The Thaw

Overnight last night there had been even more snow, and although it had stopped by dawn, we had a 100% white-out. An early morning trip out showed the local area looking incredibly beautiful...

Looking east along Seaton Beach

Looking west along Seaton Beach to Beer Head

Seaton from a distance

Axmouth from a distance

The A3052 at 8am. Most Monday mornings this would be busy with commuters and buses!

A random county lane - looking lovely!

Despite all the snow there were surprisingly few birds about. The only species that seemed to be struggling a bit were Meadow Pipits and the odd Chiffchaff, but there were no Golden Plovers or Lapwing, or that many thrushes really. Great news.

Mid morning the sun came out, so before lunch I enjoyed another quick whizz around. This showed a bit more variety, with eleven Dunlin, four Pintail (two pairs), three Gadwall and the lingering Marsh Harrier and first-winter Caspian Gull on the Estuary. Was nice to have some blue sky above the stunning snow too...

Colyford Marsh and the upper Axe Estuary

Bridge Marsh

Looking up the Axe from A3052

The welcome sun saw an increase in temperatures and an impressively rapid thaw. More birds appeared once this began, with lots of thrushes taking full advantage of the freshly revealed green, along with numerous Chiffchaff, Snipe and various wildfowl on Seaton Marshes mid afternoon...

Common Snipe

Common Snipe

Common Chiffchaff. So happy to see so many feeding well after picking up the dead bird yesterday.

Tim Wright scored our first Little Ringed Plover of the year an hour or so later on Colyford Marsh, does this mean we've finally seen the back of winter?

A Dull Few Days

The post title summarises both the weather and the birding.

Except for standard fare, I've had no year ticks worthy of mention within the last couple of days. I really hope the forecasted cold weather happens - and that it does something!

This has to be the poorest winter for wildfowl that I've ever experienced on the Axe. I've seen no Shoveler anywhere, and Wigeon and Teal numbers seem to be very low. I would expect at the very least to be seeing about 800 Wigeon now, I can't say I've seen even half that number. Oh well, I guess it will make finding an American Wigeon or Green-winged Teal that bit easier! :-)

I keep dipping these two bloody Redpolls too, at Seaton Marshes. A visit here yesterday gave me nothing better than these Snipe sat out chilling on the Estuary mud... 

Why don't Jack Snipes ever do this?

I found a lovely muddy field yesterday near Bindon Barns which was just packed with birds.  Easily 700 thrushes, 100 Chaffinches, and plenty of Pied Wagtails, Skylarks and Meadow Pipits.  When the weather does brighten up, I'm definitely going back here - there's got to be at the very least a Brambling amongst them.

I spent quite a bit of time with the gulls yesterday too, but just have two (non-ringed) Med Gulls to show for it, a first-winter and an adult. Both 'new' birds for me.

I did promise more blog posts this year - I didn't say they were going to be interesting ones though...

Maybe Tomorrow...

..that's a title I could have used for yesterday's post too!  Today was better though, less birds but a bit more variety.  

I didn't make it over to Portland again today - but am starting to dislike that place as they seem to be sucking up every BB rarity that's made it to the south coast of Britain!  Yes not only have they got a stunning Daurian Shrike, but on Monday they bagged a first for the Western Palearctic with a Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, and today a Siberian Stonechat has appeared.  And don't forget the Wrynecks, Hawfinches, Yellow-browed Warblers, etc...

Anyway that's enough of the negativity about Portland - I am in danger of sounding like a fellow blogger and good friend of mine!

So I did try Axe Cliff this morning, and am pleased to have changed location.  There seem to be a few Short-eared Owls about at the moment, and I thought here would give me my best chance of seeing one. And with only one area of rough grassland, it wasn't hard to figure out where it would probably be! And when I got to this strip of pasture, as expected up came a Short-eared Owl.  But I didn't expect it to fly south, south some more, and even further south, until it was a dot half way across the English Channel!

It all happened so quick too!  This was the first photo I managed of it...

Yeah I know - it could be anything!

And this was the last photo I took of it...

You can just about make it out still!

