The Big Year

....or not!  Sadly I didn't hit the 200 I was after for my 2013 patch year list, in fact I've fallen along way short.  Still, it was a very enjoyably year, with only a little stress (surprisingly!).  And this is roughly how it went...

January

The year soon got cold, with freezing temperatures and snow rising expectation for a cracking first month - and I wasn't disappointed!  The first couple of weeks of January were probably the most fun of the entire year, tacking down all the easy species and enjoying the lingering Bewick's Swans and Woodlark.  But mid month the goodies started appearing thanks to the weather, namely wildfowl, with Greylag Goose, Red-breasted Merganser, Pintail, Gadwall, Shoveler, Tufted Duck and Goldeneye (the latter not an easy bird at all on patch) all added to the year list. The 17th gave what should have been shock of the month, with a surprise Hen Harrier west over town!  This was only my second ever on patch - so to say unexpected is an understatement. The real shock of the month was still to come though, with the patch's first EVER Green-winged Teal on Colyford Marsh on 29th!  Could the year have started any better? Well yes... I could have seen the Goosander that roosted on the Estuary for four nights in a row, it was never there in the morning, and didn't turn up the first available evening I had! And don't even mention Waxwings...

Bewick's Swans

Pintail

A snowy scene

Ended the month on 112.

February

A few days away in Wales early in the month thankfully weren't costly (although gladly the Hen Harrier reappeared for a  few to see), with a Firecrest at Branscombe WTW a nice coming home present!  Sea watching remained frustratingly disappointing despite the flat calm seas, with two Ruff on Bridge Marsh on 9th my next notable year tick. It felt like I spent most the month driving around looking for patch Waxwings, but failed spectacular, although it did turn up a Brambling in Colyton on 12th. And that was that!  Despite all the effort, at the end of the month I'd not seen any interesting gulls despite looking (there were actually very few gulls full stop), nothing of note on the sea, and no bloody Waxwings!!

Not a Waxwing, but a distant Brambling.

Ended the month on 117.

March

March started well, with Gav finding me a couple of twitchable Goosanders on the Estuary on 3rd - unblocked!  The 5th was a double-tick day, with a Merlin over Morganhayes and a welcome Avocet on the Estuary, but the 7th produced the real corker, with an adult Spoonbill on the Estuary. Water Pipit was the next year tick, a species that used to be a regular winter visitor (and in good numbers), but is now a scarce migrant. Spring was introduced to my year list on 18th with the first Wheatear, although a Spotted Redshank the day before was a far more valuable year tick!  Then came a very frustrating week, where migrants were arriving en mass, but I only had very limited time out in the field. I still managed to add Sandwich Tern, Swallow, Sand Martin, and Little Ringed Plover though, but I really regret not being able to go out more during this spell - I bet there was a Stone Curlew lurking somewhere.  The 27th did give something better, a cracking male Ring Ouzel on Beer Head found by Ian P, but more memorable were the large numbers of Chiffchaffs literally everywhere, and the flock of Little Ringed Plovers! The 29th gave two more year ticks, both raptors and both from my bedroom window!  James M phoned with news of a male Marsh Harrier quartering over Colyford Marsh, and a glance out the bedroom window showed it. Less than an hour later James then phoned with news of an Osprey over the Estuary, I did the same and had the same result - a year tick! The last day of the month gave me Grey Plover, but I painfully missed a drake Garganey.

Ring Ouzel

Chiffchaff in the garden!

I ended the month on a pleasing 133.

April

The month began as March ended - with dipping.  I had been keeping a close eye on the gulls as we often get goodies in April (I've seen many Iceland Gulls during this month). Annoyingly the two times I wasn't looking at them, Gav was, and had a Glaucous Gull and Caspain Gull, neither being twitchable. A Yellow-legged Gull on the 12th wasn't really satisfactory compensation, but it was still a year tick.  The expected spring migrants such as Hobby, Redstart, Tree Pipit, Sedge, Reed and Willow Warbler and House Martin were next on the list, along with a couple of reeling Grasshopper Warblers. Although Groppers are annual here, if you don't get this species during a few weeks in spring, chances are you've missed it for the year! One of my favourite birds of the spring was a cracking male Pied Fly at Seaton Marshes on 17th - a scarce spring migrant for us.  The 18th gave what turned out to be a rarity this year - some decent sea watching weather, with two Great Skua and 16 Manx Shearwaters.  Then there was more dipping, with a Wryneck in a private garden in Rousden being particularly painful, along with a couple of brief Red Kites. Thankfully a Red Kite did finally decide to fly over me, on 23rd. The 26th saw a coupe more decent spring birds for the patch, with singles of Lesser Whitethroat and Garden Warbler. Surprise of the month was not just a patch year tick, but a patch life tick - a jammy Montagu's Harrier that flew west over Black Hole Marsh on 26th. Complete and utter jam! Finally the sea came good on 27th, with a cracking drake Velvet Scoter sat close in for all to twitch (and photograph!). There was one last surprise in the month, with the 29th giving a singing male Wood Warbler in Colyton. Although this doesn't sound that exciting - only the second one in recent times for the patch!  A proper patch rarity, and completed a pretty successful April.

