Seaton Hole Gull Roost

Came back from a family day out today (more on that later) at about 4:30pm, and headed straight to the river for a last gasp look at the gulls.  The tide was high however and as a result numbers weren't great, so I nipped to Seaton Hole. Well I say 'nipped' but I actually ended up spending almost an hour there!

This was my first dusk visit to Seaton Hole this winter, and the gull roost was really impressive.  Numbers were constantly building right up to dusk, and the main small gull flock was pretty close in (probably due to the south west wind).

A small part of the flock

Although there were few large gulls (most seemed to head around the corner to Beer), among the small gulls were 680+ Common Gull and by the end of my stint 56 Med Gulls.  There's at least seven just in this shot...

I thought this was a good scenario to test the capabilities of the P900 out, as I was wondering if I did manage to pick something subtle out like a Bonaparte's or Ring-billed Gull, what kind of quality image would I be able to get?

This is a no zoom shot...

This is with about 25x optical zoom (with a single gull circled)...

And this is at about 95x zoom (so using full optical zoom of 83x with some digital zoom as well)...

Yes that's the Med Gull that's circled in the above pic, which is also in theory in the shot above that.  So to answer my own question, yes, I would be able to get a more than identifiable pic if there was a Ross's Gull sat out there with the Black-heads!  Seriously impressive kit. Especially when you consider the poor light conditions as well as the lumpy sea.

Rewinding a few hours, we'd enjoyed a lovely day on Dartmoor and at Stover CP.  As ever it was a lovely walk around the lake, and good to see Mandarin have really made themselves at home here.  A couple of years ago they'd often be around, but hidden away in quiet corners, but today...

Harry feeding the ducks! 

There were nine in total

Love 'em or hate 'em - they are lookers!

There were a few Tufted Duck out on the lake, no Goosanders today but a single female Pochard...

Don't see many of these being an Axe birder!

There were plenty of Siskin around in the trees as well, along with the usual woodland-species that always seem abundant here.

Male Black Redstart

Well it's not that I've been out birding but haven't had time to blog... I really have not had any time out birding!

The lead up to Christmas was very busy work-wise for me, and on the few days I did have off I had to cram in all my Christmas shopping and family days out!  Things aren't set to change soon either with a steep learning curve ahead - more on that in another post...  

The only notable birds I've managed to stumble upon have been a few Blackcap, with a female near my place and a pair often showing at Mum and Dad's.  And best of all a male Black Redstart that I've seen on the couple of occasions I've taken the dog down to Seaton Hole beach.  It's been really showy, although I haven't had chance to properly 'pap it' yet - just these ropy shots...

I have seen blacker males, but haven't seen many with so much white in the wing.  A real corker, and looking at my Twitter timeline he seems to be attracting quite a bit of attention.

 

Anyway, I really hope everyone has enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. Thanks for sticking with Axe Birding! 

Iceland Gull

Well this is uncanny!

Last week I blogged about how the large numbers of wildfowl in the valley annoyingly contained only the usual Axe species, then the next morning I went out and there were three Pintail. Last night I blogged about how I was really expecting a scarce gull yesterday afternoon considering the gulls numbers and weather conditions but failed, and at 08:30 off Seaton Hole this morning...

A flipping Iceland Gull! Apologies for the photo, I stupidly left my trusty Nikon P900 in my car so had to resort to my mobile phone camera. The light was truly awful as well, I first spotted it as it drifted out of the line of sunlight, albeit not all that far out, and it didn't move far from that spot...

Well until it took flight about two minutes later. It flew really close in west with three other gulls towards Beer Beach, but I couldn't see it there half an hour later.

Thanks to the light, and the fact it took me ages to line my phone camera up with my scope and the bird to get these few record shots (why is that SO hard!??), I didn't really obtain the best view of it, but I saw nothing to suggest it was anything other than a juvenile/first-winter bird...

Hopefully it hangs around for others to see, and I wouldn't mind a better look myself. But still, I'm well chuffed with it, and what a cracking PWC2017 year tick!

Dedicated to Kevin J Hale aka Bun

What a team player that man is. Even if he isn't playing, he's with you on your team. Legend.

There he is! Showing well in a striped hat.

Woodcock are pretty reliable at a few sites on patch, but within my PWC patch, or anywhere in the river valley, they are very VERY hard to come by. That's unless of course there's a seriously cold snap with plenty of snow, then they start to behave like Blackbirds and pop up everywhere, but that weather is rare here. Bun suggested the valley at Seaton Hole for me, as he's had them several times in the past in Couchill Woods just to the north. So on two occasions so far this month I have endured evening vigils here, but neither with any success.

Tonight though I was joined by the man himself, and he kindly offered to have a rummage around in nearby woodland as the sun set, whilst I stood within the boundary of my PWC patch. What a top man.  At times he was up to his waste in brambles, climbing up steep banks, slipping back down those steep banks, he just kept plugging away and all for my potential gain. After about five or so minutes I was feeling guilty so shouted out "let's call it a night"... But no, he was going nowhere "I'm just going to check down here by the stream".

Sadly though, despite all his hard work, it didn't have the desired effect. 

But as we walked back to our vehicles, moaning about how daft it is that a bird as beautiful, small, and rare as Woodcock can still be legally shot, something truly magical happened. At 17:15 I looked up towards the first few emerging stars of the night, and there one was!  It had just flown out of the strip of woodland in the Seaton Hole valley, did a couple of laps over the small field in front of us (almost looking like a gigantic bat!) and then disappeared off north.  Absolute result!!  And it's all thanks to Bun. If it wasn't for him I would have left ten minutes earlier.

