Autumn Adjourns

The blog posts have dried up because autumn has...

It has been really stagnant out there for the last week and a bit (but boy have I been trying!). We had a sudden and surprising influx of Grey Plover at the end of last week, Phil had a staggering nine on the evening of Thursday 22nd, with one still present for me the following morning. On Sunday morning another couple had arrived/returned to make three...

A true record shot!

Bar-tailed Godwit numbers seem to be dwindling now, but other wader counts have been very samey with less than ten Dunlin, a couple of Ringed Plover, five Common Sandpipers and not a lot else. I'm hoping the upcoming new moon along with some wind and rain will encourage a bit more variety, but it's looking like the Black Hole Marsh autumn is done now, as the marsh often seems to largely lose its appeal to wading birds by the end of September.  

The clear skies and light winds this morning meant there was only one place to go, Beer Head...

It's getting towards my favourite time of year for weather - I just love cool, crisp and blue late autumn mornings.

Overall it was pretty quiet, but it was nice to see a few different bits and pieces - this list is a mixture of grounded birds and fly overs;

14 Skylark 

200+ Swallow

80+ House Martin

11 alba Wagtail

2 Grey Wagtail

100+ Meadow Pipit 

1 Whinchat

2 Stonechat

3 Blackcap

5 Chiffchaff

1 Spotted Flycatcher

c30 Chaffinch

1 Siskin

1 Yellowhammer

In brief, the bushes were quiet and overhead a little less quiet!  The lone Siskin I think confirms my suspicions that this isn't going to be one of those amazing Siskin autumns - hopefully this won't be the case for all the finch species though.

Annoyingly for some reason all the subjects I tried to photograph this morning were in some way obscured...

Whinchat - the clearest of them all.

A hiding Spotted Flycatcher.

Even this Small Copper suffered from a blade of grass!

It was nice to see Ian Mc at Beer Head this morning back fresh from his holidays, he ventured further west than I did and saw another two Whinchat and a Reed Bunting.  It's great to have another pair of eyes back on the patch, I get the feeling coverage has been pretty poor on weekdays this month - there's only so much ground one pair of boots can cover!

Birds aside, I've been seeing the odd Clouded Yellow around which is nice, including a male on Beer Head this morning.

Let's hope the next blog post is a bit more exciting...

Twit-twoo

It's been a quiet couple of days migrant wise, although I haven't spent all that much time out and about.  However busy I am though the dog always gets me out every morning for at least an hour, and yesterdays walk from Seaton Hole showed two Common Sandpipers flitting about on the beach, and this beauty in a small conifer woodland...

Although Tawny Owls are everywhere around here, it's always a treat to stumble across a day time bird.  And a timely reminder that just because there's no migrants about, it doesn't mean there's nothing to see....

Happy Christmas

Well this hasn't been a busy blog of late, and that's quite simply because I haven't seen anything worth blogging about! It's been dire out there it really has, and my patch year list remains at 188. Which means Andrew it's looking very good for you with just a few days to go.  Saying that though, decent birds are turning up all around us at the moment, so there may possibly be another surprise or two left in 2013. I hope so...

I have to say, the mega rarities either side of us (Brunnich's Guillemot at Portland and White-billed Diver in Torbay) are very tempting even for me!  If one or both are still present on Saturday, don't be surprised if you see me at one or the other.

Anyway, back to the point of this blog post, which was to wish all my blog readers and all my birding pals a very Merry Christmas. I really hope you had/are having a good one. 

With no photos to post of birds, I'll just have to post a photo of the cupcakes Jess made the other week (you may already have seen this on twitter)....

They tasted great too!

Feeling Flat

Feels a bit stagnant out there at the moment - wherever you are it just feels flat; the marshes, bush bashing, sea watching. It does make you question why you're bothering but you just gota keep trying. After all yesterday was 'Audouin's Day' (the sixth anniversary!).

Have been up Beer Head the last two mornings, VERY early this morning in fact!  I was there for sun rise, although didn't stay long as there was clearly nothing happening.  Mind you, it felt the same the previous morning but I netted a Beer Head tick when a Goosander flew west just offshore behind two Mallard...

Proof....just about!

Luckily better views were had about five minutes later when the Goosander flew back east on its own, over Beer Head heading for the Estuary. 

After my shortened Beer Head visit today, a twenty minute sea watch showed a surprising number of Gannets.  There were bloody loads of them, with many blogging but others purposely flying west (some close and large groups) - I counted 168 doing this.  Otherwise I noted just 13 Common Scoter and a Sandwich Tern west.

Hopefully my next blog post title (and post itself!) will be a bit more exciting! 

What Month Is It?

April for me has been utterly disappointing.  It started in the worst way possible with me missing what would have been a quality patch year tick - Glaucous Gull. I won't go into details, but it was a very painful miss as I could have seen the bird from my bedroom window and I was at home. But I am glad that finally we have had a scarcer gull on patch this year, because we have been looking daily, it just hasn't happened. Well until April 1st... and I didn't see it :-(.

