Birds That Aren't Gulls!

With waders and gulls featuring heavily in my last few blog posts, I thought I should fill in the gaps with my other bird sightings from the last couple weeks.

As we approach the end of July, with autumn passerine migration starting to be a feature on the south coast, I gave Beer Head an early morning walk on two days last week...

Looking south west from Beer Head. Such a fantastic location to spend any time!

Both visits showed a similar amount of birds in less than ideal fall conditions.  There were between 6-8 Willow Warblers scattered across the headland on both days, all being my favourite flavoured yellow-lemon juv ones.  There was also a family of Whitethroats in the same place on both visits, as well as the usual breeding Blackcaps.  My second visit however, on 23rd July, did show one more migrant than my previous, with a very charming Garden Warbler feeding on an elder bush in the base of the hollow.  My earliest ever autumn record of this species on patch so a nice reward indeed. 

Just slightly drifting away from the bird theme of this blog post, it was nice to see up to seven Wall Browns during my second visit, which was slightly later in the morning than my first.  This is our most reliable local site for this species...

An underrated butterfly in my opinion, and scarce enough around here to be suitably appreciated

A little inland in the Morganhayes area (woodland west of Colyton), am sure like most conifer plantations in the UK at the moment, there seems to be plenty of Crossbills 'chupping'-around.  Seeing them perched up is a different story though... Why do they always land on the pines just beyond the ones in view!?  On the evening of 20th however one made an error of judgement and actually landed in view, and although it wasn't an adult male it was still much appreciated...

Hello you!  Nice to actually see the cross bill on a Crossbill for a change

Although it landed in view, he/she was never in full view!  

Back down in the river valley, during my recent gull watching sessions other birds have been rudely interrupting my fun.  Take Kingfishers for example, as usual for this time of year they seem to be plentiful, with this one in particular begging to be papped...

A token photo!  Do like the natural framing though so am pleased it stayed put for me :-)

And don't get me started on this Marsh Harrier.  Yes it's a lovely fresh dark glowing-headed juvenile, but it's been around for a week now and not only is distracting, it actually FLUSHES the gulls on occasions!  Not on at all...

My best views were on a gloomy day so pics not great!

Such a striking plumage at this age - love them!

Even a family of Reed Warblers right beside the Tower Hide have been causing me problems, loudly announcing their presence as the beg for food...

A true baby Reed Warbler

Beady eye!

Seemed to be four juvs with at least one adult feeding them

And to complete this post, the final bit of bird news is from today.  Whilst sat at my desk a tern whizzed past my office flying up river - never a common sight on the Axe.  A few minutes later I was outside watching and listening to an adult and a juvenile Common Tern calling to each other as they flew around and around the lower Estuary.  They finally departing when a juvenile Peregrine came diving in.  What a treat. There's a video of them calling away on my Twitter feed, it sure was great to hear.

Lockdown Listing

Well what strange times we are in.  Just as the birding calendar starts to look interesting we all have to stay in!  Quite rightly too though I must add.  

I will start by saying how lucky I feel in the midst of all this anxiety and unknown, for three main reasons; 

1/ I still have a job.

2/ I haven't been told I need to completely self-isolate for three months.

3/ I live where I live.  A four minute walk from Seaton Wetlands (perfect for daily exercise) and we have a nice view from the house.

Speaking of the house... Like many birders up and down the land I am pumped full of pre-spring anticipation, it's been gradually building since early February. Instead of letting it all go to waste I am going to re-direct it. And that's where 'Lockdown Listing' comes in!  We can't really leave our homes so let's see what we can see from them.  So for as long as this goes on my new patch is my house.

I live in Primrose Way, Seaton, which is right at the top of town.  We are basically the last line of houses before town becomes fields, where this red dot is...

Basically in grey, but surrounded by green

When Jess and I were looking to move to Primrose Way, we had the choice of two houses.  The first was finished to a much higher spec and had a slightly larger garden, but the view was nothing - surrounded by tall trees and other houses.  Then there was the second house, not quite as well finished, but when I saw the view from the bedroom window I knew it was the one...

Looking east

What you can see there is the large hill above Axmouth.  In front of that and behind those houses is the upper most section of the Axe Estuary, Axe Reedbeds and Black Hole Marsh.  Frustratingly due to trees and houses, you can't see any mud on the Estuary or the Marshes, but it's tantalising close because in the gap between the white and red brick house above you can see tram track...

That patch of green in the foreground is a small section of Seaton Cemetery (through which is the Black Hole carpark)

So nearly mud!