Short-eared Owls aren't regular on patch - so they are always a joy to see.  But this one was even more special because it made me the first person to see five species of Owl in a year on patch.  I'd do anything to take that up to six species though!

Back to Axe Cliff, and a Snipe was my second best grounded migrant of the morning, with a Stonechat and stacks of Linnets and Skylarks also noted.

We never do very well with vis mig if the wind doesn't have west in it - and today was no exception.  There were good numbers of birds passing over, with Starlings and Wood Pigeons being the most numerous species, but they were flying in all directions making counting impossible!  There were lots of Chaffinches too, along with several Siskins, five Mistle Thrush, two Brambling, two Reed Buntings and one Redpoll sp.

One of the biggest Wood Pigeon flocks I saw this morning

 

After Axe Cliff, a quick look along the Estuary showed a Ringed Plover (my first here for almost a month - just shows how terrible this autumn has been!), a Barwit and a Common Gull.

Mid afternoon the weather looked to be clearing, so I headed up to Beer Head.  I was wrong - in fact it clouded over even more and the wind was much stronger up here!  I still gave it a bash though.  Not much apart from Blackbirds in the bushes on the head, but looking down the Underhooken gave two immature Ring Ouzels. Two Stonechats were along the track as I walked off the head...sadly they weren't pale with black underwing coverts!  I have seen Sibe Stonechat once (Spurn), and I have to say I was really impressed with it!  You may think 'I won't bother - it's just a Stonechat'. I can tell you it really isn't - they can look more like Wheatears! Top birds.  Well done Portland...

The Cold Weather Continues

There was one heck of a frost this morning - and in many places it never thawed! I see we have a few more days of this cold weather, then it's milder from Thursday. But that's not the last we're going to see of Jack Frost, it's set to go Arctic again next week!

The sea was 'steaming' all day, it just didn't clear. This really foiled my plans of adding Scaup to my patch list! Standing on the sea front first thing didn't prove a total waste of time though, as a red head Goosander flew west along the beach. Mid afternoon off Seaton Hole, two Eider, five Common Scoter and 16 Great Crested Grebes were close enough in to still be seen.

Seaton Marshes showed two Ruff feeding on grain by the lagoon, a male and a female. The female was a ring-less first-winter bird, so not the bird my grubby hands fondled a few days ago! Also here a Golden Plover flew north over the reserve and a Water Rail showed well near the parking area.

Had a look around Kilmington late morning, where one field boasted an impressive 130 Common Snipe, along with a single Jack Snipe - which was nice! I wasn't quick enough to get a shot of the Jack, so you will have to make do with a few poor quality Common Snipe pics...

A Great Snipe would have been nice!

Also here were a couple of Fieldfare, 30+ Redwing, 15 Lapwing and four Teal. I then had a look at Kilmington WTW where I was hoping for a grey Chiffchaff or two. In the end I only saw two Chiffchaffs of any description - they were both green. Two Water Pipits feeding on the filter beds were a bit of a surprise though, I've never seen one here before. A Goldcrest was working hard to find food nearby, flitting along fences, machinery, and even...

I was a worried it was going to electrocute itself!

I had a look for the Yellow Wag early afternoon, and it was showing on one of the smaller filter beds. It remained distant so there's nothing I can add today to help the ID debate.

A look along the Estuary at 13:30 revealed my best count of Med Gulls so far this winter, with six adults present all in the lower part of the Estuary. Three were ringed; one just a metal ring, one red colour-ringed which I couldn't read, and the third a white colour-ringed individual with '3N93'. This is a bird I think I've seen before - I've sent the details off and will post the response when I get it.

I had another look along the Estuary at 14:10, and saw not one Med Gull! I headed round to Seaton Hole and all six were present in the roost. Meds always seem to arrive at the Seaton Hole roost early, with few if any dropping in at or towards dusk.

My old man found a Waxwing today on the Otter, and there was another in Newton Abbott. I do hope we get one - it's a bird I'd love to see on the patch. We've got plenty of places for one to stuff itself full of juicy red berries, I just hope it's in a place where someone will find it!

