Who's Nicked Our Cattle Egrets?

Wasn't a bad sunset over the Axe Estuary last night...

I was there to check the roosting egrets, and came away feeling surprised having not seen any Cattle Egrets! Looks like they've all gone to Abbotsbury. Two adult Med Gulls on the Estuary were as exciting as it got.  Saying that I was surprised to see a distant Starling murmuration, albeit a small one (a mini-murm!) over Seaton. It turns out they are roosting behind solar panels on a house roof near the Orchard car park...

Today, during a local wander to get little Harry to sleep, a female-type Black Redstart was showing well along the sea front...

Other recent little snippets of interest from me include a lingering Greenshank and four Shoveler in the valley, up to three Common Scoter, Red-throated Divers and Great Crested Grebes settled offshore, and a pair of Blackcaps in Mum and Dad's front garden.

Maybe it's a good time to be reminded that in roughly eight weeks Wheatears will be here!

Red Sky at Night

The evening of the 23rd produced one of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever seen.  To see people of all ages simply standing on the spot looking up was quite surreal, with others rushing to get better views.  It all started when I walked out of Co-op clutching dinner...

I relocated to the seafront where I watched this...

Become this...

Absolutely mind-blowing.  And to top it off, when the sky was lit-up only by this amazing red glow, a group of four Cattle Egrets flew in off the sea and headed north west.  A nice little surprise.

To bring you completely up to date with my local sightings, this morning a female Pintail flew up river with a flock of about 50 Wigeon, two Redwing came flying out of an Axmouth garden, four Dunlin flew up river and I could make out at least two Cattle Egret near Seaton Marshes.

A Surprise Yellow-browed

Well that was a bit of luck!  

I was walking Harry between my house and his Grandparent's house late morning yesterday when a Yellow-browed Warbler started shouting at me.  Amazingly it was coming from the very same group of trees one inhabited last autumn, and represents my fourth in the street that I live in (Primrose Way) in four years!  I have to say I didn't think I'd get one this year as there have been far fewer in the UK this autumn than the past few years.  

Once I'd dropped the little one off, I returned with my bins and enjoyed some decent views of this little sprite. It was in a mixed flock of tits, which also included a couple of Goldcrests and a Chiffchaff.

I also spent some time yesterday looking through the Estuary gulls, it was a really windy day and early October often proves a great time of year to find scarce gulls.  There were a heck of lot of large gulls about (three large flocks) but despite trying I couldn't find anything of value within them.  It was nice to see five Med Gulls dotted around though, four first-winters and an adult, my highest count since late summer.  Also on the Estuary was this Bar-tailed Godwit...

And to end this rather short and sweet blog post, here's a couple of random photos taken from Seaton Beach during the past few weeks...

Local Nightjars

Long time no blog.... Yeah sorry about that, but it's been a really busy time at work, and I spent three days of June in Lisbon (Portugal) which was rather nice, I will tell all about that in a future blog post. For now though, I have spent several evenings over the last couple of weeks with our local Nightjars, with last night offering the best experience...

I've been hearing/seeing five birds most nights, which is brilliant news.  Our local and relatively new population seem to be doing just fine...

It wasn't just the Nightjars that put on a good show last night, with a belter of a sunset. I didn't leave until half past ten when the horizon still looked like it was on fire...

Hope to be blogging regularly again soon! 

Busy Bridge Marsh

The last few days have seen excellent numbers of wildfowl and waders feeding on Bridge Marsh, well over a thousand birds. My best counts have been 650 Lapwing, 85 Curlew, 79 Black-tailed Godwit, 290 Wigeon and 160 Teal. Really superb birding and thoroughly enjoyable, just a pity I've not been about to pull a rare out of the mix. Well that's apart from the wintering Glossy Ibis, which hasn't always proved easy to catch up with since its arrival. He/she joined the masses of birds on Bridge Marsh this morning...

Earlier in the day it was nice to finally catch up with the Seaton Hole male Black Redstart, which was actually on the houses near where the cars park at the top of the slope and not down on the beach.  A brief look out to sea showed it to be fairly quiet, although a lone Brent Goose flew west.  

To finish, another sunset shot I'm afraid, taken this evening from Seaton Beach. The tip of Beer Head looked to be glowing thanks to the angle we were viewing from...

Hawfinch Hotspot and Patch Update

Having not seen any more Hawfinch on patch since my Colyton duo earlier in the month, I've been keen to get to Shute where James Mc found 3+ birds in the Churchyard a couple of weeks ago. Shute is only a couple of miles outside the Axe patch, which makes the fact we've not had any more here even more frustrating!

I spent a couple of hours wandering around the lanes of Shute on Thursday morning and heard/saw 10-15 birds, including groups of five and four.  I didn't have any in the Churchyard at all, and my god they could be elusive little blighters - it's a good job they were so vocal!   Most views were similar to this...

But this more distant bird perched up nicely for a few minutes...

There's plenty of Yew, Hornbeam and Field Maple around Shute and most birds seemed quite mobile, but I've highlighted on the map below where I saw most of mine. They are still being seen around the Church as well so don't walk past here without checking the Yews carefully.  I can't stress enough how useful it is to know the various different Hawfinch calls before visiting, particularly the 'seep' call. It's an unobtrusive and subtle sound, but distinctive once learned - they're still not particularity easy to pin down though even when they are calling!

Back to the patch, and I'll quickly summarise my patch highlights over the past week or so...

I had two Brambling with a large flock of Chaffinch at Stafford Cross back on 14th Nov, and a return visit on Thursday morning showed there were at least five now present...