Garden Warbler

Pied Flycatcher

Redstart

Willow Warbler

Wood Warbler

I ended the month on 156, over three quarters of the way towards my 200 target!

May

What a disappointment May was. A month that promises so much, and most years gives so much, but not in 2013. An Egyptian Goose was a very welcome start to the month, but missing another two Garganey certainly wasn't - I even got up at 4am for them!!  Some welcome wader passage on 9th added Sanderling and Wood Sandpiper to my list, and finally we had some good sea watching on 14th with two species seen that could easily not be seen in a year, Storm Petrel and Pomarine Skua. The last year tick in May was a summer plumaged Curlew Sandpiper - but that was it.  No rarities at all, not one. Wader passage was overall VERY poor, and as for the sea - just one species of Tern all month! For a 200 year I'd need them all!

Sanderling

Pomarine Skua

 I ended May on 164.

June

Well June is a month you'd expect little, and it gave little, not one year tick.  Moths distracted me a bit too much maybe, but every time I went out birding it felt like there was nothing to be found! There was some excitement late in the month though, when Jess and I got engaged!

We are getting married in July 2014

July

Another month that doesn't usually give much, but I managed to scrape four year ticks out of it, first of all a surprise Mandarin on the Estuary on 1st! A proper patch rare!  I spent most of the first couple of weeks out birding this month down the river, as waders such as Little Ringed Plover and Greenshank were beginning to pass through, but the next year tick for July came whilst studying moths - a fly over Crossbill. Mid summer is turning out to be the best time of year to get this species on patch now.  Balearic Shearwater is another species you have a good chance of adding during the summer doldrums, and sure enough three flew passed me on 25th. The month concluded with our first scarce wader of the year, a Pectoral Sandpiper on Black Hole Marsh found by James M.

Little Ringed Plover

Mandarin

I ended the month on 168.

August

August started with a shock - although an overdue shock!  Phil found some (presumed) breeding Nightjars on the edge of our patch, in habitat that is only been recently been made suitable. This was a patch first for all of us, and for me my 250th bird for the patch ever! Black Hole Marsh really was superb this month, with Turnstone soon added to my patch year list - but the rare wader never happened despite everyone looking, and despite constant scanning of the Teal no Garganey.  Cuckoos are scarce now days on patch, and as I'd missed them in the spring I thought I'd missed them for the year, but no, a juvenile appeared at Black Hole Marsh - in fact this autumn we had two, with one remaining for several weeks.  There rest of the month was mostly frustrating, how ever much time I or anyone spent out in the field, there wasn't any goodies despite lots and lots of common and scarce birds. Finally another year tick came, with a brief juvenile Black Tern on Black Hole Marsh that I was fortunately able to twitch, I twitched a Little Gull too the following day but missed it by minutes.

Yellow-legged Gull

Turnstone

Cuckoo

I ended the month on 175.

September

Over all another very frustrating month, the amount of time we spent in the field should have produced more rares, and at least one Wryneck! Wrynecks were literally turning up everywhere, but we didn't have one. It wasn't all gloom though and there were some highlights in the month.   To go a year here and not see a Knot would be disappointing, so thankfully three were on the Estuary on 5th. Both Beer Head and Black Hole Marsh were dripping with common migrants, but it took until the 17th until my next year tick, a pleasingly one too after missing one in the spring.  Caspian Gull is fast becoming a regular annual visitor to the Axe, but still a joy to find. It was three ticks in three days, with the 18th producing a fabulous Spotted Crake on Stafford Marsh, only my second ever for the patch!  And on 19th, my first Arctic Terns of the year were feeding off the sea front.  The last ten or so days of the month should have produced more than they did, but the one year tick it did give was a real surprise - a twtichable sat out in the open Bittern, on the Estuary found by Tim Wright on my birthday - the 27th.

Bittern

Knot

 

Spotted Crake

Caspian Gull (the one looking left in the middle)

I ended the month on 180, so twenty to get in three months - possible if it's a good three months!

