My Top Five Wildlife Moments of 2017

Happy New Year everyone! I really hope 2018 is a great one for you, and I wish nothing but good health, plenty of happiness and lots of successful wildlife watching for you all.

Just before 2017 is out, I thought I'd share my top five birding/wildlife moments of the year, but first there was one last treat for me in the year.  A Boxing Day family stroll in Branscombe gave me absolutely knock out views of a male Firecrest. I watched it for about fifteen minutes feeding at eye-level along the ground and perimeter fence of the Water Treatment Works. I simply could not leave it, to the extent that it took me ten minutes to catch back up with Jess, Harry and Honey! What a Boxing Day bonus.

And now to my top five wildlife highlights of the year...

5. Red Kite influx on 24th May 2017. This was two days before Harry was born, and I missed a better passage on the 25th when even more were seen over Seaton. But it was amazing to watch 18 Red Kite fly west over the patch in the space of a couple of hours mid to late afternoon, and out of the blue too! Many of them passed really low overhead.

Red Kite

4. Slapton Humback Whale. The only off-patch entry to the list, but it just couldn't be ignored. What a privilege to see such an incredible animal off the coast of Devon, and so close too. We made the journey down on 4th May and were treated to some amazing views of this monster from the deep.

3. 30th April 2017.  This was my best day of the spring, and was just what I needed after a very uneventful (and mostly sunny) month. My full account of the day can be found here, but in brief it included a superb morning sea watch with sea birds, wildfowl and waders passing through, a Marsh Harrier over Colyford Marsh and on the Estuary some stunning waders in absolute stunning plumage - next stop the Arctic! Migration is just so SO exciting to witness, and it really makes you marvel at the journeys these birds have to make. 

Bar-tailed Godwit

2. Hawfinch influx. Although the patch has seen only the very smallest of slices of the incredible nationwide Hawfinch influx this winter, just having the feeling of the very real prospect of seeing Hawfinch any time I've stepped outside has been really exciting. An influx on this scale is possibly a once in a lifetime event, so I urge everyone to make the most of it while you can. I have managed to find three on patch, all in Colyton, and off patch five in Exeter and a single in Axminster (whilst delivering Christmas cards!). I don't think anyone would argue that they are such super impressive birds.

Hawfinch

1. That Pomarine Skua flock. As they flew out of view, I knew right there and then they simply could not be topped. And I honestly think they would take the top spot in an all-time version of this list (and I've seen some cracking birds here over the years!). I was delighted to share the amazing and close flock of nine Pomarine Skuas with Richard at the Spot On Kiosk, and numerous other sea watchers as the flock was tracked all away along the south coast to Sussex! It was the morning of 12th May, and was the cherry on top for my best spring Skua tally for many years here which included 12 Poms, 5 Arctics and two Greats. I will finish this post with the best birding video I have ever taken, enjoy...

More Poms and Pretty Polly

Yesterday I just happened to time my only hour out birding with the arrival of some heavier cloud late afternoon, so after a quick look along the Estuary I thought the sea would be worth a look.

No more than three minutes into my watch (17:50) the delightful shapes of two Pomarine Skuas flew into view. They were fairly high, always remaining above the horizon, and were fairly distant (well standard Seaton skua range to be honest!) but I could see the usual plumage features easily enough, and both were boasting very impressive spoons.  They flew south west so it was nice to be able alert people to the west that they were on their way, sadly though no one picked them up until they flew north over Dawlish Warren and up the Exe Estuary at 19:25. There was a heavy rain shower between the two sightings so maybe they spent this time settled on the sea somewhere?

These were my 11th and 12th Pom Skuas of the spring, which is double my previous highest Seaton spring total (six in 2012, which were all in one watch on 26th April).  I do hope there are more to come though as it's impossible to get enough of this fantastic species.

A couple of posts ago I mentioned a Ring-necked Parakeet that was seen several times in Axmouth last Tuesday, but sadly missed by all the local birders. Well the 'grip factor' was turned up several notches this morning when these photos dropped into my inbox..

These were taken last Tuesday by an Axmouth resident who'd like to remain nameless. Thanks so much for letting me share these super photos, it's certainly a sight I would loved to have seen. Hopefully either it will reappear or another will drop in in the not too distant future.

Pom Porn

Where we are here in Seaton, deep in the bowels of a bay, in a bay, in a bay, sea watching spectacles really are few and far between. But today, one of the highlights of my 17ish years birding here occurred...

I was going to go sea watching this morning, and my alarm sounded at 05:30. But a brief look out the window (clear skies and no wind) and the prospect of starting work a few hours later encouraged me to laze in a bed a bit longer... Then my phone started bleeping, it was Gav, and a few texts later he let me know he'd had a skua distantly off Burton Bradstock. With skuas about that's more than enough to get me out of bed (as we know from yesterdays blog, deja vu!).

