Best Day of the Spring

Wow what a day. The best birding day of the month turned out to be the last day of the month, and that was simply because we had some different weather. A nice south easterly wind has been blowing all day (since yesterday in fact) and we've had lots of rain. And this meant birds birds birds!

Although south easterlies aren't our best wind direction for sea watching (that's south westerlies) I just had to give the sea a look - quite a long look in the end! I started the day with a four hour sea watch and then had two twenty minute glances during the afternoon, all from the Spot On Kiosk. These are the exact times, and this is what I saw (east unless stated);

05:50-09:50, 13:10-13:30, 15:10-15:30;

2 Dark-bellied Brent Goose 

110 Common Scoter (75e 35w)

5 Great Northern Diver (all singles and all west)

70+ Gannet

6 Manx Shearwater (two singles and a four)

4 Arctic Skua (ad pale-phased west at 08:40, ad pale-phased and near-ad pale-phased close east together at 09:02 and ad dark-phased west at 09:40)

3 Mediterranean Gull (all first-years)

6 Common Gull

40 Black-headed Gull (most flew in)

21 Sandwich Tern

1 Arctic Tern (so close that I think it came out of the Estuary then flew east at 08:20)

4 Dunlin (in)

3 Sanderling (one east with a flock of ten Whimbrel and later two flew in sat on beach briefly then headed off west)

72 Whimbrel (biggest single flock being 38 birds)

2 Guillemot

14 Razorbill

8 auk sp.

1 Yellow Wagtail (flew east along beach calling).

I'm pleased to say there's four year ticks in that list; Arctic Skua and Tern, Manxie and Sanderling. I had to wait for the skuas, they only arrived once the cloud came over and just prior/during the first rain showers of the day. Although the numbers always make a sea watch for me (Whimbrel and Scoter today), and of course the skuas which are always notable birds here, my star bird of the watch was the Arctic Tern. Our 'commic's' are usually distant, but this thing virtually flew over my head! Great to be able to see all the diagnostic features, but best of all that distinctive bouncy flight and super long tail streamers. Now if I was to be a bit whingy a Black Tern would have been nice, but I'm not today - it's just been such a fab fab day!

Whimbrel flying east

Arctic Skua - just!

One of the closest Gannets of the day

With many other birders watching the coast today, there were a couple of interesting re-sightings of my birds. My four Manx Shearwaters in the afternoon flew past Sidmouth half an hour earlier (Dan), and it took my dark-phased Arctic Skua twenty minutes to fly from here to Budleigh (B Heasman) and then another forty minutes before it flew west past Teignmouth (L Allnat). Always find this kind of stuff fascinating, thanks for getting in touch folks.

Considering the amount of wading birds passing over the sea, I knew the river valley would be worth keeping an eye on today. By the end of the day on the Estuary there were; 

10 Ringed Plover

12 Dunlin

5 Bar-tailed Godwit (three sum plum males)

3 Black-tailed Godwit

36 Whimbrel (giving me a day total of well over a hundred - very notable count for the Axe)

1 Greenshank

From left to right; three Barwits, a Whimbrel and a Blackwit

Is there a finer wader? Summer plumaged male Bar-tailed Godwit

And again

And again! x2

Four of the five Barwits from today

And this wasn't it.  Wandering towards the Colyford Marsh hide early afternoon I noticed all the birds that were clearly on the main scrape on Colyford Marsh lift off and behave as though they'd just been spooked by something. Two minutes later I was watching my/our first Marsh Harrier of 2017. Year tick number five of the day...

Female Marsh Harrier

And again, but a little more zoomed in

I must just thank my wife, who's been amazing as always and was quite happy to let me fill my boots when it came to birding - she knows how much I've been longing for this weather. In my defence I did find time to build a bed today as well!

Before I sign off for the night I will quickly tie up yesterday's birding news - don't worry it won't be long as I only had about an hour out. Saying that it was a pretty good hour though! First up was an Avocet that flew in calling on the Estuary just as the tide was coming in...