Cold Weather Birding

Apologies for the lack of blog posts - when I've been on this laptop within the last few days I've had much more important things to think about! I have been updating the Devon Birding Blog when I could though.

So, I hope you are ready to read one monster blog post covering the last FOUR days! It is worth reading as I have seen lots of nice stuff. The best day was today, and that's right at the end. So you may as well read the rest of the rubbish between that and this....

MONDAY

Spent the first couple of hours of light at Colyford Common - it was freezing! Three Ruff flew low north west over at 8am, and amongst the frost were one Water and 11 Rock Pipits and a Green Sandpiper.

A look along the A3052 revealed 13 Golden Plovers (one by the pig fields, 12 beside Boshill Cross). All day small flock of Lapwing were flying south down the valley and presumably out to sea.

A good look along the Estuary and over Colyford and Seaton Marshes produced wildfowl totals of: 12 Brent Geese (the same flock as a couple of weeks ago), c450 Wigeon, 380 Teal (a good count for us), 11 Shoveler and six Gadwall...

Four drakes - Gadwall aren't common here

Shoveler on ice from Seaton Hide

Two adult Med Gulls were on the Estuary and a look at Lower Bruckland Ponds showed no unusual ducks, but a Cetti's Warbler was my first ever there.

Tuesday

This was a day of limited birding for me. First thing I had to carry out my monthly bird survey in private woodland near Colyton. I was surprised to see quite a bit of snow still on the ground (bearing in mind we hadn't had any at all in Seaton!)...

There were even some light snow showers

I flushed four Woodcock during my walk round, which was nice! Even nicer though was a lovely flock of ten Lesser Redpolls.

Small flocks of these just oooooze with character - I love 'em!

I returned home, and stayed here for a good while. Early afternoon though a text from Dad tempted me out down to the Estuary to see three Goosanders...

The same three Gav saw on the sea the previous day maybe?

Whilst here, out of nowhere, this appeared....

...a sleeping adult Spoonbill! For much better pics of it click HERE

Later, a further check of the Estuary produced five lovely Ruff just north of Coronation Corner, four Med Gulls and a 'weirdo' Gull. At first I thought my 'weirdo' Gull was a LBBGxHerring, but it may just be a weird yellow-legged Herring Gull. I took this photo at 16:15; it was almost dark, with an exposure time of 1/4!...

Its legs were yellow - just not bright yellow like an adult YLG. Also note slightly darker mantle shade, slighter size and intense head streaking

Tuesday didn't end well! The alarm at work wouldn't set, so I didn't get out of there until 23:30!

Wednesday

Up for work at 7am, then after a short three hour shift a sweep of the Estuary showed a Knot and the Spoonbill still. I then returned home to bury myself in my laptop once more! I really should have had a kip - 'cuz I was knackered and was due back at work at 17:00. Yes - a lovely split shift!

I got fed up with my laptop, so mid afternoon had another look about. Couldn't find anything different - well that was until I had a look at the small flock of Swans opposite Stedcombe House at 16:00. There sat an adult Bewick's Swan...

Nice!

At first I presumed it was the same bird we had last winter - that often frequented the same spot. But its bill pattern gave the game away - quite different from last winter's bird. Here's a closer pic of today's bird, with a head shot of last winter's bird cut and pasted in...

See, quite different; and it's even obvious on photos as crap as these!!

Today - what a day!!

I woke up to this...

White out!!!

Our road was an ice rink - so I knew I couldn't go out in my car. As I was tucking into my Cheerios, out the front room windows I noticed a small flock of Lapwings fly west. So I kitted myself up and headed out...to the front garden!

Bloody hell it was BRILLIANT! When I started I really didn't think I was going to witness a cold weather movement on the scale that I did!! I watched and counted 08:40 - 12:00.

Most of the birds were flying west, except thrushes and Starlings which were mostly flying north east. So if I haven't put a direction after a species assume this is the way it was going.

I can see the sea from my place, and I could see ducks flying over it. But I only counted ducks which were obviously flying over land - this gave me two garden ticks!! Ok, so this is what I saw....