At high tide I can see water, especially during floods as all that salt marsh behind becomes submerged, but nothing at all is visible at low tide.  So to see a bird from the house that happens to be on the tiny section of Estuary in line with my house, or on Black Hole Marsh, it needs to be all of the following;

1/ Flying.

2/ When I'm watching.

3/ Not flying too rapidly or far as it would quickly go out of view, and

4/ Be a fairly large and easily identifiable species, as we are talking about a distance of almost half a mile!

Luckily for me water birds are often noisy, especially at night when sound travels far.  Many species have been added to the house list thanks to their night time calling - a handy tactic to add some of the harder to ID at distance in flight species!

With such an open view to the east, there's a lot of sky so it's an excellent raptor view point, especially as the Axe valley seems to act as a funnel.  The view out to the west is pretty sky-rich too...

So much sky! Plus there's a Rookery in those tall conifers in the distance.

Also looking out the west side of the house, from my house you can see two small green spaces bordered by large trees (one of them is viewable in the pic above). This is where I've found four Yellow-browed Warblers over the years. 

Looking back out the east side of the house, if you turn to the north you see this...

Not just the communal parking spot

The fields behind are a bit of an eco-dessert for most of the year, although in late summer/autumn after they are rolled they become inviting for wagtails, pipits, larks, thrushes - and I can't help but slip in I've had Cattle Egret and Glossy Ibis on them!  The trees in the foreground however are often very lively, as they seem to form a much used corridor for passing birds. I know I am going to get something really good in them one day - Firecrest and Lesser Whitethroat the best so far.

So this ladies and gentleman is where I will be doing pretty much all my spring birding from in 2020. And Lockdown Listing is already four days in...

I haven't actually been able to give it much time over these four days as I've been working most of them, albeit in the conservatory with the double-doors wide open!  Have still had some nice highlights though, and here's a day by day account thus far;

Day One. (Tuesday). A cream-crown Marsh Harrier circling low over the river valley at 10:45 easily the highlight. A good local record on any level so a really great start! Also Peregrine, displaying Sparrowhawks and Kestrels over the house, and absolutely stacks of Buzzards - surprised to have not picked up a Red Kite. A lone Sand Martin flew north just before dusk.

Day Two. Still no Red Kite but again plenty of raptors up. A Greenshank calling mid afternoon from Black Hole was a nice a bonus as there's only a couple around at the moment. I gave the evening gull movement some time, which gave me Great, Lesser Black-backed and Common Gulls.

Day Three. Finally Red Kites - four of them! One flew low and lazily up the Estuary at 12:35, another single flew high south west at 13:25 circling as it went, and finally two flew low north together at 17:00.  Good to see a large flock of Black-tailed Godwits flying around in the evening.

The second of the four

Day Four. I filled a few holes in the list today, namely Jackdaw which has been strangely hard to get!  Also Linnet over today, and finally saw some Redshank in flight.  Still haven't seen/heard a Teal yet, even though I know there's at least twenty on Black Hole Marsh at the moment!

So I end day four on 49 species.  It's good fun and some nice light relief during such troubling times - plus it's not like we haven't all got lots of time at home ahead of us! Give it a go yourself and I hope you enjoy my future reports....there will be many!

Stay safe everyone.

Best Job Ever?

On Sunday evening I was delighted to lead a tram of 19 (plus Allan our driver) up the Axe Valley on a Birdwatch special. 

The weather during the afternoon was overcast with some heavy downpours, and the forecast looked a bit iffy for the duration. But in reality except for a couple of spots of rain as we left Seaton Station, everything including the weather was just so kind to us.  The wind dropped to almost nothing and the rain and clouds soon cleared revealing a magical soft golden light across the valley...

The birds were just as kind to us, and I'll start with the punters favourite as always, Kingfisher.  We had four sightings of probably two birds, with one sitting in full view for several minutes which left smiles on everyone's faces.  The hunting Barn Owl that remained in view for about ten minutes was also a firm favourite, this also posed well for the tram full...

Barn Owl

On the other side of the Estuary, one of the lingering juvenile Marsh Harriers hunted over the reed beds before landing distantly in a field opposite...

For the whole journey, low-flying Swallows, House Martins, Sand Martins and (a surprisingly high number of) Swifts showed really well as they fed low on flying insects. Whilst on the subject of passerines, three Wheatears showed well around Sheep's Marsh...