October

This is the month that would make or break my year....and it broke it!  It started well though, with two Yellow-browed Warblers at Lower Buckland Ponds on 2nd. Although this species is something of a patch rarity, we were bound to get some this year considering the incredible numbers that arrived in the UK in the autumn, amazingly though these two were our only ones (that were seen anyway)!  I was hoping for about ten year ticks in Oct, as I felt we must finally be due some rarities and some decent sea watching. Well it just didn't happen, and all I got were three more year ticks in the entire month - all good ones though! I had a phone call from our Reserves Warden Fraser about four Bearded Tits on Black Hole Marsh on 19th, and a few minutes later I was watching them - only the second time I've seen this species on patch! The 21st saw a double whammy of year ticks, both superb birds, with the mornings year tick, Garganey, being extra pleasing after dipping this species twice in the spring, and having spent the entire autumn scanning through Teal flocks!  The afternoon saw the sea finally come up with something better than average with a cracking juvenile Sabine's Gull feeding close in - only my second for the patch. 

Garganey

Sabine's Gull

Yellow-browed Warbler

I ended October on 184.

November

Well I was hoping the lack of year ticks in Oct meant for a surge of year ticks in Nov - but overall it was another disappointing month, but started quite well.  On the 7th a Pochard (the first here for two years!) flew up and down the valley much to my delight, but was eclipsed by the year tick the next day.  Glossy Ibis is a bird you can hope to see most year with numbers ever increasing, and one did the decent thing and spent a few hours on Seaton Marshes. It only stayed a few hours though, and showed how easily a year tick could slip through.  There was some excellent birding to be had mid month, probably my most enjoyable of the year, with lots over a very busy sea and an east coast like thrush arrival. Although I did manage a year tick, Black-throated Diver, I couldn't believe I missed out on Little Gull! Portland had well over a thousand, yet despite sea watching off here for most of the same day, I had none!  Little Gull clearly wasn't to be in 2013 for me.  The month ended with a nice high though, with constant scanning over a flat sea revealing two Long-tailed Ducks. Pleasingly they hung around, unusual for us, and rare too - only my third ever sighting of LTD on patch ever. And before I knew it Nov was over.

I ended the month on 188.

December

This is the month I needed to catch up with all the wintering birds that we hadn't had in Jan, Feb and March. I needed all the three species of sea Grebes, Eider, either white-winged or Little Gull, any grey Geese (except Greylag), Whooper Swan, Snow or Lapand Bunting, either rarer Egret (Great White surely a possibility with the numbers in the south west)..... I saw NONE of any of these!!!  What a crap month December was for birding here, hours of seeing diddly squat.  And that brings me to here - the end.

Steve's 2013 patch year list total: 188. Which means, ANDREW is the winner!!! Congratulations mate, I'll be in touch :-)

So, where did it all go wrong?  Why was I so far off the mark? Well I didn't miss much that was seen, maybe six species, there just wasn't the birds. The two winter periods were very poor, the sea especially, in fact the sea was disappointing all year, with only one good day of spring sea watching, and none in the autumn!  Dismal. Spring and autumn migration on the land gave us good numbers of birds, but just nothing rare and very few scarcities.   I have to be honest and say it was one of my most frustrating years birding I've ever had here, as places all around us were picking up goodies, but however much we looked, nothing... not even a bloody Wryneck!  

So, did I enjoy it?  Yes I really did, I think it's something that just has to be done once in a while, not too often, but now and then. I'll probably do it again sometime, but probably not for a good few years with marriage and hopefully children around the corner (don't worry Mum - not around the next corner!).

So, what was my highlight?  Black Hole Marsh was incredible this autumn, with a superb variety and number of wading birds - just such a shame the rare one never happened. The individual birds that stood out for me were Green-winged Teal, Spotted Crake and Sabine's Gull.  It's always nice to find a patch first, and I love Teal, so that's why the Jan Green-winged Teal is up there. To be honest though, the Sabine's Gull gave me even more of a thrill! To get such superb views of stunning patch rarity (and possibly the prettiest gull?), over a sea that had been total pants throughout - awesome. And lastly, the Spotted Crake. I love Crakes, and the views this beautiful one day wonder gave certainly earned it a place in my top three birds of 2013.

So, is 200 in a new possible?  Well yes, I was 12 birds away, and if any of these had visited the patch I would have done it; Great White Egret, Cattle Egret, Slavonian, Black-necked and Red-necked Grebe, Roseate and Little Tern, Iceland and Glaucous Gull, Sooty Shearwater, Whooper Swan, Long-tailed Skua, Hoopoe, Wryneck, Snow and Lapland Bunting and any BBRC rarity!!  

So, although I didn't do it, I think I've proved it is certainly possibly if you chose the right year.

So, what's happening with Steve and his birding next year? Well we'll have to wait and see. I'll still be very much focused on the patch, but something tells me much more off patch birding will be done in 2014...

