Redstart Heralds Restart of Spring

Now we've seen the back of that blasting easterly wind, northbound migrant birds have responded accordingly.  

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it out today, but Kev did ok up Beer Head as the fog cleared mid morning with Grasshopper Warbler, Redstart, Black Redstart and Whitethroat.  I did however cash in on some migrants yesterday, thanks to two visits to Seaton Marshes.

Visit one showed at least ten Willow Warbler and seven Blackcap in the bushes, with my first Reed and Sedge Warbler of the spring on the Borrow Pit.  The rain and low cloud kept 30+ Swallow and half a dozen or so House Martins low over the marsh...

Unfortunately yet again they weren't accompanied but a Red-rumped!

Visit two early afternoon revealed the cherry on top, a cracking male Redstart. It wasn't hanging around however, and within a few minutes had traveled the whole length of the ditch that runs west to east across the marsh just north of the Borrow Pit. I lost it when it flew into bushes next to the tram line.

And that brings this blog up to date for now, although considering the date I hope that by the day there will be more to tell.  To complete this post, although off patch, a visit to Lyme Regis the other day showed the immature drake Eider still present...

Wish it moved a little way west!

Drake Garganey and Red Kite

Well that's birding for you! In March this year I saw my first spring drake Garganey on patch for a whopping (and surprising) eight years. This evening I saw another...

Many thanks to Tim Wright who found this bird earlier in the day. I didn't get round to seeing it until late on when the sun was setting, the light was fading as I was watching it so my pics aren't great at all, especially colour-wise...

And here's a short video...

It was really amazing to hear it call as well, several times. Not a sound I've ever heard on the Axe Estuary before. Just brilliant and so atmospheric!

Not really a surprise considering the weather we are currently enjoying, but I had a Red Kite fly low west over the house just after 9am today. There were two reported on patch yesterday too, so no doubt I'll be seeing a few more over the forthcoming days...

Cattle Egret

An early morning walk down to Seaton Marshes would have proved quiet were it not for the recent Cattle Egret. It was showing well from the hide with the cattle on the reserve itself, although the cattle didn't seem to like it very much and often charged it away!

Cattle Egrets Up Close

As I type this cloud is arriving! Cloud!! Fingers crossed for some passerine action tomorrow...

I had a quick scoot around this morning, it was overall still pretty quiet but there were a few nice highlights.

I was really surprised to see four Med Gulls on Black Hole Marsh at dawn this morning, three first-winters and a second-summer. They were a surprise as I've not seen a Med here for about three weeks, and there's only about thirty Black-headed Gulls!  If you can pick out all four in this photo I will be impressed...

Maybe this will help... The second-summer is on the left with two first-winters on the right...

And this really cute and gorgeous subtle first-winter on the post...

There was no sign of the Cattle Egrets on Black Hole Marsh, but a walk around Seaton Marshes afterwards showed why. It was 07:30 and they were still in the roost!  It was so nice to finally get some good views of them...

And one final surprise for the morning was a pair of Pintail east past the sea front during a brief sea watch, along with a drake Common Scoter. 

I had ten minutes out again this evening, which I spent at Bridge Marsh. Two Goosanders were flying around landing on both the Coly and the Axe, just after Tim White reported two from Black Hole Marsh (so I guess they were the same birds?). And that was about it for me today, so all in all a good day even though I've spent most of it at work.

Patch bird of the day though goes to a male Black Redstart. I was sent a photo of one - which looked an absolute corker - present in a private garden near Boshill mid morning today. I know it's not really a rare bird, but a spring male is a good as they get. This was made even more gripping because I haven't even seen a single Willow Warbler today!    

And to complete this post, a few random photos from today around the Patch...

Pair of Yellowhammer at Axe Cliff

Comma at Axe Cliff

Male and female Kestrels at Seaton Marshes this morning

Venus pre-dawn

Good to be Back!

Since the early hours of last Saturday I have been knocked out by the worst sickness bug I've ever experienced. It really has not been nice. This meant no birding for me at all between Saturday and Thursday - six days is probably a record for me! Not good when there is so much passage going on, the mind boggles at what I've missed by not being out there.

Anyway, I finally began feeling better yesterday, so this morning got myself up and out...