Wheatear - I just love the pale-edged black primaries

What was really special for me was the variety and numbers of wading birds on show.  At the top end of the trip where we turn around by Colyford scrape, as if three Green Sandpipers, a young Turnstone, a Dunlin and 11 Ringed Plovers weren't enough - a Wood Sandpiper took off from the small pools north of the scrape and flew south, calling all the way.

Adult Ringed Plover left and juvenile Turnstone right

Green Sandpiper

Thankfully on the return journey the Wood Sandpiper showed better, unusually feeding on the Estuary with a group of Redshank...

Look at the size difference - juv Wood Sandpiper flanked by two Redshank

Black Hole Marsh showed good numbers of Black-tailed Godwits and Dunlin plus a close Greenshank, with the Estuary giving another three Greenshank, a further three Turnstone (four is a cracking good count for us!), two Whimbrel, a heap more Black-tailed Godwits and at the very least 14 Common Sandpipers.  

Next year I'm going to try and arrange a few more Birdwatch tram trips for autumn, particularly August and September.  Seeing large numbers of wildfowl during the winter is always good, but nothing quite beats the variety, quantity and almost endless possibilities that can be seen during a trip in one of these months.

More Migrants Required!

Well spring really seems to have stalled since my last post, no falls worth blogging about and just a sporadic trickle of wading birds on the Estuary.  Best bird for me being the lingering female Marsh Harrier...

Small numbers of Whimbrel have been showing daily on the Estuary, along with a flock of 20+ Black-tailed Godwits that flew in to Black Hole Marsh a few evenings ago.  I haven't seen any Bar-tailed Godwits on the Axe for a while, but on the last day (25th) one of the two present was in full breeding plumage - nice!  A single Greenshank seems to be lingering in front of Seaton Marshes hide, with the odd Dunlin and Common Sandpiper dropping in.

Several Whitethroats are now in around Axmouth, with good numbers of Reed and Sedge Warblers in the valley.  Firsts for the year for me since my last blog post include a Hobby low east over Primrose Way on 25th and two Swifts this evening over Black Hole Marsh.

A Fulmar Fooling Around

Time for a quick update following the Colyton Cuckoo.  Since then spring migration seems to have slowed down a notch. For example, although I've not made it up to Beer Head recently, all who have report very little to be seen.  I have seen a few bits and pieces though...

Roll back to 19th April, and a female Little Ringed Plover was on Bridge Marsh at dusk, with the reeds full of singing Reed and Sedge Warblers. It's amazing how quickly (about a week?) the reeds went from being almost completely silent, to being crammed full of singing acros. Dusk is much more enjoyable when there's a back drop of chuntering Reed Warblers that's for sure...

Seaton Marshes hide

On the 22nd Chesil Cove recorded an impressive 800+ Bar-tailed Godwits through during the morning, whereas 30 minutes from Seaton Beach showed none!  I did check the Estuary last thing in the evening though and was pleased to see six just upriver from a flock of 12 Black-tailed Godwits.  There are still three here today, this being one of them...

Always look so short-legged!

This morning we had a real April 2019 rarity....rain!  It didn't seem to have done much at first, with just four Dunlin, a Ringed Plover and two Common Sandpipers on the Estuary.  But once the rain stopped during the afternoon things stepped up a gear , and although I missed an Osprey and drake Garganey, I did see the Marsh Harrier over Colyford Marsh, a Greenshank on the Estuary, and from the beach in 20 minutes; 150+ Manx Shearwaters west and a Goosander in-off. 

Looking out to see the visibility was outstanding, with a large container ship crystal clear despite it clearly being a long way off. Thanks to ship tracking website (https://www.marinetraffic.com) I was able to see it was 'Liberty Ace', a Japanese container ship heading for the US, and was about 15 (land) miles out!

The fact this distant ship was so clear wasn't the only surprise this evening.... Whilst I was at Coronation Corner, which is about 1.25km up the Axe Estuary, I looked up to see a Fulmar flying around!...

...it soon realised its mistake and headed back down the Estuary towards the sea.  Now I was not expecting that!!

Wheatear, Weirdo Rockit and New Marsh Harrier

With rain belting down outside as I write this, it's hard to believe the view from Beer Head late yesterday morning was this...

Looking back towards Seaton and Axe Cliff

It really did feel like spring, and this was emphasised by the joyous sight of my first Wheatear of the year, a cracking male. With the clear skies it didn't stay around long, in fact it didn't even allow me to take the annual 'first Wheatear of the year' ropey record-shot!

Other birds present included a male Stonechat, and a flock of 11+ Rock Pipits with one of them looking like this...