22 Shelduck
140 Wigeon (50 north)
21 Teal (6 north)
4 Shoveler (in with a flock of Shelduck - garden tick!)
6 Tufted Duck (a mega garden tick, 3 of each sex; they flew west but soon came back east)
1,453 Lapwing (the largest single flock was of 70 birds - a well impressive passage)
1 Golden Plover
1 Curlew
30 Common Snipe (a few of these flew north, have only ever seen a couple of these from the garden before today!)
1 Redshank (flew north - second record for the garden)
5 Buzzard (all singles - and all were properly 'on the move')
2 Kestrel
90 Wood Pigeon
1 Mistle Thrush
63 Fieldfare
259 Redwing
86 Starling
1,154 Skylark (biggest flock was of 230 birds - saw even more later in the day as well!)
14 Meadow Pipit
40 Linnet

There were probably loads more finches involved in this movement, but separating 'vis mig' birds to birds moving from garden to garden from where I watched is almost impossible.

Well what a morning! I really wasn't expecting that!! Here's a couple of pics...

Lapwing flocks

Snipe

After lunch, I gambled and got in my car! Thankfully I made it in one piece to the sea front, and spent 13:35 - 14:35 looking out to sea.

First of all, Skylarks were still moving. During this watch, and during the rest of the day I counted another 930 over west - with several flocks well out sea. For me then, that makes a day total of 2,084 Skylarks west - epic!!!!

Now to the sea, and it was clear wildfowl were also well on the move. On the sea there was a large flock of Wigeon, Teal with a few Gadwall. Now and then though, some would leave this flock and fly upriver, but also several flocks came in from the south and the east and joined them.

Wildfowl quality came in the form of three Eider on the sea (1 immature drake) and a nice flock of 16 Pochard and three Tufted Duck which flew in from the south, then west, then east, then west, then east, then finally away west...

Any fresh water diving duck is a rarity here!

Further interest over the same came from seven Red-throated Divers (4 on the sea and 3 west) and 12 Great Crested Grebes (easily my highest count so far this winter).

It was very hard to tear myself away from this action - but I did and took a look along the Estuary. A female Tufted Duck and 40 Dunlin being the only note worthy birds.

Had a nice surprise at the Farm Gate though. Funnily enough I was scoping up the field were Gav had just found a few Woodlark, when I suddenly realised I could hear Woodlarks! Two flew low north (and slightly west) over Norcombe's field - result! I wonder if these two and Gav's are from the wintering population that normally resides in the stubble fields above Axmouth.

A quick stop up the road showed the Bewick's Swan was still present with our flock of 12 Brent Geese.

Seaton Marshes was pretty much my last port of call - and the lagoon was smothered in ducks! Nothing out of the ordinary though. There wasn't much on the Borrow Pit either, but a single Grey Plover flew over heading north east. Ian Mc had seen one earlier on the Estuary, but as this had come from the direction of the town I presume it was another.

So what an excellent day indeed! Phew! Now time to ruin it and go to work. I do have one last picture for you though, taken during my visit to Seaton Marshes...

He was searching non stop for food!

Well I hope you enjoyed reading this mammoth post! I wonder what tomorrow will bring....

Colyford Common Ringing

I was a little late this morning, I thought I pressed the 'snooze' button, but I actually pressed the 'go away I want to sleep' button! I finally got down to Colyford Common at 8:30. The reserve looked stunning...

There had been a very hard frost. It had taken me a few minutes to get the ice off my windscreen

The sun soon warmed everything up though, and it has turned out to be a beautiful day!

Although ringing was never busy, there was a good variety, with one stand out highlight....

A Snipe - one totally STUNNING creature in the hand!

We trapped yet another unringed Cetti's Warbler. Cetti's is the only UK bird to have ten tail feathers...

....see!

In the clear conditions Skylarks were on the move over head in some numbers but little else. A few Fieldfares were kicking about with at least two Water Pipits and two Green Sandpipers on the marsh.

Couldn't see the Long-billed Dowitcher or any Whooper Swans during a quick look about early afternoon.