When Wood Pigeons Become Cool

I'm going to kick this blog post off with a video. Make sure you turn the volume up so you can hear their wing beats...

Yesterday proved a major Wood Pigeon day for us, with James Mc seeing somewhere between 30 and 50 thousand pass through (I really must buy him a notebook!) though sadly I only managed to witness about twenty minutes of this. But today, with clear skies forecasted for the first few hours of the day, I wasn't going to miss round two. James joined me for an Axe Cliff vis mig watch 08:00 - 10:00.

There were fewer Wood Pigeons today (for us anyway) with probably about 15,000 seen flying west. Still, many of them passed really low over our heads, or just in front of us below the cliff edge. As the morning went on flocks started passing higher both out to sea and inland, so we probably missed thousands!  I tried to capture their magic on camera but it's never the same...

Although this would have proved enough excitement, there was plenty more to be seen this morning.  After three busy nights of thrush passage, it was good to finally see more about in daylight hours. There were almost constantly ones and twos of Blackbirds, Song Thrush and Redwing taking off or dropping in, along with my first three Fieldfare of the year west. Pity the four Ring Ouzel James saw here yesterday weren't still about, or some more, but hey ho.

I stupidly forgot my notebook this morning, so the higher counts are more like guesstimates, but this is roughly what would have gone into my notebook (west unless stated); 

3 Lapwing 

7 Golden Plover (a five and two singles)

15,000 Wood Pigeon

50 Stock Dove (probably a gross undercount!)

6 Rook

200 Jackdaw 

140 Starling 

70 Skylark (most of these were inland of us so we probably missed more than we saw)

70 Blackbird (total includes both settled and migrating birds)

40 Song Thrush (total includes both settled and migrating birds)

45 Redwing (flying in all directions!)

3 Fieldfare

10 alba Wagtail

50 Meadow Pipit

70 Chaffinch

3 Brambling (all singles)

80 Linnet

15 Siskin

1 Redpoll 

6 Bullfinch

25 Reed Bunting

With all these passing migrants the predators were having a field day. Two Peregrines were almost constantly having a go at the Pigeon flocks, plus we saw three different Sparrowhawk...

Sadly the fields at Axe Cliff are a shadow of their former self. Since they've been ploughed, flattened and replanted this year with winter crops, they're proving completely unattractive to ground feeding birds. In past years today would have also shown hundreds of larks, pipits and finches feeding in the fields, adding another exciting element to birding here, but today absolutely nothing. I really can't believe Yellowhammers are hanging on, but they are...

After Axe Cliff I had a 15 minute look over the valley. A Great White Egret had flown west past Abbotsbury earlier in the morning, and by my reckoning was due to drop in on the Axe any minute. Sadly though, having now missed five here this year (Bob Longhorn found another on Black Hole Marsh yesterday, which stayed 45 minutes), this bird decided to completely bypass us and flew up the Exe instead. Typical! The other bird I was hopeful for was Glossy Ibis, as yesterday saw something of an influx of these into the UK. Despite checking all the visible ditches and scrapes, no luck. Guess what Sue Murphy found on Colyford Marsh late this afternoon though, yes, our first Glossy Ibis of 2017. I had the right idea - just picked the wrong time!

A few days ago it was nice to see a Cattle Egret still with us. Or was, I haven't seen it since! It was feeding with a few Little Egrets near the cattle on Bridge Marsh on Wednesday...

Am really looking forward to some more vis migging, hopefully there's a few more sessions left in this autumn. The question is though will a Hawfinch reward my efforts?  Only time will tell...

No Good Gulls

I spent a lot of time checking the three large gatherings of gulls in the valley this afternoon, despite the wind and sometimes very heavy rain.  With each scope scan I felt a nice white-winger or crisp first-winter Caspian Gull was next up, it looked so perfect... but just wasn't to be.  In a way this was similar to last Friday, the large numbers of Black-headed and Common Gulls feeding close in over rough seas looked a perfect place for a Little Gull to be. James Mc had two off Lyme Regis but Seaton clearly didn't take their fancy.

I had to do my monthly woodland bird survey this morning, in private woodland near Colyton. This sadly is well outside from my Patchwork Challenge patch, I say sadly because I saw so much!

The three Woodcock were expected - in fact this is well below the usual wintering numbers here, but the Crossbill, Lesser Redpoll and even the eight Siskin were something of a surprise. It's been such a poor winter for most of the finch species down in the valley that I wasn't expecting any of these.  Superb.

Being in Colyton I thought I'd have a look at the four Cattle Egrets at Colcombe... and there were five!  I did think I had five last week come out of roost so maybe not a new arrival, just one that's relocated to Colcombe?  

If you want to see these Cattle Egrets you have to chose where to view them from dependent on where the cattle, and birds are. Sometimes they show well from Station Road/Rosemary Lane, but more often than not Yardbury Hill Road/Lions Close Hill is a good option. They are more distant from here but you can look over the whole field.  Please remember though that the road that leads to Colcombe Farm (Colcombe Road) is a private road and however tempting you shouldn't be viewing from here.