My 98th bird of the year on my PWC patch. Hopefully the ton is just a few days away...

Firecrest

Phil text me just at the right time late this afternoon with news of a Firecrest at Seaton Hole, which is within my PWC patch. In the previous two winters Firecrests have wintered here, but this winter one has only been seen sporadically, and this was the first sighting of it in 2017.

Gladly it was still showing well when I arrived just after 4pm and I enjoyed some lovely views of it. I was enjoying myself so much that I couldn't help but photograph some twigs...

I particularly like that dark bramble branch running up the left side of the frame, I think this darkness is exactly what this otherwise pale photo needs.

I just LOVE the Ivy cover along the botton 1/5 of this photo, almost acts as a natural base to the photo. Also note that lovely 'V' of brambles just off centre. Nice.

Other birding today involved a sea watch from 08:15 for about 45 minutes. It's highly likely that Phil and I let a perfectly good Black-throated Diver fly past unclinched, it just remained far too distant but I have to say it did look the part. We were however perfectly capable to ID the four Red-throated Divers that also flew through (well one flew in actually). No wildfowl at all this morning, but still a few Razorbill, Gannet, a Kittiwake and three Great Crested Grebes out there.

In other rather gripping news, tonight Tim Wright had one of the Dippers from my PWC patch. Up to today they have only been seen up near Colyton but at 16:20 Tim had one from the A3052 at Colyford. It looks like I'm going to have to put even more time in here, I have been checking from the bridge by the White Hart daily but only for a few minutes at a time.

October Ends In Style

What a few days!!!  I'll start with Thursday...

Another day, another dog walk, and another Yellow-browed Warbler (or two?).  At Lower Brucklands Ponds late morning one of the first birds I looked at in a Tit flock around the top pond was a Yellow-browed Warbler - nice!  With so much movement, and so much cover, it was hard to keep tabs on it, but for a while every time I lifted my bins there was a Yellow-browed Warbler looking at me! There was one Chiff in the flock, and I saw that three times, but I must have seen the Yellow-browed(s?) about ten times!  Only heard Yellow-browed call twice, but I'm pretty sure there were two birds (and who knows, maybe more?) in there. Annoying really as I'd liked to have confirmed it if there were more than one, but never mind.  Lower Bruckland really is the local hot spot for this species, almost half of the patch records have come from here.

Soon after I got home I had a phone call from Gav, he was listening to a Yellow-browed in Axmouth just down the road from where last Saturday's bird was - so presumably the same one?  Great that someone else managed to connect with it.

Thursday night was incredible - without doubt one of the best nocturnal migrations I have ever witnessed over Seaton.  Redwing and Song Thrush calls were constant, some sounded so low and there were clearly some flocks involved too.  Just amazing.  Also heard a few Blackbirds and a Dunlin.  Love migration in action. Incredible. And it gave me a good feeling about Friday...

So Friday dawned, and at first it just produced some decent vis mig - Wood Pigeons, Stock Doves and Jackdaws in particular making the most of the clear skies - but there didn't appear to me many grounded migrants about.  I tried Branscombe (a very under watched site), Seaton Marshes and along the cycle track and Mare Lane in Beer (behind the Beer Cemetery Fields). Certainly thrushes weren't very evident so they all must have all flown straight over during the previous night. Turns out I was just in the wrong place....

Seaton Hole has been heaving with birds over the last week, I've seen the Firecrest there daily, but Friday was the first day I didn't go there this week. Ian M and Ian P (looking for the Firecrest) did and found a fantastic patch first - some would say an overdue one, but in my opinion not so, as they seem to turn up only at their favoured haunts year in year out. A lovely first-winter Red-breasted Flycatcher...

Although it was first found in the open on an isolated tree, it spent most of its time high in the conifer plantation on the left hand side of the road. As it was always high up my photos are not too good, but it was a great bird to watch.  And now I realise why they are only seen at their traditional stop over sites....because they are so hard to spot!  It would often sit motionless for several minutes, and could SO easily be walked past by even the sharpest birder.  It didn't call once, and if this bird was another 10 metres deeper into the wood no one would ever have known it was there.  The next photo should show you all what I mean, and bear in mind this was at the very top of the trees.... Can you see it?

I actually now think the only reason RB Flies appear to be so site faithful, is because they aren't looked for deep in random woods across the UK, which is where many of them probably are.  They like big trees and they like being at the top of them!

I really am chuffed to be able to add this bird to my patch list (my 253rd bird on patch). Although I think we've had them in the past, and am certain we will have more in the future, I think the chances of another actually being found is slim. So it's a good job this bird hung around for the rest of the day for all the locals to see.

Whilst watching this bird, saw a Firecrest and had a massive surprise when this Willow Warbler appeared in front of us!  My latest ever, just such a shame that when it came close enough to be photographed there was a bloody great bramble in the way....

Quite a pale bird, although it did had some yellow tones around the throat and neck.  Have to say when I first saw it head on and could just see a pale belly, striking supercilium and pink-based bill, I was half expecting to see wing bars when it turned around! Sadly not.

This morning I spent a couple hours kicking the stubble fields at Axe Cliff.  Lots of Linnets and Skylarks as is always the case up here in the autumn, but apart from four Stonechat no evidence of much else grounded.  Overhead there seemed to be lots on the move, plenty of Pigeons again and finches along with my first Golden Plover of the autumn.  The Raven population certainly seems to be thriving up here...