Getting Back To It

First of all, I have to say thank you so much for all the comments, emails, texts and tweets in response to my previous post. I do have more to say, but I'm not going to. It's time to draw a line under it...

_________________________________________________________________________________

...and get back to what this blog is about.

We have been blessed with flat calm seas for a few days, and decent cloud cover making conditions ideal for sea scanning. Bird wise though there has been very little on the sea, with species you'd expect to see several of (Great Crested Grebe, Common Scoter, Cormorant, Shag) few and far between, or totally absent.  Thankfully though the last few days have seen a bit of quality appear!

I haven't seen Long-tailed Duck here for six years, and before that I'm pretty sure I've seen just one other. So you can imagine my thrill when I picked up two feeding in the bay off the Spot On Kiosk yesterday morning. Both are immature/female-types, but beyond that I've never been too confident at ageing/sexing distant non-adult male LTD's. One was considerably whiter than the other - and if I had to place bets I'd say they were both female's, and ad and an imm. Most pleasing is that they seem settled, and are still out there feeding this morning.  Also yesterday a drake Red-breasted Merganser flew around the bay for a while which was nice, as was my first settled Great Northern Diver of this winter.

This morning I gave Branscombe its second look of the week, and had two more settled Great Northern Divers, along with a fly by Red-throat.  There were way more Kittiwakes and auks off here than in Seaton Bay, so hopefully regular visits here will turn something up.  A snoop around the sewage works here earlier in the week showed four Chiffchaffs and good numbers of the expected species - sadly no Yellow-browed or Dusky.

Tuesday morning I undertook my usual woodland bird survey near Colyton. Nice to see my first four Woodcock of the winter, along with a couple of Fieldfare, 10 Redwing and a fly over Golden Plover. All very wintry! 

There is a very winter feel to the birding scene now, vis mig appears to have all but stopped and the hopes of a late autumn rarity seem far flung.  Before it did end I gave Beer Head probably it's last visit of the year, on the 15th.  It was nice to see a few Wood Pigeons flying over NE, only 1350, but it was my biggest passage of the year (which is terrible!). 

 

On the ground, four Song Thrush, three Redwing and a Chiffchaff were expected, but a late Wheatear not so...

Looks a bit more exciting in this picture than it actually was - always just a Northern sadly.

So there you have it, autumn 2013 done.  And now we are into the last phase of the year - the last phase of my year listing year.  Long-tailed Duck was my 188th species for the year, which is a notable number as its the first guess from Steve's 2013 Patch Year Listing Competition.  Here's a reminder of who guessed what I'd end the year on...

188 - Andrew  
189 - Karen    
190 - Phil      
191 - Julia      
192 - Bun    
193 - John O' Sullivan  
194 - Col      
195 - 'Corky'     
196 - Dave H      
197 - Jonny      
198 - Skev      
199 - Tim White    
200 - Gav

201 - Sue Murphy  
202 - Catharine    
203 - Sue Smith

So Andrew, if the year was to end now, you would be the winner. But I'm afraid it doesn't, and I'm sure there's at least a few more year ticks in it...
 

Knot One, Knot Two, But THREE!

Sorry, but Knot puns are just too tempting....

Knot is one of the last 'pretty much guaranteed' species to fall on my 2013 patch year list attempt. It fell on Tuesday morning, and as you can maybe tell from the post title, there were three of them (which I think is my single highest count for the Axe!)...

A Redshank leading the Knot along the Estuary.

 

Waders have been fantastic - and it's looking ever better now a bit more water is coming on to Black Hole Marsh.  Dunlin have been numbering just less than 50 (48 Wed, 46 today), Ringed Plovers 30ish, literally millions of Curlew Sands (most often about ten), two juv Little Ringed Plovers and a lovely juv Little Stint. Sadly the two Spotted Redshank didn't hang around at all.

The most focused rarity hunter would be best just sitting in the Island Hide all day - but I've got year ticks to find, so have been covering some ground (when I've been able too anyway!).  There's got to be a Wryneck around here somewhere...

I went up to Beer Head later than usual yesterday, I got there at 9ish, and stayed for an hour and a bit. At first it looked dead, but around the Sheepwalk there were birds all over the place! It was clear why too, because there were flies everywhere, which meant pretty much all the birds were sat out flycatching and showing really well - not always close though.

Garden Warblers

Spotted Flycatcher

In all I had three Spot Flies, three Garden Warbler, three Whitethroat, at least eight Blackcap, a handful of Chiffs/Willow, two Wheatear and overhead singles of Grey Wagtail and most unusually, Greenshank!

It really felt like an Ickey was going to pop out at any point. If it did, it was after I left...

