Portesham Pallas's Warbler

I didn't need any convincing yesterday to go and see the Pallas's Warbler currently over wintering at Portesham in Dorset. Pallas's are my favourite of the 'regular' sibes, I saw several at Spurn and Dunge in the early 00's - some exceptionally well.  But in the ten subsequent years of birding this patch I have seen just one, that was in 2007 and for about twenty seconds!  So it was high time I saw another, even though seeing what in my head is a late autumn specialty, in March, could well play havoc with my inbuilt birding body clock!

It was actually dead easy. James Mc and I parked up in Portesham shortly before 10am, casually strolled up to where we thought we should go, and there it was...

Count the head stripes - that's a seven-striped sprite alright

Showing it's Wood Warbler-like white underparts

The yellow tones to the face also reminded me of Wood Warbler colours. Often looked bull-headed too.

In coming - I just love those stripes!

Check out it's arse! Surprised I managed this with my bridge camera.

What a stunning bird, and mind blowing views.  No stiff necks looking at tree tops, it spent virtually the whole time feeding at eye level, and for the twenty minutes we were there it remained in view for about 17 of those.  It was so easy to follow as all the trees and bushes were completely bare, and it shared the surrounding cover with only a couple of Robins, Dunnocks, one Goldcrest and a Chiffchaff (which looked huge compared to it!). It really seemed to love this bush, the first bush on the right...

It did move into the small copse to the west and across the track south of this bush. But it did seem to like this bush, there were plenty of small flies buzzing around it which may have explained why.

The rump really is amazing.  It is virtually impossible to see when perched, but the moment it flies it's like a light bulb. It's even obvious when you just glimpse it flitting about with your naked eye at a distance.

My advice to anyone thinking of going for this bird, go.

Here's a few short videos that I'm sure will tempt even the most stubborn...

I can confirm to you all that without doubt seeing a Pallas's Warbler is an excellent cure for the winter birding blues - almost as much as a male Northern Wheatear (they can't come soon enough!).

As we were Portland way, I couldn't leave without some diver and grebe action, so we headed to Sandsfoot Castle for a quick scan over a nice calm Portland Harbour...

Looking south to Portland

This proved a very worthwhile stop, as a scan from the Sailing Academy, and through some builders fencing a little way back east along the road, showed a pretty decent selection.  For us fairly loyal patch birders, Red-breasted Mergansers are exciting enough as they are scarce on our patches, it was great watching the males displaying. 

My previous visits here have shown the Black-necked Grebes to be in one or two pretty tight flocks, but today the 12+ present were spread out everywhere; a four, a few pairs and singles. Most were in or coming into summer plumage which was nice, unlike the four Slavonian Grebes - three of these were in winter plumage with the fourth just starting to get dusky down the front. There were stacks of Great Crested Grebes too, all of these were in the far north east corner of the harbour (where one of the Slavs was, another was towards Ferrybridge with two together in the middle of the harbour).

Four Great Northern Divers were all spread out singletons, but the closest diver was a stunning Black-throated Diver. It was quite a hefty one to be honest, looked quite thick-necked and bulky, so am pretty sure it's the one that was showing well from the southern shore of the harbour over the last couple of days.  Sadly my photos aren't quite as good as Pete's...

A blurry phone-scoped Black-throated Diver in awful light!

One fat bird!!

With work looming it was time to head back west. But on the way home we called in at Abbotsbury for a look over the Swannery...

The light wasn't too bad when I took this, but the sun soon came out which made viewing more difficult

We were really impressed with the amount of wildfowl here, heaps and heaps of Pintail in particular. All the Pochard were sat out on the bank probably wondering where their lunch was - no wonder they are so rare here now, they are clearly getting lazy! In contrast the Tufties were busy getting their own grub out on the water, and among these were the the two wintering Long-tailed Ducks and at least one and a half Scaup. I say one and a half because I know there's a hybrid ScaupxTuftie here, and I couldn't rule this out on one of the birds - probably because it was the hybrid.

