Red-throated Divers

A nice flat sea this morning encouraged me to start my day on Seaton Beach...

As expected there was next to nothing flying over it, but on it were my first two Great Crested Grebes of the winter and a locally respectable count of eight Red-throated Divers. Unusually six of these divers were really close in, presumably indicating we've got some pretty good feeding conditions close in. Really enjoyed watching them...

This was followed by a quick look along the Estuary, which showed a single Knot with the roosting Redshank. Another quick look later revealed an Avocet too, another bird that first dropped in yesterday.  I then had just enough time to confirm the continued presence of at least three Water Pipits opposite Colyford WTW (which I continued to photography abysmally!)...

Find of the day however goes to Mike, who turned up an extremely late Whinchat on Beer Head this afternoon.  Can't be far off Devon's latest ever?

Exe Estuary Cruise and EDG Review

On Saturday just gone, I was thrilled to join my Dad on a Stuart Line Cruise up the Exe Estuary, which set off from Exmouth at 1pm. Dad has led some of these winter trips for many years now, and I always like to try and get on at least one a winter.

With no telescopes on the Stuart Line Cruise, it's a great place to test out binoculars and get a true feel of their capabilities and limits. So no better place than this to try out the Nikon EDG's that were sent to me to try out earlier in the week...

The light remained nice and flat throughout the three hour cruise, there was no wind and plenty of birds - a fantastic trip! 

On the lower part of the Estuary, hundreds and hundreds of Brent Geese proved a spectacle, along with good numbers of Shag, and in the deeper water here two Great Northern and a surprise Red-throated Diver (rare in the river), the resident Slavonian Grebe, only a few Red-breasted Mergansers (still lots of these to arrive) and a very distant Long-tailed Duck, which was way way off to the east north of Mudbanks.

Red-throated Diver

Slavonian Grebe with a typical Exe back drop

The ultra distant Long-tailed Duck, only identifiable thanks to the amazing zoom on the P900!

As we travelled up the Estuary towards Topsham, the usual change in species occurred with Avocet, Dunlin, Curlew and Black-tailed Godwit becoming the most numerous species. A flock of c230 Golden Plover roosting on the mud were nice to see, along with good numbers of Lapwing among the usual smaller numbers of Grey Plover, Greenshank, Bar-tailed Godwit, Knot and a lovely little flock of 30 Sanderling.   There were also impressive numbers of wildfowl present, mostly around the Clyst area with thousands of Wigeon and probably well over a hundred Pintail. Three Kingfishers pleased the punters on the boat, as always.

It was nice to see three Common Seal on the trip, including a small youngster. Two allowed their photographs to be taken...

And what about the binoculars? Well I was really impressed. Superb image quality and light levels, which I have come to expect with Nikon products now. They were a really comfortable pair of binoculars too with a thick neck strap, and for me they're the perfect size allowing a good solid grip to keep them steady, an important attribute in optics when boat birding.  They allowed me to pick out all three divers on the trip, and I doubt I would have spotted the Long-tailed Duck at all had I been using other optics. It honestly was a dot, but through the EDG's it did at least look like a Long-tailed Duck-shaped dot! It's these small differences that can sometimes make all the difference when birding.

Usual UK Winter Weather!

Boy has it been grim out there this week, with pretty hefty winds, lots of rain and all round dampness.  But there has been plenty of birds about which more than makes up for it.

Not before time our now seemingly semi-resident Cattle Egret has pulled in some friends. Twilight Tim had four yesterday afternoon in the usual spot at Colyton, and this morning I saw at least four leave the egret roost at Axmouth and head north between 07:20 and 07:30. I actually think there were five as it looked like a group of four left together, followed by a single bird about two minutes later. Also noted c30 Little Egrets and a brucy bonus in the form of a Woodcock over east just after 7am. Really don't see many of these in the valley, I guess it was returning to the cover of the wooded hills after a night of feeding on the marsh. Didn't have to risk your life for me after all Bun!