A Quick One

Although I've got a week off work this week, I think I'll be out less than usual (if at all) as have got lots of laptop work to do.

It's not been a good few days for the year list, I've missed two more quality ticks - well three really.  Since my last post there's been two Red Kites on patch. Both I could easily have seen from my house, but neither I were in for.  And the other year tick - a Wryneck! Last night I was sent a couple of photos of a Wryneck feeding on ants in a Rousdon garden during the middle of last week. I thought at first it was nearer Lyme Regis, so in Dorset, but it turns out it was well inside Devon, and the patch boundary.  A great record though!

Told you it was a quick one...

Staying Positive...Just!

I'll get the negative stuff out the way first.  I missed two good year ticks yesterday, one that didn't turn up until after I got to work, a Sanderling on Blackhole Marsh. The second was a Caspian Gull, I got to Coronation Corner about ten seconds after had flown. Painfully I could see two distant gulls flying away north over Colyford Marsh, of which one was the Caspian Gull.  I'm sure there's some out there who would have ticked it, but I couldn't tell which of the two it was so it's certainly not on my list.

Both, although great patch birds, I do think I'll get another chance with. Not so confident with Waxwing and Glaucous Gull though!  Ok, that's enough moaning...

Yesterday morning I went up Beer Head, hoping the change in weather would do something. It certainly did!  Great to see migrants about, although the cold wind didn't make it easy - or that pleasant to be honest with you!  

The highlight has to be the male Redstart on the top of the headland - a cracker. Sadly it didn't pose for photos, when it did pose it was just too distant.  These were my full counts:

18 Blackbird
24 Song Thrush
22 Robin
4 Wheatear
1 Redstart
2 Blackcap
3 Willow Warbler
5 Chiffchaff
5 Goldcrest

Wheatears top two and a Willow Warbler at the bottom

You would been forgiven to think it was actually late March, or (minus the Willow Warblers) late October!  Although there were lots of birds, it didn't 'feel' like an April 9th fall. I wasn't expecting to hear Gropper, or see a Pied Fly or Whinchat - all a real possibility on this date. It just felt like late March with all the thrushes and Robins around!

I saw a few other bits and pieces yesterday . Four Wheatears behind the old Racal site in town, several Swallows including the first on territory, several White Wagtails and at least one Water Pipit on Colyford Marshes scrape.

This morning I tried Beer Head again, Ian M joined me for a wander around. With clear skies I wasn't expecting much. I was right with just the following noted:

4 Wheatear
3 Blackcap
3 Willow Warbler
1 Chiff/Willow
6 Goldcrest

This afternoon, all I've had time for was a quick look along the Estuary. A distant second-winter Gull north of Coronation Corner looked good for Yellow-legged to me, but with rubbish light, the distance, a lack of time and no digi-scoping camera, I had to leave it as a 'prob'. After a quick look at Olsen and Larrson I texted Gav, who unbeknown to me had just arrived at Coronation Corner (he's never far from a Larid flock!). Thankfully the gull was exactly where I had left it, and he was soon able to turn it from a 'prob' to a 'definite'. Hopefully he'll post some photos of it later.

And that's that. So a mixed post - but overall I was just pleased to see some actual spring migration. Bring on some more...

That's More Like It!

A two post day, and that's because it was a day of two halves. Right after I had a good moan on here about how crap it's been, I went out and had a great afternoon!

One of the things I said earlier was how I've not seen a Willow Warbler yet, well guess what I saw at the first place I went after I posted that! There was at least one Willow Warbler amongst 15+ Chiffchaffs and two Goldcrests around the Borrow Pit on Seaton Marshes. Now and then some of the Chiffs and the Willow broke out in song, which was nice.

After a rather uneventful look along the Estuary, I went to Lower Bruckland Ponds were it really kicked off!

I was busy trying to photograph this annoyingly camera shy Willow Warbler...

A terrible photo, but it was the best I managed! Although it was very close it wouldn't stop moving.

...when I noticed this hovering over the lower ponds...

A bloody Osprey!

It didn't dive or hang around, and soon flew off east towards Rousdon...

It was nice to see a few hirundines here too, with about eight Sand Martins, four Swallows and my first two House Martins of 2013...

About time!

I then spent the next hour and a bit scanning over the mass of fields between Axmouth and Rousden hoping for a patch Stone Curlew. To be honest, there could be a flock of 100 out here and I still could have seen none. Some of the fields have crop high enough to completely engulf a sat down Stone Curlew, and some of the fields are about 5 miles long and three miles wide and perfect Stone Curlew in colour!