As ever it's not just the birds that make a twitch, but the company. James M is an ace twitching partner as we are both as laid back and relaxed about it as each other - and neither of us actually like twitching!  Especially the crowds.  We really are bad twitchers, and will only twitch a bird if the chance of seeing it is up around the 100% mark, plus there has to be other birds around to see as well. In general we also have a similar taste in birds and what we think is worth going to see, well that's with the exception of big white things. James seems to think all egrets may as well be Little Egrets (just smaller or bigger versions), and all swans are Mute Swans just with different coloured bills...

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...

Exe Estuary Boat Trip

I was hoping to write this post yesterday at the latest, but this is the first chance I've had. I should really be out looking for a Sand Martin - but can't face the disappointment of not seeing one - some would say "how pessimistic!", I say "just being realistic!"

Before I write about Saturday afternoon, the night before was the first night of the Garden Moth Scheme. I woke up to a car with a layer of ice over the windows, and a sharp frost on the lawns, so I was somewhat surprised to find five moths in the trap! Four were Common Quakers, but the fifth was another new species for the garden...

March Moth; the female is flight-less

Saturday afternoon, as the post title suggests I joined my old man who provides the commentary for the Stuart Line bird watching cruises on the River Exe. The skies were grey, but it wasn't as cold as expected and I had a thouroughly enjoyable three plus hours on board the Tudor Rose.

I'll use photos to tell the tale of the trip....

The 'Tudor Rose' is the smaller boat used by Stuart Line, they usually use the larger 'Pride of Exmouth' for these trips. She is currently undergoing a service on the edge of the Estuary...


The Tudor Rose is still a lovely vessel though...


With a very comfortable and warm downstairs...


Complete with a very complete bar...


As I was with the 'expert guide', we boarded the boat first. Here are all the punters excitably waiting to join us...


Then they were allowed on, full house...


We set sail from Exmouth Docks at 13:30, and headed south to the river mouth...


And we carried on going south along Exmouth sea front...


The tide was crazily low, so we spent a fair bit of time down the lower part of the Estuary/the sea! There were vast sand bars and mussle beds exposed becuase of the low tide, this is looking NORTH towards Dawlish Warren. Yes, this could normally be described as 'the sea'...


And whilst out here, we had our first glimpse of the 'rivals'. The RSPB also do these Exe Estuary cruises, and funnily enough Saturday's one was being lead by my mate Ed...


We turned around, then began heading back north, passing Dawlish Warren sea front...


Then Warren Point...


And along past the Bite and Dawlish Warren hide...


Here we started noticing waders, with flocks of Bar-tailed Godwits on the shore along with a few Turnstone and Sanderling, and on the water good numbers of Shags...


Heading up past Starcross and Cockwood, about six Greenshank fed on the edge of the Estuary, and I picked out the wintering Long-tailed Duck with a couple of female Goldeneye though the trio remained very distant. We then passed the very grand Powderham Castle...


A decent flock of Brent Geese were here on the water's edge, though soon flew over towards Exminster Marshes...


As we approached Turf Lock...


A nice Slav Grebe popped up next to the boat...


And gave the opportunity of taking a photo of a Slav Grebe and a Curlew in the same frame, something I have always dreamed of!!?!...


When we got to the area where the Clyst Estuary flows into the Exe...


A cracking female Scaup offered good views...


Red-breasted Merganers were common throughout the trip, so had to take at least one photo of some...


It was from here that we started seeing really good numbers of waders, including plenty of 'the bird' many people come on this boat to see...


Grey Plovers, Dunlin, and Black-tailed Godwit were the most numerous waders up here, though surprisingly few Knot. A large flock of Blackwits were feeding in an area of cut reeds...


We got to Topsham, where the turn around point is...


Then headed back down river, and docked back in at Exmouth at 16:50. A very enjoyable trip, it was great to see so many places I've been birding before from a different perspective!

Well I hope this post hasn't bored you too much, and maybe it has inspired you to try this trip out for yourself. If you do STILL need convincing though, I have four words that just may do just that... home made minestrone soup! :-)