A Fitting Way To Go

Well a heck of a lot has happened since my last blog post!  Obviously the Green-winged Teal was fantastic, and winning the Buttons has literally made my hour, but there's been one major change in my life which comes above both of these...

My 106

I've had this car since I started driving in September 2004.  110,000 miles and eight years later the time has finally come to say bye bye.  This car has been just brilliant for me, yes I have spent money on it, but it's always kept going.  I have had a few near misses, a few bumps and prangs (as you can see!) but it's never let me down.  It was the middle of last year when my garage first advised me to start thinking about getting a new motor, so I started looking around - although I was always reluctant to let the Peugeot go because of how economical its 1.5 diesel engine is. I could drive from Seaton to Spurn (320 miles) and use only 2/3rds of a tank of fuel. And whenever bits did need replacing, they were always at the cheap end of the scale.

It has been getting more unwell within the last few months though, in fact within the last few days it hasn't let me reverse!  I actually think this was the cars way of protesting at me as it knew what was coming. 

Tuesday was my last day driving in it, and on the last 'lap' of the river, and the very last pull in, I found the Green-winged Teal.  This car has so many birding memories for me - good and bad (Pacific Swift...ouch!), so I thought this was a wonderful way of ending our time together.

So, out goes the old.  And in comes the new...

Say hello to Mr Toyota!

I have always wanted and often needed a 4x4, so I have gone with the most economical of them all - a diesel Rav4.  I've just come back from Plymouth in it, and it averaged 50.6 miles per gallon, which has really impressed me.  It's much bigger than what I'm used to, but I'll get used to it! :-)

Ok - enough about cars. Bird talk now...

I just have to start with the bird that won me chocolate yesterday.  I was only out because I'd be told about a Glaucous Gull that was seen heading our way.  Earlier in the day I had been to Colyford Common (dipping Stonechat - yes I still need it for the year!) and noticed lots of gulls on a flooded Colyford Marsh, which is why I went to the 'Farm Gate'.  I was disappointed on the gull front, but that soon turned to jubilation when I panned over to the main scrape and had a look through the Teal.  A long awaited addition to the patch list, and pleasingly one that we have (almost) all seen - hope you get it Ian and Dave!

The Green-winged Teal wasn't the only year tick yesterday, I managed another one during an hour's sea watch from Beer (08:30 - 09:30).  At 09:15 a Great Northern Diver flew close west, this is the first non-Red-throated, Diver that I've seen this year (oh, except a distant larger diver sp. on Jan 2nd), but the larger Divers have been very scarce so far this year.  The full totals of my watch were:

1 Great Northern Diver

7 Red-throated Diver (5w, 1e, 1 on sea)

14 Gannet

24 Kittiwake

6 Dunlin (flew w - unusual in a mid winter sea watch)

I will admit now, as I touched upon it earlier, that I then went to Colyford Common to twitch a Stonechat.  I found out Gav had seen one here a couple of days ago during my sea watch.  I just haven't bumped into Stonechat yet this year, and yes I know I will see one, but I was hoping to get all the easy stuff before I tot my list up at the end of the month. So I went to Colyford Common, I saw a second-winter Med Gull, but no Stonechat. Probably because of this...

Flood!!!  There was in fact a Little Grebe just the left of this picture - very odd for Coly Com!

Well you know what happened next (well after an hour at home and a half hour sea watch anyway!)... Green-winged Teal.  And it's about time I pointed you all to here: http://karenwoolley.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/green-winged-teal-on-colyford-marsh.html  Superb photos too considering the distance and weather!

So that sums up yesterday. To sum up the weekend, I had a brilliant weekend off, and even squeezed in a patch year tick thanks to Phil and Karen.  I've dipped these little critters several times this year, so was very pleased to see them feasting on alders on Sunday afternoon....

They are both in here - I think I did extremely well to ensure both were out of focus!

Monday was a day of lots of patch birding - just no birds! The six Gadwall being as good as it got.

I have very limited birding time for the rest of this week and this weekend - so nothing until next week please birders!!!

Axe Cliff

After two days of meetings it was good to be out again.  Am pleased to have (for a change) timed it with favourable weather condtions too!

At dawn it looked promising for 'vis mig', so I went up to Axe Cliff.  The vis mig was actually disappointing both numbers and variety wise - probably due to a lack of any sorts of wind, and quite heavy cloud cover. All that went into the notebook was:

22 Wood Pigeon

40 Skylark

30 Meadow Pipit

19 alba Wagtail

21 Jackdaw

3 Jay (flew north)

28 Starling

55 Chaffinch

22 Linnet

12 Goldfinch

11 Siskin

1 Redpoll sp.

2 Reed Bunting (landed briefly in Undercliff)

It wasn't just in the sky that there was 'vis mig' though. Looking down into the Undercliff Goldcrest were filtering through west - with two main waves of birds passing.  So exciting to see a migration of this tiny bird in action.  Also down in the Undercliff, a Ring Ouzel appeared for a short while before flying east.  This bird certainly looked like the bird I saw on Monday, but was in a different area...