Avocet and Shelduck

Then there was a new in Lesser Whitethroat singing alongside the tram line opposite Coronation Corner. And finally my forty minute wander along the beach with the dog which produced a Great Skua east and a Mute Swan and 22 Pale-bellied Brent Geese west...

Pale-bellied Brent Geese, later seen off Dawlish Warren

That's it now. Night all and roll on tomorrow...

A Day Of Sea Watching

Some would blame my current bed-loving nature for missing three Pom Skuas this morning - I blame the weather men! They said it was going to be tipping down, clearing mid morning, about 10ish. So I had set today aside for a mid morning til early afternoon sea watch. When I did wake up soon after 7, I looked out to see no rain and lots of wind!

Just after half 7 a text from Bun informed me of the Poms - I really have rotten luck with this species on patch (as you will read later!). The last spring Poms I saw were in 2007, three in one sea watch, and they were awesome. But I want to see more!!!

So I rocked up at the Beer shelter just prior to 8am. And the shelter was VERY busy...

Almost full capacity!

They had already notched up nine Bonxies, the Poms and an Arctic, along with a load of Whimbrel and two Velvet Scoters.

Bonxies were the main feature of this sea watch, but they were flying in both directions, so the true number of birds is impossible to know. I saw 23 in all (17W, 6E), whether this is 23 different birds, or 17, or 11, I don't know. Who knows? The four Arctic Skuas were all different birds though, with two (pale and dark) west, then a single dark phased west, and lastly a single pale phased east.

The full list of what I saw (08:00 - 10:40) looks like this:

43 Pale-bellied Brent Geese (3, 13 and 27)
2 Mallard
11 Common Scoter
2 Great Northern Diver
1 Black-throated Diver
1 Red-throated Diver
79 Whimbrel
23 Bonxies
4 Arctic Skuas
70+ Kittiwake (they picked up near the end of the watch)
40+ Sandwich Tern
2 Common Tern

The largest flock of Brents

Passage really died at about 10:15ish, the sun had come out and wind dropped right off. It could almost be described as being pleasant.

Sea watchers getting bored!

So we jacked it in at 10:40.

After doing a few jobs at home, and having a bite to eat, the weather turned again, and after a text to Bun, Me, him and Dad were back down Beer shelter for 14:00. Within five seconds of setting my scope up, two Arctic Skuas flew past, and a third came through a couple of minutes later. I sent a text to all the other patchers which ensured Ian M joined us at half past, and later Phil and Gav.

The star bird in this watch was a Little Tern - only my sixth on patch ever! I picked it up as it was flying south west with a small group of Sandwich Terns - such a tiny bird! Luckily for the year listers it hung about, and remained for a couple of hours - although it was a right git to see! It took Phil about an hour and a half to catch up with it.

The totals of what I saw in this watch (14:00 - 16:40) are:

32 Common Scoter
14 Bonxies (8W, 6E)
7 Arctic Skua (5W, 3E)
36 Whimbrel
25+ Kittiwake
c9 Sandwich Tern (blogging)
1 Little Tern
2 Swift (in off, my first for 2012)

Well, when I said I watched 14:00 - 16:40, there was about a three minute period (about 14:40) when I nipped off to move my carpark to avoid getting a parking ticket. In that time, a sodding full spooned pale-phased Pom flew REALLY close east. What a total bummer! I have seen 48 skuas today, but the only Poms flew by when I wasn't there. I was ok about missing the morning ones, but this was just cruel. It didn't put me in a good mood! (sorry Jess!!). It has insured though that my alarm will be set for 6am in the morning though!!

Ok, enough about sea birds! I have had a couple of looks up the river, the highlights being 16 Whimbrel and a pair of Gadwall. I was expecting to see more though as there was a heck of a lot of water in the valley today - it looked great for a Black Tern. Maybe tomorrow...