I soon got the vibe that birds were moving, with several flocks of Meadow Pipits flying north up the valley, and during a dog walk along the beach, several more flocks arriving in/off the sea. Exciting times - this meant there was active passage. So to Seaton Marshes...

Along the entrance track and around the Borrow Pit there were about ten Chiffchaffs (still no Willow Warbler for me) and a lone House Martin was flying around overhead. Amazingly this being my fourth of the year and I'm yet to see a Swallow!  I then turned the corner to walk to the hide...

It was so great to see eight Wheatears (one female) on the fence lines and path, allowing me to get a really good Wheatear-fix (much needed by any birder in early spring). And all the time several small flocks of Meadow Pipits continued to fly north overhead, proper spring migration, so cool...

Colyford Common and Colyford Marsh after this showed another Wheatear and a further 40+ Meadow Pipits, but not the desired LRP or Water Pipit. Maybe tomorrow?

Black Hole Marsh early this afternoon showed the four drake Pintail still and four Dunlin, and at Bridge Marsh ten Sand Martins and the Greylag Goose still.

It is so so SO good to be back!

Patch Pochard

It was nice to see the first frost of the autumn this morning, the windscreen needed a good scrape first thing. And this unprecedented scene on the Borrow Pit (Seaton Marshes) not long after 9am complimented the weather conditions perfectly...

Patch gold!

As I've said before on this blog, any diving duck here is notable. Tufted Duck are annual on patch with 1-5 records a year. Pochard however has gone from being almost as regular as Tufties to a real patch rarity, and we have no idea why as the habitat hasn't changed (probably actually got better!).  The last Pochard here was three years ago, when I had a female flying around over the Estuary on 31st October 2013. Before that you've got to go back another two years for the previous record.

Drake Pochard (left), drake Tufted Duck (right).

Prior to this excitement the day was already a good one as I had seen a gorgeous Firecrest at Lower Bruckland Ponds. Although this site is an excellent one for warblers all year, and good for Goldcrests too, this was amazingly my first record of Firecrest here.  Firecrest numbers have been increasing annually on the south coast for quite a few years now, but this autumn has been a really poor one. This was my first of the autumn, and I don't think anyone else has seen one on patch.

The only thing I need to mention about yesterday was the first wave of Wood Pigeon passage, the clear skies and chill in the air meant it was almost inevitable. From where I was (Beer Head) I didn't see any flocks bigger than 600 birds, with most being of 100-300, so it wasn't a massive passage but good to see nonetheless.  I also had singles of Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer west, but surprisingly little else.

Let's hope the prediction from the Met Office of a cold winter comes good. The Waxwings continue to arrive on the east coast with a load more reported today, so all we need now is a nice bit of snow and ice to ensure they venture down here.

Yellow Wag Tap Turned On

I have been seeing one of two Yellow Wags over the last week or so, but this morning my word they were everywhere!

Every group of cattle in the valley - Bridge Marsh, Colyford Common and Seaton Marshes  - had their own little flock. As well as these, every so often small groups or singles would fly over west. It's really tricky to know for sure how many I saw/heard, but as a guesstimate I'd go with 50+.

The bushes were really quiet though, with the only other passerine migrants noted being two Wheatear and this Whinchat on Seaton Marshes...

Whinchat playing peekaboo!

That's better!  I am so impressed with the P900 - this bird was some distance away but you'd never know it from the photo

In The News

The River Axe was mentioned on the BBC National News several times today - but for the wrong reasons.

A huge amount of rain (and I'm sure not helped by big tides and a gusty southerly wind) has caused horrendous flooding in the area. A lot like many other places in the south west today. The damage it has caused to houses, businesses and roads is very sad to see, but the effect on the local wildlife must be catastrophic.

Pictures never give the full effect of something like this, but here's a few anyway...

The Axe Estuary today about an hour before low tide!

From the farm gate

Note how on the far side of the tram line it looks like one huge lake - the whole of Colyford Common, Black Hole Marsh, Seaton Marshes and the fields in between were flooded into one. The bank at Seaton Marshes stopped the flooding continuing any further south.

So I thought I'd go around to Black Hole Marsh...

The entrance track - I couldn't even get to the gate!

So I then tried to get down to Colyford Common...

Ok - maybe not!

As usual the A3052 flooded over and it was closed by the bridge.

These are the fields just south west of Boshill Cross

The rain wasn't just causing problems via the river...

