Firecrest Fun

The beautiful blue sky this morning tempted me over to Branscombe, so I could catch up with the Firecrest that's been wintering around the Water Treatment Works. It took about three seconds to find, and I enjoyed it for the best part of half an hour, showing exceptionally well at times...

After about twenty minutes, suddenly there were two male Firecrests in front of me! They had a brief stand off and chase around, then split up, with the second bird feeding around the entrance gate to the WTW. Often ON the entrance gate in fact...

Also around the WTW, 10+ Goldcrest, two Chiffchaff and this Treecreeper (never an easy species to photograph)...

No visit to Branscombe is complete without a sea scan. There were quite a few auks out there this morning, along with a lone Great Northern Diver, three Red-throated Divers and rather unusually, five Teal.

A couple of visits to some woodland near Colyton over the past week has shown Woodcock on both occasions, four and three. I also had at least three Crossbill here the other day, which is more than notable.  Nice to see and hear male Siskin song-flighting too.

And lastly, yesterday as I was driving along the A3052 between Seaton and Beer, a flock of 18-20 Golden Plover flew past going the opposite way. They seemed to land near Stafford Cross where Ian Mc had 15 today. Heaps of Lapwing around there too.

STOP PRESS!!! Black Hole Marsh Sinks Under The Weight Of Wading Birds

Black Hole Marsh just gets better and better and better!

For some reason today most the wading birds have been feeding between the Island hide and platform, offering excellent views. Early this morning this area was also heaving with Black-headed Gulls, 24 Little Egrets, four Grey Herons and lots of Mallards and Teal. There must be some seriously good food on offer in this corner of the marsh at the moment!!

I've been there twice today, at dawn and again mid afternoon.  This morning with the exception of an increase in Teal numbers (58), it looked pretty much as it has done recently with singles of Wood Sand and Ruff. This afternoon though four juvenile Little Ringed Plovers have joined the mass of birds, these were showing exceptionally well and I'm sure will be well 'papped' later...

Four gorgeous juv Little Ringed Plovers

Green Sand on the left, Wood Sand on the right

  

The Wood Sand again, but with the Ruff in the background

The only wader I saw in the earlier visit but not the second was an interesting Ringed Plover. It was a juv, but slightly smaller (although doesn't look like that in the photos!) and notable darker than the others - so I guess a Tundra?  And no sadly it wasn't a Semi-palmated Plover.  Here's a couple of pics of it taken in VERY different lights...

Before sunrise!

In bright sun light

No sign of the Cuckoo today, but I saw it on both Thursday and Friday last week. On Thursday I watched it eating caterpillars on an island from the Tower hide for about half an hour, it was always distant though. On Friday it was much closer sat on the wires right in front of the Island hide. Sadly the sun was almost right behind it though!

Still the best Cuckoo photos I've ever taken on patch!

And to complete today's post, some Odonata excitement!  Just before my second visit to Black Hole Marsh I went to Seaton Marshes. Here I found seven male and one female Small Red-eyed Damselfly - my first away from Lower Bruckland Pond (Devon's first ever site for this species).  As usual, the only reason I saw/noticed the female was because...

...it was attached to a male!

Knot Worthy Of A Blog Post

There was a lone Knot on the Estuary from Coronation Corner this afternoon. Also managed a good count of 162 Teal, split almost exactly 50/50 between Colyford Marsh and Axmouth FC.

Earlier today, a sea watch 08:00 - 09:00 revealed:

6 Red-throated Diver (west, in three lots of two)
1 Great Northern Diver (showing well on the sea)
6 Common Scoter (5 east and 1 drake on sea, later there were 2 females on the sea)
90+ auk sp. (I can't say I saw a single Guillemot though)

What an exciting birding day.......

The Tide Is High But I'm Holding On

Nice to see plenty of water about this morning, the valley always looks more appetising when it is flooded. This was Colyford Common mid morning...

Lots of lovely water!

When the water levels are like this it is always a good time to look at wildfowl; 91 Teal and nine Wigeon were on show today at Colyford Marsh. Also two Greenshank, a Ruff, the Knot, four Green Sands, one Water Rail, eight Meadow Pipit, one White Wagtail, six Wheatear, three Sedge Warblers and two Whitethroat on Colyford Marsh/Common.

Nicely posed, not nicely lit!

On Black Hole Marsh, six Little Stints, two Curlew Sandpipers, seven Dunlin, one Green Sand and one Greenshank with a Yellow Wag over.

Seaton Marshes produced four more Wheatear and a Whinchat. I gave the Lumix a go on a distant Kestrel...

Not bad at all considering the distance - I do love my camera :-)

Still no Wryneck for me! Where should I look? Maybe this fella might know....

...I think I'm going nuts!