I did hear something which I really would liked to have seen. Basically it sounded like a Curlew, twice, and I thought it was a Curlew, but then it gave a drawn out single note - a bit Golden Ploverish but less pleasant sounding and longer.  I don't even know if the same wader made all these three calls, but I will be checking up here again tomorrow.  

I didn't see any birds of note up here, but I did see six Hares. This is by a long way (by four to be precise!) my highest ever count of Hares on patch, and my first for about three years.  Here's a distant photo showing four of them...

Very nice to see.

 I wonder what tomorrow will bring...

A Quick Update

Well we are in to April now, and to see how my year list stands see HERE.

Yesterday Grey Plover was added to it, thanks to a text from Gav. This is another one of those species that you should get, but as we never get many, in theory there is no reason why we couldn't go a year without one.

Also yesterday, when I walked out my front door early morning to head off to work, a Black Redstart greeted me - what a house tick! It was feeding on the neighbours front lawn, then flew up and perched on their out door lamp. What a fine start to the day.

Friday wasn't so fine, as I missed a bit that is firmly on my 'Most Worrying Gaps on my Year List' list. Early afternoon Tim had brief flight views of a drake Garganey from the the farm gate, but there was no further sign for several hours. Well, that was until 4 minutes AFTER I started work. From then on it showed sporadically from the Axmouth - Bosshill Cross road. Garganey is a rare bird on patch, they are a lot lot rarer than they should be. And when we do get them they never seem to stay long . I gave it an hour the following morning and saw 18+ Little Ringed Plovers (including eight opposite Axmouth FC - they were dotted about all over the place) and several Sand Martins, but no Garganey.  Having a couple of records in one spring isn't out of the question though, so I do remain hopeful. 

Personally I think it is about time Bluethroat made it on to our Patch List. But where do you start looking....

Raptor Spectacular!

No photos and no time, but I just HAVE to post this!!

I was in Plymouth for most of yesterday - I got home at about 14:15. Earlier in the day, I had mentioned to James Mc (who was out birding on patch - mate you gotta do that more often!), that it was classic Marsh Harrier day, nice sunny morning and early afternoon, then clouding over.  Within half an hour of my return home James phones "Marsh Harrier Colyford Marsh - a male too!". I ran upstairs to the bedroom with my bins, where I can look over Axe reed bed and the air space above...

All I could hear were the words "it's going north" and "low". Words that weren't good to hear, as I can't see any of Colyford Marsh. James kindly kept the running commentary going, and gladly the bird gained height and began heading south, which is when it came cruising into my view (along with the customary pursuing Crows!) before dropping into the reeds. What a great patch year AND house tick - nice to see a stunning male too. Later, it was seen to be wearing green wing tags, which means it has to be the bird that was at Exminster Marshes recently.

So that was great, but there's more to tell...

Less then an hour later, just as I was about to have a pre-work shower the phones goes again, it's James... "Osprey over the Estuary". Agggghhhhh!!!  I went back to the bedroom window, and I could see all the birds taking flight on the upper Estuary - but no Osprey. I looked a bit further down river and there it was, circling amongst a group of mobbing gulls, before heading off down river.  It's a pity it didn't come up river as I would have got great views - but what I saw was more than good enough. A great patch year tick, and another house tick!  It was also the first Osprey I've ever seen whilst wearing no clothes!!!

Having already dipped two Ospreys, it was top of my 'Most Worrying Gaps on my Patch Year List' list. So it's not there anymore, but has been replaced by Waxwing. Yes - the terrible news filtered through on Wednesday evening that a Waxwing was photographed in Colyford on Tuesday afternoon. Needless to say there's been no sign since...

Right - must get ready for work. No Easter break for me, I'm working today, tomorrow and Sunday!!

Missing Out

Last weekend saw a huge arrival of early spring migrants. Us birders go through winter dreaming of these days – they seem so far away when you are freezing cold and surrounded by winter wildfowl and wading birds!   Last weekend was probably one of the best early spring falls the Axe has ever seen – and I missed (almost) all of it!

I spent a good few hours out on Friday, which I thought showed promise despite (or I should say because of) the awful weather.  There were c35 Sandwich Terns in the valley and over the sea, with most resting on Bridge Marsh which was a new sight for me. I even managed to see at least ten from the house - a cracking house tick!  A couple of short sea watches showed a Red-breasted Merganser fly east (my third of the year!) and two cracking adult summer Med Gulls that came east along the beach before heading up the Estuary.  Other than the Terns though, no summer migrants. So although Friday was ok, and had potential, nothing really materialised.

Then Saturday dawned, and the spectacle begun! All I got back in time for was a quick look from the Farm Gate at dusk, which gave me a handful of Sand Martins.

