Tree Pipit Triumph

I'd describe myself as a pretty dedicated patch birder. Sure it helps to have such a great patch, but I do love patch birding in general. One of the things I most like about it is how relatively common, sometimes even nationally VERY common birds can become so much more.  I have read many times of birds like Coots, Mute Swans, and my god even Canada Geese making someones morning by appearing out of the blue on their patch. How brilliant is that! Patch birding can add a new dimension to birding which otherwise simply wouldn't be there.

One persons dross is another persons mega!

The main problem with the Axe patch is it is so bloody big! We calculated the boundary by drawing a circle with a radius of 5km from the lower road bridge over the River Axe (Harbour Road, Seaton). Yes we only have ourselves to blame for it being so big, but we wanted to include all our key sites like Beer Head, Axe Cliff, Bovey Down, Branscombe, etc.  Having a patch this big makes deciding where to go often very hard, but also it makes finding rares so much more challenging. There must be thousands of private gardens within our patch, who knows how many Wrynecks and Hoopoes annually hunker down in these? There's acres of woodlands, and even more open farmland with hedges and scrub.  I think this is the main reason why none of us have ever seen a Shrike here. One could drop in anywhere and if it doesn't happen to be at one of the places we check, then we just wouldn't know it was ever there...

It's because of this that I always make a point of checking areas away from the regularly birded haunts.  And there's one small patch of scrub and rough grassland in Seaton that I check many times over the course of spring and autumn - it just looks so good for a Shrike or a Wryneck. So far, no Shrikes or Wrynecks, but I have had a modest selection of commoner migrants up here over the years.  And last Thursday afternoon, I added a new species to this micro-patch, when two Tree Pipits flushed up from the grass in front of me...

They clearly didn't get on with each other! Notice the short hind claws

This one had quite a striking ear covert spot cf. Olive-backed Pipit.

Although I had seen 16 Tree Pipits earlier that day on Beer Head, these two meant so much more. I knew I was going to see Tree Pipits on Beer Head even before I stepped out of my car, but I really was not expecting these. Yes I know they are relatively common migrants, but it really feels like they have rewarded my efforts, and they have certainly fired me up to visit this site a bit more often now. Hopefully next week it will be the turn of a Shrike or a Wryneck...

Lastly, I just want to thank you for all the comments I've had (via twitter, email, the blog) about my last blog post. And it seems that not only am I inspiring people to get out birding, but also other bloggers to write.

Oh and by the way, so far Photo B is way in the lead, but I will wait until the vote closes before announcing the winner.

Last Week

I've not got too much to tell of last week, due to two days of illness, two mornings of superb Dartmoor surveying and only about three hours of patch birding.

I had high hopes for Monday, but all I managed to squeeze out of the patch was a Hobby west over Bridge Marsh and this brief Greylag Goose with the Mute Swan flock there...

Patch bronze

Wednesday was spent on the moor, but I did have a spare ten minutes to look along the Estuary between this and work, and wow - it showed that Wednesday was a good day!  The heavy rain, fog and light SE wind had obviously encouraged waders to move about (and ground) - I was stunned to see a single flock of 90 Dunlin and 7 Ringed Plover on the Estuary.  Numbers like this are usual in the autumn on the Estuary, but only very rarely occur in spring, there has to be the right weather conditions. Although they were just Dunlin (I was disappointed there wasn't a smart Broad-billed Sandpiper in with them yes) they were great to see due to the incredible variation between birds.  All were in summer plumage, but the mantle colours varied from almost Curlew Sand-red to winter Sanderling-grey, and everything in between!  Overall size varied too, as did bill length, so the flock probably consisted of all of the regular occurring UK races; arctica, schinzii and alpina. I just wish I took some photos.

I find May wader days so so exciting - the 'rareometer' levels are sky high and there is so much potential.  Richard P managed to capture the magic with some footage from Charmouth the same morning, he had a single flock of 70 Dunlin, 25 Sanderling and 10 Ringed Plover, and he doesn't even have a river (well not a proper one anyway!). See HERE.

The following day was a bit of a let down, it was still misty and wet but the waders were just not moving - 11 Dunlin and three Ringed Plover were all the beach had to offer.  I did see a larger flock of small waders on Colyford scrape at high tide (about 40+ birds) but THE MOST frustrating thing happened...  I decided they were definitely worth a trudge out to Colyford hide, despite the rain the possibility of something like a male Kentish Plover made it a no-brainer.... Sadly though half way across Colyford Common I flushed a Peregrine off the marsh, which proceeded to fly across the tramline and straight over the scrape.  I heard a few Ringed Plover calls and when I made it to the hide there was nothing there at all... Arse.

And that's about it.  I'll end this post with a short video from Dartmoor, one of the perks of the early mornings and miles of walking...