The flood water in the valley over the last few days has been heaving with wildfowl, particularly Bridge Marsh and the field opposite Axmouth FC (the field that's usually just a field, but has had Cattle Egret, Bewick's Swans, Garganey, Little Gull, Curlew Sandpiper, several Little Ringed Plovers, Long-billed Dowitcher, Lapland Bunting and Water Pipit!). Sadly the wildfowl on show have only been the common Axe species, but it's been nice to see and be able to properly look through over 500 Wigeon, 100 Teal and a few Shoveler. 

Gull numbers however have been very poor, despite the gull-friendly weather.  The only increase has been in Mediterranean Gulls, with three winter plumaged adults down river at dusk yesterday, an adult east over the sea this morning, and a slightly hooded adult opposite Axmouth FC this afternoon...

Sea watching has also been quiet - which I guess is to be expected in late Jan/early Feb. As well as the Med Gull this morning, three Red-throated Divers and a Common Scoter flew west. Yesterday I finally managed to see a Guillemot after a month of just Razorbills, with one in winter plumage settled off Seaton Hole, along with another lone Common Scoter past west.

No sign of the Trinity Hill Little Bunting during a 45 mins look this morning, but it finally popped out at about 13:00 for others.

A Lovely Late Autumn Day

I had a lovely wander around town and along the sea front this morning, the clear blue skies and chill in the air made it such a pleasurable outing. Really seasonal. 

Wood Pigeons have been moving in fairly small numbers each morning since my last blog post, but the stronger northerly wind this morning ensured they were all sticking tight to the coast and remained fairly low.  Flocks were still of mostly between 200-400 birds, so no massive flocks or really impressive numbers yet, but it's always great to see Pigeon passage whatever the numbers...

The sea was quiet, with my first Red-throated Diver west the only notable sighting. There was a distinct lack of birds on the flat calm sea, I do hope we get some settled sea duck off here again this winter.

Over the last week there's been up to four Black Redstarts around Seaton. Sadly I didn't find the adult male that Phil had yesterday, but I did see three female/first-winter types...

The situation is much the same in the valley. Waders include the lingering Little Stint (will it over winter?), three Grey Plover and about a dozen Dunlin. Among the Canada Geese the first-winter Dark-bellied Brent Goose is still with us, and two Shoveler were on the upper section of the Estuary mid morning.

On Saturday morning four Golden Plover were with Lapwing along the A3052 by the Honiton turn off, a typical cold weather sighting.

Lastly, here's an absolutely stunning first-winter male Blackbird from the Borrow Pit this afternoon.  The all dark bill suggests it's a Scandinavian bird, which is probably true as so many of our wintering thrushes originate from here...

What's The Hold Up?

I often find March a month of frustration when it comes to birding. You feel like you've turned the corner from winter to spring, but nothing actually happens... and that's exactly what is going on at the moment. Usually though there is an obvious reason why nothing is happening (snow, a blasting cold northerly wind, storms on the migration routes, etc) but at the moment there seems to be no apparent reason.  Every day a check of BirdGuides shows an almost complete void of early spring migrants which just seems really odd, yes there's been the odd Sand Martin, LRP, Garganey, plus a bit of obvious spring stringing - but way short of what I have been expecting. Really hope things pick up soon.

Despite the lack of any spring migrants elsewhere, I did give Beer Head a wander late morning yesterday but came up with nothing more than five Stonechat...

I've included this photo more for the blue sky!

It's not just the summer migrants in short supply, with a new moon this week I've been expecting some wader passage on the Estuary (maybe an Avocet, Barwit, Ringo or Grey Plover?) but I've seen absolutely nothing new. 

The sea has also been dire, mind you it has been dire all winter.  We usually have double-figure counts of Great Crested Grebe here, but three has been my max count all winter, and there only seems to be one left now.  These, along with Cormorants and Shags, are the only species of sea birds I've seen settled on the sea in Seaton Bay ALL winter!  Dreadful.  I did have another look this morning, but after seeing nothing except, surprise surprise, one Great Crested Grebe, I decided to give Branscombe a look...