Sunday was an even better day for migrants - and I was at work.  Karen found an Osprey on the Estuary just after 10am. I didn’t see the message for a good ten minutes, at which point I was on the phone (and on hold!). I finally got off the phone, only to be pulled into the office for a meeting, so when I finally made it out into the back yard I was too late. Although the Osprey was still around (the gulls were making a right fuss) I just couldn’t get on it. Annoying. Oh well – there will be more, you just have to be in the right place at the right time.

It got worse for me as the day went on, as news of falls from other south coast localities plastered twitter.  Then the final nail in the coffin, two Little Ringed Plovers were found on Black Hole Marsh! A bird on my ‘most worrying gaps in my year list’ list.

It really did feel like a 20 hour shift, but 16:15 finally came around and I was out.  I went straight to Black Hole Marsh to see the (now four) Little Ringed Plovers. Well there wasn’t four any more – there were NINE! Along with three Ringed Plovers.  I have only once seen numbers like this before in the spring, and in the following week or two we had Night Heron, White Stork and three Alpine Swifts!! Let’s hope…

 

I checked a few more sites before returning home at dusk – and added Swallow to the year list at Seaton Marshes.  

Today I have been off patch all day, but understand there are now ten Little Ringed Plovers in the valley. Annoyingly there was another Osprey too - it flew north over town at 13:10. Grrrrr. Bun also netted the first House Martin of the year.

I won’t have much time at all this week for any patch birding, or the following weekend. Hopefully though if a decent patch year tick is found I will be available to nip out.

More important than any of the above though is the current weather. The Chiffchaffs I have seen haven't looked in a good way at all. It really needs to warm up or we may well have something of a disaster on our hands. Fingers crossed...

Wheatears At Last!

Saturday was a non-birding day except for a quick and urgent look at the Estuary mid afternoon, this was because earlier in the day 'Sidmouth Clive' had seen a Spotted Redshank from the Seaton Marshes Hide.  Now up to about ten years ago, we used to have one or two Spotted Redshank winter on the Axe annually, but in recent years you don't usually see them here until mid autumn, and only in ones or twos. So as you can imagine I was very keen to see this bird as soon as I heard about it, and am pleased to say I did rather rapidly connect with it - a beautiful bird in winter plumage.

Later on in the day Jess and I went for a wander around town, and jammed the Spoonbill in the corner of Seaton Marshes right by the cycle path.  It's odd how this bird disappeared for about a week and has suddenly reappeared, maybe it ventured into Dorset for this time as I've noticed the numbers at Lodmoor have varied from two to four.

Sunday was as usual a day spent at work, but with blue skies greeting me when I finished at 16:15 I was keen we went for a late afternoon stroll, but to where? I suggested to Jess we gave Beer Head a visit - where better to enjoy sun, sea and stunning views!?  Quite by chance I then found out a few Wheatears had made landfall to south Dorset during the afternoon, what a stroke of luck!  Pleasingly Beer Head came good, and the first spring migrant made it on to my year list - Wheatear.  There were two actually, both stunning males, but neither very obliging. Still, the first Wheatear of the year just HAS to be photographed how ever far away and with whatever camera you have on you...

What a great sight!

Today, I headed over to Branscombe for about 7:45. The sea wasn't as flat as I was hoping, and I could only see three Great Northern and three Red-throated Divers on it. Over it, a female Red-breasted Merganser flew east with six Common Scoters, with a further eight Common Scoter past by 08:30.  Although Merg isn't a year tick for me, it's a good reminder of how the sea can produce a good bird at a moments notice.  I think I need to spend a bit more time looking out there - there are several gaps on my year list that more time sea watching could fill.

Two Year Ticks And A Rant

Nice to see we are having an early summer again this year - it could be July or August out there right now. Wet wet wet!

I've had a very exciting addition to the year list since my last post, Spoonbill!  It's a cracking adult, and was first spied late Tuesday flying west over the Estuary before it appeared to drop down on to Seaton Marshes. Thanks to Neil and Ian for informing me about this. 

So, early on Wednesday I was out - along with Gavin and Tim.  No sign during a brief look over Seaton Marshes and around the Borrow Pit, then a look up the Estuary failed to locate it. To be honest it wasn't looking good, Gav went home, Tim back to Seaton Marshes and I tried Black Hole Marsh.  It wasn't at Black Hole either, but wandering back to the car I suddenly spotted it flying from Seaton Marshes towards Coronation Corner.  A short while later I found out why it was flying - Tim has relocated in on Seaton Marshes on his return visit.  So that was that, and it is still with us today.  This Spoonbill wasn't just an addition to the patch year list (a very welcome one at that - less than annual here), it was also an addition to the house list!  I saw it twice during Wednesday morning from home, once from the bedroom and once from our new table in the kitchen. On both occasions it was flying south.