I was surprised to see a shape already sea watching at the Spot On when I arrived at about 06:20, it was Charmouth birder Richard.  He told me what he'd seen, and finished with "a flock of about nine birds flew in distantly, I thought they were Whimbrel but then they landed on the sea"... 

It took me about two or three minutes to pick up these settled birds among the waves, and when I did was completely gobsmacked to see they were Pom Skuas!  I quickly fired some texts out, but about a minute later the most incredible thing happened. They took off and flew right at us. They kept coming, and coming, and coming... and all of a sudden they were quite literally right above our heads!!!!!  Oh my word. A flock of nine spring Pomarine Skuas (most fully spooned) right there.  This is Seaton not the Outer Hebs - this DOES NOT happen here.  WOOOOOOOOOW!

I thought they were then going to fly inland, but they then turned and quickly flew out south east.  Which meant it was time to alert watchers (including Gav) to the east of us. This sight needed sharing, and share it we did as you will read below. But before that, why not enjoy this little video that I managed to record...

And a few pics...

Within the flock there appeared to be an intermediate phased bird (not completely dark, bur far darker than the other eight), and I reckon seven had full spoons, with two showing only 'stumps'.  And now for the sharing...

I'm so pleased both James Mc at Lyme Regis and Gav at Burton Bradstock saw these birds, then Portland, and then amazingly Hampshire several hours later. I thought I'd quickly throw a map together showing where they were seen and the times they were seen there. The final sighting of the flock (at Hill Head in the Solent) was of eight birds and a single shortly after. The single bird was seen further east but the eight vanished.  For a clearer view of the map click on it to enlarge...

Tracking a flock of birds like this reminds me how incredible bird migration is. I wonder how long before they land on Arctic tundra, and what route they will take north?

It was of course also great to share this with Richard - a lifer for him. And what a way to life tick Pom Skua!! Am so glad he was here as so often I'm sea watching alone at the Spot On. It was a shame that Dan J from Sidmouth missed them (he dropped in here on his way to work) but it was great to finally meet him - a person I've had numerous communications with but never actually bumped into.

So is that enough about Pom Skuas? Well no I don't think so, but I best mention what else I saw during this one hour sea watch; 

11 Common Scoter

1 Manx Shearwater

12 Sanderling (flew east then west along the beach)

1 Med Gull (first-summer)

1 Common Gull

An unusual shot of the Med Gull  - showing a yellow colour-ring too!

I went to work a very happy boy this morning...

That's More Like It!

As the date gets nearer to the 13th (mini-Waite due date!) I am trying to get as much sleep as possible, so this morning with no wind to tempt me out I thought I'd sleep in. So pleased I didn't in the end though!

Dan J from Sidmouth texted me at about 06:20 to say he'd just had two distant Skua sp. east. Knowing there were at least two skuas in the bay was more than enough to get me up! 06:50 - 07:50 from the Spot On Kiosk produced (flew east unless stated);

11 Common Scoter 

2 Great Northern Diver (see below!)

7 Manx Shearwater

2 Balearic Shearwater (east with 4 Kitts at 07:38)

1 Pomarine Skua (GET IN!!!!)

4 Kittiwake

Three major talking points in the above list. And of course I'll start with the Pom. After five Arctic and two Great Skuas this spring, what a joy to finally see a Pom. Always a rare bird here. It was a stonking fully spooned pale-phased adult, and flew east at 07:10. I've had them closer but it was close enough to see all plumage details and that impressive spoon!  It was nice to watch it chase a Manxie around for half a minute or so too, always amazes me how different a skuas casual migrating flight action is compared with their flight action when in full chase mode, and how quickly they switch modes.

The Balearic Shearwaters were a real surprise, a proper rare spring bird on the patch, and I'd say Devon. It's usually mid summer onward when they appear - but sometimes we don't get many at all in the whole year.  However by a long long way the smartest bird(s) of the watch were the two Great Northern Divers. OH MY WORD.  Annually we see GND's flying west past here in spring, often they are in summer plumage but usually are distant. Not only were today's two both in full summer plumage, but they were also both settled on the water not that far out. Each time I scanned over them I couldn't help myself from stopping and having another gawp - incredible patterns and colours on these amazing plumaged birds. I've no pics I'm afraid as the sea was too lumpy, but flipping heck I won't forget these two beasts for a while. Absolutely stunning birds. And they stayed there for the whole hour.

After the sea watch a quick tour of the valley sites showed a singing Willow Warbler on the Borrow Pit (my first on patch this month!) and on Black Hole Marsh our fourth Avocet of the spring. It was rather oddly upended like a feeding duck so this is the only photo you are getting...