Ok, so how could April get worse? Well believe it or not, I have not had a single patch year tick so far this month.  With the exception of the first few weeks of the year, I would say April is the most prolific month for a year lister - and in other years by this date I would have seen up to ten more summer migrant species than I have this year.  And I have been trying - we all have - it is just dire out there!  I still need Willow Warbler for crying out loud!!

I've had three early morning sea watches this month, a few Sandwich Tern and the odd Red-throated Diver and Common Scoter were all I came away with.

On Beer Head yesterday, and this morning, it honestly could have been January. On both days a single Chiffchaff was the only summer migrant I saw. There was a bit of vis mig yesterday morning, with a few Mipits, Chaffinches, Goldfinches and alba Wagtails over east, but very little really.  The sunrise was quite spectacular though...

So where are all the migrants!?  I have been thinking that this hold up will produce some exceptional falls (whenever it comes!), but now I am starting to wonder. If everything is grounded, and feeding up, when they do move on they will be well fed and in a hurry to get to their breeding grounds. So, could this hold up be costing us our spring?

Sorry for so much negativity readers, I do hope this will change soon...

Poo Casts Shadow Over Axe Valley

Yes this blog post (albeit a very short one) is all about...

Poo

This epic pile of manure created an incredible cloud of steam this morning. You can see it rising in the above photo, but this was the scene from the 'Farm Gate' at Axmouth...

Wow!

So to put this in 'Sun headline format'; Colyford lost in cloud of poo. You read it here first people.

Oh by the way - I've seen nothing of note since my last blog post. Though you may have guessed that by the contents of this post :-)

All Quiet

I haven't had much time out since Monday, and when I have been out I haven't seen much.

Yesterday I did give the Tower Hide a couple of hours, hoping for a decent gull. Sadly this didn't materialise, but it was nice to see 'MG6.T' for its fifth year on the Axe...

Click HERE to see its details

 

Two drake Gadwall and a Common Sandpiper were viewable from the hide aswell.

Also yesterday, it was nice to see at least three Siskins on the alders where the Seaton Marshes Lesser Redpolls made it on to my year list...

Male Siskin

Female Siskin

Today, the flat seas saw me heading down to the sea front early on.

Perfect conditions!

Great Crested Grebes in the line of the sun

Sadly, and like the other times I've looked over a flat sea this year, it was incredibly quiet. Three Red-throated Divers, five Great Crested Grebes and a Guillemot were all I could see. Dire.

Along the river, 113 Dunlin was my highest count of the winter, and two Golden Plover were with Lapwing on Bridge Marsh.

Hopefully I'll get some more year ticks soon...

Not Quite Not Quite Scilly

Well I spent several hours out today, hoping the freezing night before would have done something. I can conclude it has done absolutely nothing. Nothing new obvious anywhere. I even went for a wander in Morganhayes Wood hoping for maybe Crossbill or Redpoll. I basically saw nothing. Things were so dire that I was even distracted by this Cormorant on Bridge Marsh. Yes - I have clearly been spending too much time with Gav lately! 

It was distant, and in very dull light, but did look nicely slight - especially compared with the two clear carbo's to the right...

The bird on the left - check out the head and bill.

Sadly the shot that shows the size comparison best came out rubbish. Still, here it is...

A small and a big out-of-focus cormorant!

But what about the crucial gular pouch angle? Well to be honest I think it was a tiny bit too far away to be sure, but this photo may just about show it...

Looks okish to me. Not a huge angle - but seems to be big enough maybe?

I have this weekend off work, although I won't be around for most of tomorrow.  Hopefully some time out on Sunday will show an improvement in the birding situation...

New Moth For The Garden

Well I promised more regular blog posts, but that was presuming I'd be seeing some birds - it is mid September after all! Truth is I haven't really seen anything of note since my last post, a second winter Med Gull on the Estuary yesterday being the best. Wader numbers seem to be pretty consistent too at the moment with 30ish each of Ringos and Dunlin, and no biggie yet. We have got to get a Pec at least surely!

Thankfully though, a moth has saved the post (just!). A couple of nights ago, there wasn't much in my trap - just 51 moths of 10 species. Four of them were immigrants though, with three being Silver Y's. The fourth was this rather battered Delicate, thanks to Peter Vernon for confirming my ID...

Yes I would have preferred a Convolvulus Hawkmoth too - but a new species for the garden is a new species for the garden! :-)

Waiting For Spring...

...is very much how I'm feeling at the moment!! Sometimes late Jan/Feb can see some exciting birding on patch - but not this year, well not so far anyway!

The Bewick's Swan and Greylag Goose remain opposite Stedcombe Vale, but that's as exciting as it gets from me! I've recently spent a lot of time looking through the mid afternoon gull flocks on the Estuary, but apart from a daily helping of one of two Meds, it's been rather - well very - fruitless.

And that is why this blog has been so quiet of late. I'm not snowed under with County Recorder work, I've not been suffering from a bed-ridden bug, and I've not been working every hour god sends (although a 13 hour shift yesterday was rather tiring!), it has just been very quiet on the bird front!

To prevent this boring post from being even more boring, this was the view from the Farm Gate (Axmouth) this afternoon...

rather spring-like I'd say :-)