One of many that I've seen today

And this land slide by the side of the harbour was pretty dramatic to see. Totally blocked the path to the beach east of the harbour...

Note the tree in the river!

The only birds I've seen of note today were two commic Terns south down the Estuary and a Hobby low over Black Hole Marsh. These really are insignificant though when you think how today has affected our local breeding birds - I should imagine ALL Reed/Sedge Warblers nests have been flooded out today. Disaster.

Waders On The Move

The Axe started its spring in style on Saturday - what a first migrant!

Saturday was a non-birding day for me, after cutting loads of fire wood in the garden, I settled down onto my laptop to sort through some 2011 bird records for the database. I had just completed this, and just before I was going to turn my laptop off, I thought I'd have a quick check of BirdGuides to see if any summer migrants had been seen.

I logged on, and the very top sighting was of a Stone Curlew. That in itself interested me, but then I rolled my eyes to the right... "Seaton Marshes - Devon". WHAT THE *$%&!

I jumped up (after a few more ****'s and ****'s) and phoned Bun, he didn't know anything about it - well that was until his pager bleeped whilst I was on the phone to him!!! He headed straight down to the marshes, and phoned me back about ten minutes later to say... "there is one here!".

The patch's third ever Stone Curlew (the second in recent times). The last bird (Devon's first real twitchable one for nearly twenty years [thanks Mark :-)]) was on 13th April 2007, and spent the day here. It started on Seaton Marshes, relocated to Sheeps Marsh (the field to the south) then spent the afternoon on the Estuary.

This bird was much more settled, and more in keeping with the average migrant Stone Curlew (sat in one spot and doing very little). Incredibly this bird was in almost exactly the same spot on Sheeps Marsh that the 2007 bird spend several hours on.

I didn't have much time, so didn't bring my scope and Nikon Coolpix to Seaton Marshes (the fact it was raining put me off from doing this too), so I only threw my Lumix over my shoulder. Here are a few pics...

The twitch

Can you see it?

Here it is, the distinctive brown blob of a tired and fed up Stone Curlew!

It did stand up briefly when some Crows annoyed it, and this revealed some colour-rings! The 2007 bird was colour-ringed too, but from what we saw of this bird's rings, it isn't the same individual. Here's a very ropey picture of it standing up...

You can make out a wing bar, a yellow bill and just about an eye maybe!?

What a fantastic way to kick off the spring though - who would have put money on this being our first migrant?! I am so pleased for Phil too - he was away for the 2007 bird - and I for one didn't think he was going to get another bite of the cherry. Well done :-)

Today, another species of wader showed that wader passage is well under way. Avocet is a rare bird here, they are just about annual. A flock of four is somewhat unprecedented though...

What a nice sight

Rare Herons On Patch

As per usual, sorry about the lack of updates of late!! I have got quite a lot to write about really, but as I'm short of time tonight, I'll just mention the two bits of BIG bird news from the past week...

Tonight, as I was slaving over my laptop, Phil phoned with the EXCELLENT news that he had very unselfishly unblocked one of his long-standing patch blockers! Phil's already seen two Purple Herons on patch, tonight he found his third from Colyford Common hide sat out in full view on Colyford Marsh at about 18:45.

I scoped it from the main road between Axmouth and Boshill (for safety!), then headed round to Colyford Common hide..... WHAT A BIRD! Not only a patch tick - but a UK tick too...

If you enlarge any of the above photos, enlarge the lower one and check out the size of its bill!!

Not only was the light perfect, and the plumage of the bird tip top, but the views were just fantastic! It sat out in full view for the entire time - I reckon it was a bit knackered after its flight from wherever it has come from.

At about 19:15 it started to shuffle about a bit and look more lively - then just after 19:20 it took to the air and began flying up and south in huge circles...

Check out its stunning russet underwing!

And here's a video of it flying up, away and off....

It was last seen heading off east

Thanks Phil - cracking bird!!!

Okay, now for the other bit of big bird news from last week....

Mid afternoon on Tuesday 19th, Dad phoned - he had a summer plumaged Great White Egret on Seaton Marshes! Twenty minutes later...

What a bird!

This is only the second Great White Egret I have ever seen on patch - and this is the first I have ever seen in breeding plumage; stunning BRIGHT GREEN lores, almost complete all black bill, pink legs and long white plumes..... wow!!!