Dave Helliar has seen recently in the Chard area...
Barnie!
As Barnacle Geese go, well let's just say it's not the best. This bird shows surprisingly grey flanks and belly, some brown in the black of the neck and breast, and a bit more white than usual in the head area. Nevertheless I still think it's a pure bird, just a grubby first-winter individual probably of 'suspect' origin.
Yesterday, as you'll have probably already seen from other local blogs, Ian Mc scored his fourth white-winged gull of the year on the Axe. Thankfully this one I actually managed to see, a stonking first-winter Glaucous Gull. A proper massive and fairly dark one too - the best type :-)
As we reach to the conclusion of March 2018, some may find it interesting to know that thanks to two cold snaps, a decent flurry of early spring migrants, 11 species of gull and the whole host of wildfowl that we've seen, 136 species of bird have been recorded on the Axe Patch this month. Pity the sea wasn't busier as that could easily have added another five or more.
I often find March a month of frustration when it comes to birding. You feel like you've turned the corner from winter to spring, but nothing actually happens... and that's exactly what is going on at the moment. Usually though there is an obvious reason why nothing is happening (snow, a blasting cold northerly wind, storms on the migration routes, etc) but at the moment there seems to be no apparent reason. Every day a check of BirdGuides shows an almost complete void of early spring migrants which just seems really odd, yes there's been the odd Sand Martin, LRP, Garganey, plus a bit of obvious spring stringing - but way short of what I have been expecting. Really hope things pick up soon.
Despite the lack of any spring migrants elsewhere, I did give Beer Head a wander late morning yesterday but came up with nothing more than five Stonechat...
I've included this photo more for the blue sky!
It's not just the summer migrants in short supply, with a new moon this week I've been expecting some wader passage on the Estuary (maybe an Avocet, Barwit, Ringo or Grey Plover?) but I've seen absolutely nothing new.
The sea has also been dire, mind you it has been dire all winter. We usually have double-figure counts of Great Crested Grebe here, but three has been my max count all winter, and there only seems to be one left now. These, along with Cormorants and Shags, are the only species of sea birds I've seen settled on the sea in Seaton Bay ALL winter! Dreadful. I did have another look this morning, but after seeing nothing except, surprise surprise, one Great Crested Grebe, I decided to give Branscombe a look...
Finally some birds! Although many were off to the west (with five being too far away to positively ID) there were divers. 12 Red-throated and three Great Northerns to be precise. The second closest of all of them was a stunning full summer plumage Red-throat - what a treat! Also 10+ distant auks on the sea but nothing else. There was nothing really moving over the sea at all, so two Common Scoter east and a flock of 15 west were notable indeed.
Once I had given the sea the attention I felt it required, I wandered up to the sewage works. Several Goldcrests, a green Chiffy and an absolute stunner of a tristis Siberian Chiffchaff - a real pallid grey bird - greeted me. Sadly it was never close enough for pics, but you should know by now that never stops me...
Awful pic, but not a hint of green or yellow anywhere!
Hello all, I'm back! Not been anywhere mind, just haven't had much to blog about and no time to do it. It won't be hard to sum up my February though...
We had something of an invasion of Greylag Geese mid month, with a couple of different flocks dropping in on the Axe, the biggest being 22! These records tied in nicely with an increase in Greylag sightings elsewhere along the south coast, so am certain they relate to genuine wild birds. Best guess is that they are Spanish wintering birds migrating back north. The first small group seen by Tim Wright didn't stay long at all, just one night, before flying off north. Only one lingered, one of the 22, it remained with the semi-resident Canada Geese until nearly the end of the month.
The increase in temperature part way through the month seemed to fool the birds into thinking spring had come early. So many of the resident species started to sing, and sing well. It even encouraged a couple of the wintering warblers to break out in song, with both Blackcap and Chiffchaff giving it some nearer the end of the month.
Beautiful blue skies at Lower Bruckland Ponds. You can just about see the white buds appearing on the willow to the right.
These white buds! Lovely to see.
So that's February. Thankfully March has already proved better...
The one I didn't see was an Iceland Gull found by Phil on 1st. A great find really as there hasn't been many white-wingers about, although a few do seem to be appearing now. March/April often proves the best months for white-wingers here, when birds that have been wintering south of us head back north.
The quality I did (finally!) see (third attempt!) was the Short-eared Owl first seen by Mike Lock on Friday evening at Axmouth. It was seen over the weekend, but it wasn't until this evening that I saw it. Well WE saw it, as Jess is a big Owl-fan, and this was the last of the five regular UK Owls that I needed to show her. I have tried to show her Short-eared Owl before, just a month or so ago at Wyke Down, but we dipped spectacularly, so to get one on patch is magic. Although I have seen quite a few here over the years, they have pretty much all been passing migrants that have stayed between 5 mins and an hour, so I didn't for a second think I'd be able to get Jess on to one here. But I did, and flipping heck did we see it well.
Within seconds of arriving at a sunny Axe Cliff Golf Course at 5pm today Dave Helliar pointed it out hunting over the rough grass, and about two minutes later it flew past us about 10 feet away! Despite only having my point and shoot Lumix in my hand on automatic mode, and in the same hand that I was holding the dogs lead, I somehow manage to fluke this...
What a beaut!
We watched it for another twenty minutes or so, and it showed very well almost continuously, but it didn't come that close again...
And here's a short video...
Jess kept saying after we dipped this one twice, and the Wyke Down disaster "it wasn't meant to be - when I do see one it will be extra special". She was dead right. I must learn to be this positive when it comes to dipping...