I would now love to be posting some photos of it, but I simply don't need to because there's some excellent photos HERE and HERE.

I managed another year tick today. The plan was to go to the Tower Hide for lunch, I had it all packed and everything. I was presuming there were going to be lots of gulls on the Estuary given the weather, I was wrong. No large gulls at all in front of the hide, but there were four Ringed Plovers. Now there's only two species of birds that has been seen on patch in 2013 that I've not seen, Black-throated Diver and Great Skua, I am dead pleased with that. These Ringed Plovers were more proof that there's some wader passage going on at the moment, I hope for some more in the next few days.

Due to the lack of gulls, I didn't eat my lunch in the Tower Hide and I headed back home.

But the lack of gulls wasn't the only reason I stayed so briefly in the hide  Stand by for a rare rant...

I am a birder who does prefer to be alone in a bird hide, but I am more than happy to share one - I think birding is a great hobby to share.  But when I walked into a rather busy Tower Hide today, I immediately noticed not one of the windows were open. Maybe not such of an issue if its a nice day, but they were all steamed up and soaking wet!  I tried my best to be polite and tried to focus my scope though the glass, but this wasn't working, so I had to open one.  This was immediately greeted by groans, a "your letting a draft in" and a couple of "oh it's cold".  I'm sorry, but it is a BIRD HIDE!!!! If you want to stay warm and see nothing, go home. Bird hides are outside, and outside it can be cold, wet and windy.

I shut the window, and left...

End of rant. 

That's More Like It

What a beautiful spring-like day today, and it feels as though things are happening in the bird world.

Yesterday there were far more gulls on the Estuary than of late, with 70+ Common Gulls, 21 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and a new adult Med Gull. Nothing exciting no, but a vast improvement on recent times. 

And today?  Well today I've netted two patch year ticks!

With fog in the valley this morning, I spent late morning looking up for raptors at various spots around the patch. The highlight came at 10:45am when a Merlin (presumably a male) flew through north east very rapidly.  This is our first one of the year, so there's got to be a good chance it was a migrant passing through. Merlin is a bird you would expect to see here every year, but not normally until late autumn, so nice to get this one out of the way so early on.

The next year tick I found during a quick look along the Estuary mid afternoon. Avocet isn't guaranteed here every year, so I was overjoyed to see one feeding in the creek leading from the main Estuary to Seaton Marshes Hide...

Possibly the worst ever photo of an Axe Avocet

The Avocet ended up feeding right in front of Seaton Marshes Hide, so I reckon later the other local blogs will be festooned with stunning pics of it. I look forward to seeing them.

So it's 5th March, and I've already had the same amount of patch year ticks this month as I did in the whole of February!  Hopefully this is the start of the spring flood gates opening.

Now back to yesterday again, and Jess and I went 'Owling' around the patch from 17:30. This was a total success as we had excellent and prolonged views of two Barn Owls...

I've seen six different Barn Owls on patch so far this year - not bad going!

Followed by great (although very dull) views of a Little Owl that just wasn't trying hard enough to hide from us...

A ball of feathers!

I'm pleased to report that amazingly both the bird table and out table is still standing! We've been using our table every day, but so far only one bird has found the seed on the bird table...

If I was a bird I'd probably be a Wood Pigeon!

Buttons, Birds and Building Things

Yesterday was a day of putting things together.  Not the kind of day I enjoy at all, because not only do I dislike making things, I'm also rubbish at it.

There were two rather nice breaks from our day of DIY'ing though.  First one was just as we had got underway, when Gav popped over to present me with these very yummy Buttons (which came in very useful during the afternoon/evening!)...

Just look at my over-joyed face! Chocolate!!!!!

The second break also came about thanks to Gav. He had found me the bird that has been bugging me since 14th January, number one of my 'most worrying gaps' on my 2013 patch year list, Goosander. Well GoosanderS actually, with two resting on the Estuary just north of Tower Hide. RESULT! Many thanks for staying with them Gav - best Goosanders I've ever seen :-). The male was an absolute cracker too.

Ok, so what about the putting things together. Well, this was our back garden yesterday afternoon...

Something for the birds

And I'm pleased to say, this is how it looks now...

Success!

To be honest, that was pretty easy.  This was more of a struggle though. The Chocolate Buttons saved my sanity...

There was one disaster, we had to redo all four chairs half way through building them. Personally when it says the left side of something, I always take that as meaning the left side, not the right side. Grrrrrrr. Stupid instructions.

Still, this morning, we enjoyed eating our breakfast on this...

There are two more chairs, fully made, upstairs

Yes, it is nice to say we have built these - but that certainly doesn't mean I enjoyed it!