Making the most of my lunch hour

I never forget how lucky I am to live and work in this part of the world. So much natural beauty so close to home, enough to completely immerse yourself in.  

Just take today for example, when I actually managed to get a full lunch hour at work. I spent it alongside the River Axe just below the A3052 road bridge...

Not somewhere I visit often

The whole time I was there, despite the fact it was 1pm, there was a constant chorus of singing Reed and Sedge Warblers, Blackcap and Lesser Whitethroat - the latter presumably the apparent unpaired male that is popping up all over the river valley. Part way through my wander a Hobby zipped through low north west, causing mad panic among the lingering 30+ Sand Martins.

I spent most of the time looking down though, thanks to the several hundred White-legged Damselflies on view.  This species distribution is fascinating, they seem to be so site faithful - hundreds in one spot, a rarity just a few hundred meters downstream. For example, Lower Bruckland Ponds is less than 1km away from where I was today, with a small stream linking the two sites, and is by far our best Dragonfly site - yet I've never seen one here.  Among the hundreds of White-legs I saw today there were just five Common Blue Damselflies present.

White-legged Damselfly male

Same as above!

White-legged Damselfly female

Great to see four male Scarce Chasers on territory here too, my highest count away from Lower Bruckland Ponds. This species really is on the up, with numbers increasing here every year - just amazing to think they weren't here at all in the early 00's!

Scarce Chaser male

Scarce Chaser - a different view!

As to be expected, there were plenty of Banded Demoiselle about...

Male Banded Demoiselle

Then I went back to work...  And that's how you do a lunch hour! 

Glonk Makes It 17

This morning I was going to have a gander at the American Robin, after I'd enjoyed a rare lie-in. So up I got at 08:30, saw that the Robin was still there thanks to a couple of received text messages, had breakfast, then headed out the door.... to the sea front!

Yes, for some reason I decided NOT to go to Exminster, but chose to have a look around the patch instead (as per usual!). Am bloody glad I did though, as after a rather uneventful sea watch, I had a look up the Estuary and this was the first Gull flock I came across...

Click on the photo to make it bigger - and see if you can spot the 'odd one out'. If you can't, I'll post directions to the opticians later ;-)

Yes - there sat a stonking first-winter Glaucous Gull! THIS stonking first-winter Glaucous Gull...

OH MY WORD - what a BEAST! Lock up your children - they just aren't safe with this brute around!!

You would not believe how over-joyed I was/am. Glauc is my favourite of all the large Gulls, and it is my biggest 'boggy bird' on my self-found list.... sorry, was! Wryneck now has that accolade.

What made it even better in a 'self-found' context is that this Glauc represents the 17th species of Gull I have found on the Axe since 2007. Hmmmmm, I wonder what will be next... Great Black-headed please :-)

Ian M saw it as it flew out of the Estuary and westwards, but unfortunately no one else got to it. Hopefully it lingers - it is about time we hand one hanging about. These weather conditions yet again prove to be our best for Gulls - blustery winds with some south in it, low cloud and rain.

There's a rather amusing note to add to this find... I first clapped eye on the Glonk through bins whilst sat in the car. In the excitable few moments that followed I jumped out the car without doing something. It was only when I was knelt on the ground looking at the bird through my scope, with one hand leaning on the back of my car that I realised this...

...my car started to roll forward, OH CRAP - handbrake! Luckily, I was able to lean in the open window of the passanger door and pull it up!

As for the American Robin, what a stunning bird it is, check out Karens pics of it HERE! A cracking county record - the first 'confirmed' mainland sighting in fact. Lundy has had all three of the previous Devon birds. If it stays in to next week I will trek over and see it, but I'm not in an urgent rush as I saw the Cornwall bird in 2004. Like this bird, that was a smart thing too!

In fact that was one of my 'top three' twitches of all time, because we also connected with (how's that for 'twitcher jargon'): American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, Surf Scoter, Ring-billed Gull, Lesser Yellowlegs, and on the way back, Devon's first Lesser Scaup (which funnily enough was at Exminster Marshes!)

Osprey

An Osprey has graced our Estuary today, Fraser first spotted it over Black Hole Marsh mid morning.

At about 13:30, whilst driving along the river with the old man, all the Gulls started taking to the air, and in it drifted from the hills to the east...

Sorry for the photo overload - there is more too!

It spent about fifteen minutes fishing north of Coronation Corner, but every time it went in, it came up empty taloned...

An action shot!

I'll upload a video I took of it failing to catch a fish later, it's taking too long at the moment!

The Osprey then flew south down the Estuary, flushing every Gull as usual...

...then went into one hell of a dive, and came up with a fish! After a bit of struggling, he/she got some power going and flew off north west towards Colyford...

That's dinner sorted!

Hopefully this one will stay....

Rewinding the day back, I was meant to lead a birdwatch on Beer Head this morning for Seaton Visitors Centre Trust. Dad and I were there at 9am, and our group were soon ready to leave....all three of us! (and yes that does include Dad and I!)

It was beautiful up there this morning, the views just stunning....


You can just see the harbour wall of Portland Harbour in this photo, and that's 'The Verne' to the right...

And this is the first time I can say I've seen Dartmoor from Beer Head, I've labelled the three Tors you can make out...


Bird-wise, it wasn't all that bad either!

Two female-type Redstarts were most notable, with singles on the top of the Branscombe slope and in the Coastgaurd Lookout garden. At least seven Yellow Wags included three amongst the sheep, and other grounded migrants included: 3 Wheatear, 1 Sedge Warbler, 2 Whitethroat, 5 Blackcap, 14 Chiffchaff and 2 Goldcrest. Overhead there were literally thousands of hirundines feeding - including at least three Sand Martins. Several hundred Meadow Pipits flew west over, proving it would have been a good morning for 'vis-migging'. Also one Clouded Yellow seen.

Good Weather For Ducks

Yesterday morning I had an urge to find an Aquatic Warbler, so Bun, Karen and I gave the marshes on the west side of the river a good 'bashing'....did we get one??

Well if we had found one you would have known by now! We did unearth at least 15 Sedge Warblers though so we considered it a worthwhile few hours, and it is something we will certainly do again if a few more Aquatics start appearing on the south coast.

During our wander several ones and twos of Yellow Wags flew over, along with a couple of Swifts.

Today has been a day of rain, though I was out early before it really started lashing down. Blackhole Marsh showed the same selection of birds as recent days, though the Little Stints have gone now.

Visiting birders be aware than work has started on the main hide here. The walkway is being built now, with the hide going up once this has been completed. This is the work done by the contractors on day one, not bad I suppose...

Pity it couldn't wait another month though

There were lots of hirundines feeding over the water, with this juvenile Swallow using one of the diggers to rest on...

Interestingly this bird was still being fed by one of its parents

Just as a major rain storm came over, I had a bit of surprise whilst looking out to sea. A flock of seven duck appeared, flew in off and up river - they were Pochard!

...not that you can tell that from this photo!!

Soon after they were floating on the water north of Coronation Corner, but I couldn't see them a couple of hours later. An interesting and surprising record for August!

I had the moth trap out night before last. I won't list what I caught as there was nothing new for the garden or the year. I had 44 of 12 species, with Setaceous Hebrew Character being the most numerous, and singles of Small Waved Umber and Jersey Tiger being the highlights.