I promise that is an Avocet!

Before today I've done well missing patch year ticks recently. Last night Sidmouth Clive had a Cuckoo fly towards Seaton Marshes from Black Hole Marsh, but there was no further sign of it. And on Tuesday a Ring-necked Parakeet was seen by three different people in three different places in Axmouth during the course of the day. Ok I know that's a bit plastic but for me it would be not only a year tick, but a full fat patch tick too! That's presuming it didn't have any dodgy rings or any other anomalies.

It's been so nice to see the local breeding birds doing so well in this pleasant weather. I am seeing lots of fledglings about, and many adult birds being busy...

Song Thrush Black Hole Marsh

Sedge Warbler Black Hole Marsh

And I keep seeing Hares up Axe Cliff, with two up there on Tuesday morning...

A Hare up close for a change!

And I think that's about it for this post. Well except for the breaking news from the bookmakers that the odds have been slashed for baby Waite being named Pomarine...

Catching Up...

Well I had a feeling the blog posts would start drying up, but I won't apologise because spending so much time on Dartmoor is proving an incredible experience. I have seen so many birds and I know you all already know, the scenery is absolutely stunning.  I am delighted to be part of the team that is mapping bird numbers and distributions on Dartmoor for the Moor Than Meets The Eye project (http://www.moorthanmeetstheeye.org/).

Sadly we can't always park this close to the survey areas!

A singing Grasshopper Warbler in silhouette 

And spending so much time out on the moor means we encounter more than just birds...

Adder

I do have a bit of patch bird news to tell, rewind back to 21st May and it was one of those days I was not enjoying missing!  Although not all that much was seen off the patch in the first few hours of the day, Lyme Regis and Sidmouth had seen a nice selection of skuas and a heap of passing waders.  Early afternoon though Dan at Sidmouth really upped the grippage with two Pom Skuas and a Storm Petrel - ouch.   I wasn't home until late afternoon, but immediately made a bee-line for the seafront.

I was really lucky to get down there when I did, about 40 minutes into the watch the weather completely changed. All the cloud and showers cleared through, the wind dropped off and the sea went almost flat calm.  I would have loved to have got here sooner, but I still managed a few nice highlights.  Best of all being a lovely pale phased Pomarine Skua west at 18:25. It seemed to be a full adult, with a long stiff tail but no spoon on the end.  What was best about this was five minutes earlier a pale phased Arctic Skua flew west, albeit much further out.  I am always worried we throw some Poms away here with the distance some of our skuas pass, but seeing these two flying in the same direction in such a short space of time has eased my worries somewhat, the second I picked up the Pom the flight style and wing shape were just so obvious.  

Other than these two skuas, 60 Manx Shearwater and a mixed flock of 35+ Dunlin and Sanderling were all I noted.  

And that's about it. Well except for a Red Kite east over the Donkey Sanctuary on 28th May...

Pic taken with my phone - it really was low!

Wrong Choice

Yesterday, the number of gulls on the Estuary during the afternoon were just too much of a pull for me - I spent all the birding time I had looking at them...

Stuff of dreams...

Despite numerous visits and scans, the best I managed was a probable third-winter Yellow-legged Gull.  There's no reason why it wasn't one, but I just didn't see it long or well enough to be absolutely sure a hybrid could be ruled out.   There was an impressive number of Lesser Black-backed Gulls about too, with 80, all of the graellsii race for a change - we tend to have darker backed birds drop in when the wind is up. Amongst the small gulls were two Kittiwakes and three Med Gulls...

One of the adult Meds

During the morning I had given the sea ten minutes, and was impressed with the number of Kittiwakes on the move, I also noted another four Med Gulls. But this is exactly where I should have been looking during the afternoon, as Portland, Berry Head and even Budleigh recording excellent numbers of sea birds.

The wind kept up over night along with showers, so I didn't want to make the same mistake this morning and was at the sea front for 7am.  Sadly the passage had died off, probably because the wind had much more west in it and visibility was much better.  Still, staying there until 08:30 did give me a pretty nice selection of birds, my favourite being the lovely juv Pom that flew west at 07:30.  Full counts:

16 Brent Geese (7 west, 9 east)

13 Common Scoter

4 Red-breasted Merganser (in one flock, flew west)

1 Goosander (female/juv flew west along the beach)

1 Red-throated Diver

1 Black-throated Diver (very close west, flew into Seaton Hole)

1 Pomarine Skua

3 Med Gull

2 small wader sp. (looked chunky and pale, gleaming white underwings and dark bits around the face, but there were just too distant to clinch - although I think I know what they were.)

Think I might try again in the morning if the weather is right - we are due a Little Auk or two.

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...