Finally some birds!  Although many were off to the west (with five being too far away to positively ID) there were divers. 12 Red-throated and three Great Northerns to be precise. The second closest of all of them was a stunning full summer plumage Red-throat - what a treat!  Also 10+ distant auks on the sea but nothing else. There was nothing really moving over the sea at all, so two Common Scoter east and a flock of 15 west were notable indeed.

Once I had given the sea the attention I felt it required, I wandered up to the sewage works. Several Goldcrests, a green Chiffy and an absolute stunner of a tristis Siberian Chiffchaff - a real pallid grey bird - greeted me.  Sadly it was never close enough for pics, but you should know by now that never stops me...

Awful pic, but not a hint of green or yellow anywhere!

The Human Hoover

On the day 2013 begun, Jess was keen that we started eating a bit more sensibly after the four tonne of chocolate and mince pies we devoured over the festive period. She was right to point out though how hard that is to do when there's still chocolate dotted about the house. I took this as a hint, and as a moment that as the man of the house I had to step up to the mark. In the following half hour I went round and ate the lot. The Quality Streets that are always left at the bottom of the tin, half a tray of Milk Tray, a few Thornton's, the bottom half of a Lindt Bear, a whole bowl of Twiglets and even the handful of popcorn left in the packet of Butterkist. I am proud of how I helped our new year start healthier - although I must admit eating all this just an hour before dinner wasn't the best timing.

So, how's the birding and year list going? Well I've spent most of the last few days surveying in Cornwall, which has given me some nice sights. Namely two Spoonbill today, and a cracking pair of Scaup yesterday. The drake was as stunning as they always are.
 
I have still managed a bit patch birding though, whenever I've had the chance. And I've decided that during January I'm going to concentrate on the sea - this has already produced the goods. Best being a fine drake Red-breasted Merganser and a lone Brent Goose, both of which flew west. There's good numbers of birds out there too, lots of auks (Black Guille and Little Auk are certainly on the radar at the moment), plenty of Gannets, Kittiwakes and Red-throated Divers and a few Common Scoter (29 on the morning of the 2nd). Frustratingly I've had two single larger Divers fly west, but both too distant to be sure of.

Away from the sea, year ticks have been a bit sparse. Although I have caught up with the wintering Bar-tailed Godwit and Blackcap made it not just on to the year list, but the house list too!

I see a few people this year are doing photography year lists, including our very own Karen on patch. On her blog she states "I'm not going to count blurry record shots and distant specks. The photos must be easily recognisable". I think that's a great idea, and I know we are going to see some amazing photos. Its such a good idea that I thought I'd give it a go too, but with a slight difference...

I'm only going to count blurry record shots and distant specks. The photos must be barely/unrecognisable.

Here's my first two... 

Black Redstart - I saw this bird on 1st and 2nd

Passing Red-throated Divers

I'm pleased with my start...

Where's Our White Winger?

An hour at Branscombe this morning revealed virtually nothing on the sea. A few Razorbills and Guillemots were as good as it got for things 'floating'. Luckily there was a little bit of interest over it, with a single Great Northern and six Red-throated Divers west.

Had a good sift through the gulls today, with two trips along the Estuary, a look over the pig fields and a visit to Beer beach (as well as scoping the gulls on the rocks at Weston). Nothing but three adult Med Gulls. We are blatantly going to get an Iceland Gull though within the next week - coffee coloured first winters are always nice, but I've never seen a second or third winter on the Axe, so one of those please....

Knot Worthy Of A Blog Post

There was a lone Knot on the Estuary from Coronation Corner this afternoon. Also managed a good count of 162 Teal, split almost exactly 50/50 between Colyford Marsh and Axmouth FC.

Earlier today, a sea watch 08:00 - 09:00 revealed:

6 Red-throated Diver (west, in three lots of two)
1 Great Northern Diver (showing well on the sea)
6 Common Scoter (5 east and 1 drake on sea, later there were 2 females on the sea)
90+ auk sp. (I can't say I saw a single Guillemot though)

What an exciting birding day.......