It proved surprisingly elusive in seemingly short grass

Interestingly Bun remembers seeing (presumably) this bird here last spring, which backs up my thoughts that these were all petrosus birds, and I guess local breeders. All eleven Rock Pipits showed heavily streaked underparts and dull olive upperparts, with no hint of any pinkness anywhere to be seen. Compare with Tim Wright's photos of a recent Colyford Common littoralis HERE.

This morning I had just under an hour out at Black Hole Marsh with local wedding photographer Matt who wanted to have a play with my Nikon Monarch scope. There was plenty to look at with a drake Gadwall on Black Hole Marsh, the Greenshank on the Estuary and a Marsh Harrier showing for most of the morning .

I haven't seen our lingering Marsh Harrier for about a week now (has anyone else?) and photos of this morning's bird shows it to be a young male. Presumably with the extent of cream on the crown it can only be a first-winter, despite the amount of grey on the bird's upperwing...

Worth clicking on this pic to enlarge it so you can see the extent of grey

And yes, that's a Water Rail it's carrying...

Caspian Gull Again

Excellent numbers of large gulls on the Estuary again today. I must have gone along the river about five times during the day, as everything was just perfect. Lots of gulls, often nice flat light to scan through them, and the tide times couldn't have been better with mud on show virtually all day...

Looking north from Coronation Corner

Sadly though, despite all my efforts I couldn't manage anything better than the lingering first-winter Caspian Gull, which I can't really complain about I suppose!  It spent most of the day (midday to 17:30 at least) down by the Tram Sheds. It's funny how whenever it is on the Estuary it is almost always at this end of the river...

Caspian Gull on the left

Although it's moulted a bit since I last saw it, still shows the pale areas on its tertials and greater coverts, the two knackered upper most tertials and all that flank mottling.

Nice comparison shot with a first-winter Great Black-backed Gull

It was nice to bump into County Recorder Kev during one of my visits, who dropped in on the off-chance on his way back from Radipole.  This was his first Axe Casp and I felt somewhat ashamed to show it to him, as this remains my least favourite of all the Axe Casps. It's such a small bodied, small-billed and 'dirty' looking individual, I like my first-winters big and bright!

This morning the Marsh Harrier was again hunting over Colyford Marsh. This is the longest staying Marsh Harrier in Axe history, and is a very welcome addition to the Axe wintering bird population...

A first-winter bird

Although the following pic isn't great, it does show the gorgeous colour of this bird's underparts. Can you get any more chocolate-brown than this...

I almost want to eat it!

Lastly, part-time patch birder Mike, who lives in Derby but often comes down here to visit his parents, texted me this afternoon with news of a locally staggering flock of 20 Pintail in off the sea late this afternoon. The start of some cold weather movement?

Early Marsh Harrier(s) and More Meds

A few snippets of interest to report from the patch today...

Earlier today local wildlife watcher Fran Sinclair was lucky enough to see two Marsh Harriers hunting over Colyford Marsh. At least one was still present late this afternoon, it was nice to see but I blame it entirely for flushing a large gull that deserved a closer look. Only locked on to it ten seconds before it upped and flew off south.  Drat.

I spent the rest of the evening on Beer Beach, hoping to see a raft of white-winged gulls roosting offshore. Well there were six Med Gulls, which is quite an increase on recent counts, suggesting the first signs of spring passage maybe? All but one were well on their way to showing full hoods.  But no big white-winged gulls sadly. Still.

Earlier in the day, but off-patch, it was nice to have some wonderful views of this lovely Fox. It could have been closer, but was an awesome looking specimen...

And come on, you didn't really think a super blue Moon would pass without a Moon pic appearing on this blog...

Marsh Harrier and Yellow Wag

Both Cattle Egrets are still here today. This morning they were probably no more than about 20 feet from the Tower Hide, but would have been completely invisible from there. I was watching from Axmouth and they were tucked right under the river bank with seven Little Egrets.

Enjoyed a lovely hour out late this afternoon down Black Hole Marsh with Harry, in gorgeous weather.  Managed to bag two autumn firsts during the wander, a Marsh Harrier and a Yellow Wagtail.  A fidgety Harry ensured I left the Tower Hide bang on cue to see all the loafing gulls flush up and a juv Marsh Harrier float around in the air above. I didn't see it close up and had to keep moving, but still it was good to see (our second of the year)...

The Yellow Wagtail was far less exciting. It flew over east calling.