Female Brambling

Male Brambling

I saw another Brambling yesterday, along Clay Lane in Colyton. This afternoon, a Facebook message from a visitor from London, Mark Knivett, reporting two Black Redstarts feeding along the cliff edge on the West Walk, reminded me of this lovely first-winter male Black Red I had along Trevelyan Road on 16th Nov...

It's proving to be an absolutely stonking autumn/early winter for thrushes around here. So SO many Redwing about, in other years we often don't get good numbers of grounded winter thrushes until after Christmas...

Redwing

And I think that's it from me for today, so I shall bid you all a good night...

Seaton Beach looking towards Beer Head on the evening of 17th Nov.

Yellow Wagtails Galore!

It's proving to be an absolutely stonking autumn for Yellow Wagtails. We always do well for them here in late August/early September, especially at Beer Head, but this year there are stacks more than usual. 

For the last few days up to 100 have been present in the valley (they can be found wherever there's cattle or on Black Hole Marsh) and most mornings Beer Head goers have been seeing upper double figures flying west. Plus this morning I added a load more with a visit to Axe Cliff, which I will happily write about now...

Beer Head has been pretty well covered so far this autumn by the usual gang; Ian Mc, Phil A, Bun, Clive W and Dad. This gang would usually include me, but this autumn I've decided to really concentrate on Axe Cliff which usually plays second fiddle, hence why Axe Cliff is within my Patchwork Challenge patch.  I went up there a few weeks ago but it was before the autumnal rush, and for the last week Harry has been suffering with a cold so our nights have not been too good (to say the least!). Thankfully though I finally made it up there this morning for a good walk about, albeit later than I would usually visit. An hour and a half from 08:30 produced;

6 Tree Pipit (two grounded, four west)

7 Meadow Pipit (grounded - my first of the autumn)

140+ Yellow Wagtail (all grounded in the stubble fields, I reckon I would have seen 200+ had I walked more fields)

1 Wheatear

3 Whinchat

1 Stonechat

3 Blackcap

2 Whitethroat

5 Willow Warbler

The bushes never do that well at Axe Cliff, but oh my word the stubble fields were amazing. I don't think I've ever seen Yellow Wagtails like it - they were everywhere!

This is what the Axe Cliff stubble fields are looking like at the moment

If you enlarge this photo, all the dots flying above the stubble are Yellow Wags!

Two Yellow Wags - they weren't easy to photograph as they spent most their time feeding in among the stalks

One of the Whinchats

Down in the valley, Black Hole Marsh is pretty samey wader wise but it's nice to have a juvenile male Ruff with us, which has been here since the afternoon of 23rd. There are a few more Snipe (11) and Teal (25+) about as well, and I'm sure a scarcity or rarity is only a matter of days away.

Which leaves me just to say goodnight...

Tonight about twenty minutes after sunset on the lower Axe Estuary looking towards Seaton

Black Hole Update

Morning visits to Black Hole Marsh today and yesterday have shown the following; 

47 Little Egret

1 Cattle Egret

12 Teal

14 Oystercatcher 

20 Ringed Plover

c50 Dunlin

c50 Black-tailed Godwit

5 Greenshank

8 Common Sandpiper

4 Green Sandpiper

1 Mediterranean Gull

4 Wheatear

20+ Yellow Wagtail

10 Willow Warbler

This morning's Wheatears were my first of the autumn, simply because I haven't managed to get up to Axe Cliff/Beer Head much in the last few weeks. There had clearly been something of a small fall this morning as some of the bushes and reeds were hopping with Willows and Chiffs, especially around Stafford Marsh.  In local terms it was an impressive count of Little Egrets early yesterday morning near Tower Hide, suggesting they've enjoyed a good breeding season.

Although tundra Ringed Plovers are probably very common migrants, among yesterday's (most distant) Ringed Plovers was probably the best tundrae example I've ever seen here...

The middle bird, a compact Ringed Plover with a strikingly dark mantle and crown

At the Birdfair I learnt a lot more about the fantastic Nikon P900, so am going to really try and get to grips with its various different settings and features. Sure should be fun...

Yesterday's sunset on the lower Axe Estuary, looking towards Seaton

Year Ticks Hard To Find

May hasn't started well for my Patchwork Challenge year list. With the exception of Swift, year ticks have not been coming my way at all. And I have been looking in every corner of my patch I can assure you...

Following on from the my evening sea watch on Friday, a text from Gav shortly after 6am on Saturday got me down the sea front again in record time - he'd had a staggering twelve Pom Skuas heading our way from his vantage point in West Dorset (despite the north east wind!).  I waited and waited, but no Skuas came through our part of Lyme Bay during the couple of hours I was watching. It later transpired this epic flock of Poms flew east through Chesil and past Portland Bill mid morning so they must have U-turned somewhere. All I did see was;

3 Great Northern Diver
2 Common Scoter
1 Whimbrel
1 Med Gull (a gorgeous second-summer flew in off)

Sunday was mostly another day of work, but I did have a singing male Lesser Whitethroat just north of Coronation Corner mid morning. This was my first decent migrant of the year in a hedge line that in previous years has produced numerous 'scarce' spring migrants - the clear weather that has dominated this spring has not been good for grounding migrants in the valley at all.

Today I had a bit more time out. It was clear that there has been a mass emergence of damselflies, most Large Reds and Common Blue, so I spent a good deal of the mid afternoon looking up hoping for a Hobby or two. I saw plenty of Sparrowhawks (including a pair in full display) and Kestrels, plus a Peregrine, but not the species of falcon I was hoping for.  

Later on tonight it was nice to come across eight Wheatear and a female Whinchat on Bridge Marsh, with a decent sized flock of Swallows, Sand Martins and Swifts flying above them. Still no Hobby though. On the Estuary were singles of Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Lapwing and five Whimbrel. And that's where my day ended...