Maybe a first-winter male as it seems to have a nice black tail

I have been to other spots this morning, but saw nothing better than this Wheatear...

This bird was along harbour road - no Black Redstarts yet (which was what I was looking for!)

When I got home - annoyingly there seemed to be quite a few birds going over the garden (a couple of Redwing, few Skylarks and alba Wagtails). I wonder if I should have spent the morning watching from the garden - maybe I'll try that in the morning if the weather is suitable...

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining...

Or to flip it... Every silver lining has a great big black cloud in it!

Yesterday was an excellent day for wader passage, I thoroughly enjoyed it. In the morning I had 14 Ringed Plovers, in the evening there were 14 Ringed Plovers - but at some point during the day a 15th plover dropped in and was photograghed by Ian McLean just before it flew off north...

ULTRA GRIPPING!! All photos (c) Ian McLean

We have had Kentish Plover before, Clive watched a male by the tram sheds many many years ago - but the record was never submitted so this is 'officially' the first record for the patch. I'm pleased we've had one - but gutted at the same time for missing it. Why couldn't it have dropped in before I had a look along the Estuary - why did it fly off before I had a second look along the Estuary! To make it worse, I was going to go to the tower hide at 12:30, but a funeral was taking place in the cemetery and the entrance blocked - so I turned around and came back. Whether the KP was there at that time though who knows...

Oh well, here's some Gadwall...

Three of the Gadwall on Black Hole Marsh yesterday afternoon

Today, after I woke up (rather late!), and had heard there was no sign of the KP, I went up to Beer Head.

It was another great morning up here. I was joined by Ian half way round, and he stayed longer as I was keen to get down to the Estuary in case the KP reappeared on the falling tide. My totals were:

3 Wheatear
3 Yellow Wagtail (over)
3 Redstart (2 male, 1 female - 1 of the males was singing! Ian had another 2 females)
3+ Garden Warbler
6 Blackcap
30 Whitethroat
8 Willow Warbler
3 Chiffchaff
1 Siskin (over)
1 Redpoll sp. (seen on deck but only distantly/partially, unfortunately looked too brown to be anything other than Lesser despite being rather deep sounding).

Also plenty of Swifts, Swallows and House Martins flying in and NE.

The Redpoll - very very distantly!

And here's a video of the song of the male Redstart - I have never heard one singing on Beer Head before, so a first for me...

After this the Estuary and a look over Black Hole Marsh and from the Tower Hide showed:

4 Grey Plover
6 Ringed Plover
70+ Dunlin
7 Whimbrel
8 Barwit
1 Blackwit
2 Reed Warbler (my first of 2012)
3 Sedge Warbler
3 Whitethroat
0 Kentish Plover :-(

Whimbrel

Finally, thanks to all the Twitter comments, and for people clicking to follow me. I promise this won't just be a 'whim', I'm going to keep it up because I'm actually enjoying it.

Larking About In The Night

Did my last woodland bird survey of the year this morning, in private woodland near Colyton. This is one of the best sites for Woodcock on patch - so with large numbers about at the moment I was looking forward to a record count....I saw none! I'm guessing the snow last week displaced them, and they haven't found their way back yet!

On the whole the woods were rather quiet, but a super flock of 70 Siskins kept me entertained for a while. There were at least three Lesser Redpolls in with them too.

The nosie they made was awesome!

A look along the Estuary showed the three Pochard and the two female Tufted Ducks still, 66 Dunlin and a Grey Plover. Off Seaton Hole late afternoon I could see a flock of 41 Common Scoters in the gloom, all but a couple being female-types.

After i finished work at 10:15 tonight, whilst walking to my car I could hear a couple of Skylarks calling from the night sky above - bizarre! They just seemed to be circling around too - maybe confused by the fog!?

Pleasant But Quiet

I woke up to, as forecasted, a very hard frost and ice. Just what winter should be like!

After a brief and unsuccessful sea watch, I headed up to Beer Head. The only birds that could possibly be described as being grounded migrants were a couple of Song Thrushes and a Goldcrest. I was surprised by the eastward trickle of Finches along the cliff edge; it was mostly Linnets with smaller numbers of Chaffinches and Goldfinches, with two Siskins and a Redpoll adding variety.

Two adult Med Gulls were on the Estuary mid afternoon, with the wintering Common Sandpiper - but that's all I've seen of note today.

To end this post, here's a few wintry snaps that I took this morning...

A frosty Axe Valley from Beer Head

The pools opposite Axmouth FC (of Dowitcher fame) frozen over

Axmouth FC pitch

I've heard of 'water off a duck's back' - but not 'ice off a swan's back!!!'