The wader situation looked much the same on Black Hole itself, just a few more Dunlin (36+) and now nine Ringed Plover. Numbers will probably keep rising now as we move into August - the peak month for autumn wader passage on the Axe.

Best Day of the Spring

Wow what a day. The best birding day of the month turned out to be the last day of the month, and that was simply because we had some different weather. A nice south easterly wind has been blowing all day (since yesterday in fact) and we've had lots of rain. And this meant birds birds birds!

Although south easterlies aren't our best wind direction for sea watching (that's south westerlies) I just had to give the sea a look - quite a long look in the end! I started the day with a four hour sea watch and then had two twenty minute glances during the afternoon, all from the Spot On Kiosk. These are the exact times, and this is what I saw (east unless stated);

05:50-09:50, 13:10-13:30, 15:10-15:30;

2 Dark-bellied Brent Goose 

110 Common Scoter (75e 35w)

5 Great Northern Diver (all singles and all west)

70+ Gannet

6 Manx Shearwater (two singles and a four)

4 Arctic Skua (ad pale-phased west at 08:40, ad pale-phased and near-ad pale-phased close east together at 09:02 and ad dark-phased west at 09:40)

3 Mediterranean Gull (all first-years)

6 Common Gull

40 Black-headed Gull (most flew in)

21 Sandwich Tern

1 Arctic Tern (so close that I think it came out of the Estuary then flew east at 08:20)

4 Dunlin (in)

3 Sanderling (one east with a flock of ten Whimbrel and later two flew in sat on beach briefly then headed off west)

72 Whimbrel (biggest single flock being 38 birds)

2 Guillemot

14 Razorbill

8 auk sp.

1 Yellow Wagtail (flew east along beach calling).

I'm pleased to say there's four year ticks in that list; Arctic Skua and Tern, Manxie and Sanderling. I had to wait for the skuas, they only arrived once the cloud came over and just prior/during the first rain showers of the day. Although the numbers always make a sea watch for me (Whimbrel and Scoter today), and of course the skuas which are always notable birds here, my star bird of the watch was the Arctic Tern. Our 'commic's' are usually distant, but this thing virtually flew over my head! Great to be able to see all the diagnostic features, but best of all that distinctive bouncy flight and super long tail streamers. Now if I was to be a bit whingy a Black Tern would have been nice, but I'm not today - it's just been such a fab fab day!

Whimbrel flying east

Arctic Skua - just!

One of the closest Gannets of the day

With many other birders watching the coast today, there were a couple of interesting re-sightings of my birds. My four Manx Shearwaters in the afternoon flew past Sidmouth half an hour earlier (Dan), and it took my dark-phased Arctic Skua twenty minutes to fly from here to Budleigh (B Heasman) and then another forty minutes before it flew west past Teignmouth (L Allnat). Always find this kind of stuff fascinating, thanks for getting in touch folks.

Considering the amount of wading birds passing over the sea, I knew the river valley would be worth keeping an eye on today. By the end of the day on the Estuary there were; 

10 Ringed Plover

12 Dunlin

5 Bar-tailed Godwit (three sum plum males)

3 Black-tailed Godwit

36 Whimbrel (giving me a day total of well over a hundred - very notable count for the Axe)

1 Greenshank

From left to right; three Barwits, a Whimbrel and a Blackwit

Is there a finer wader? Summer plumaged male Bar-tailed Godwit

And again

And again! x2

Four of the five Barwits from today

And this wasn't it.  Wandering towards the Colyford Marsh hide early afternoon I noticed all the birds that were clearly on the main scrape on Colyford Marsh lift off and behave as though they'd just been spooked by something. Two minutes later I was watching my/our first Marsh Harrier of 2017. Year tick number five of the day...

Female Marsh Harrier

And again, but a little more zoomed in

I must just thank my wife, who's been amazing as always and was quite happy to let me fill my boots when it came to birding - she knows how much I've been longing for this weather. In my defence I did find time to build a bed today as well!

Before I sign off for the night I will quickly tie up yesterday's birding news - don't worry it won't be long as I only had about an hour out. Saying that it was a pretty good hour though! First up was an Avocet that flew in calling on the Estuary just as the tide was coming in...

Avocet and Shelduck

Then there was a new in Lesser Whitethroat singing alongside the tram line opposite Coronation Corner. And finally my forty minute wander along the beach with the dog which produced a Great Skua east and a Mute Swan and 22 Pale-bellied Brent Geese west...

Pale-bellied Brent Geese, later seen off Dawlish Warren

That's it now. Night all and roll on tomorrow...