Macro Mandarin

Enjoyed a family day out to Dartmoor today, despite the brisk north west wind.... Well that's how I described it to my wife early this morning when I suggested we should go to Dartmoor today - blasting freezing cold wind originating from the centre of the Arctic circle would have proved a far more accurate description!

Due to this wind it was an in-car picnic and sheltered spots-only visit to Dartmoor. Our first spot was one of my favourites, Steps Bridge.  Am sure I'm with most people when I say I much prefer a woodland in the spring/summer, when the air is full of bird song and you're surrounded by nothing but luscious and vibrant colours. Saying that though there is something quite charming about the winter woodland, monochrome colours pretty much everywhere you look as the natural world re-sets itself for another busy season...

Something that could never be described as monochrome however was the highlight of the walk around Stover after lunch...

This was one of the six Mandarins that we saw, with this pair being the most obliging...

Here's a few more of the handsome drake...

This female was also fairly showy, among the Mallards in the prime feeding spot...

There were no Goosanders on the lake whilst we were there, with Tufted Ducks being the only diving ducks present...

Other than the usual Dippers, Siskins, Marsh Tits, Nuthatches, etc, that was it on the bird front today.  However I always leave Dartmoor looking forward to my next visit...

Three out of Three!

I just have to post today, the first day of my big Patchwork Challenge attempt.

One of the best things about doing a year list is the big push on Jan 1st. Everything you see is a valuable year tick, absolutely everything. And spending the whole day out on your patch clocking up as many species as you can is such an enjoyable (but sometimes frustrating!) event. Sadly though I was working today, so no such fun for me.  With limited time it's sensible to prioritise the scarcer species, so this morning my three target birds were Cattle Egret, Tufted Duck and Grey Plover. None of these are guaranteed in a given year on the Axe Patch.

The first two were pleasingly easy. The Cattle Egret was the twelfth egret to fly out of the Axmouth roost this morning at 07:36, and the female Tufted Duck was easily visible in the pre-dawn gloom at Lower Bruckland Ponds. The Grey Plover however, well that wasn't quite so easy. No sign of it anywhere this morning, despite a nice high tide and a mass of waders right in front of the Tower Hide. 

Cue the extra mile. Despite the rain, late this afternoon during a fifteen minute break at work, I jumped into my car, scoped the mud north of Coronation Corner and there was my hat-trick. Grey Plover on the list.

My next target are the two Dippers that I first bumped into a few days ago.  Dippers have been really scarce on patch over the past few years, prior to this you would fairly frequently see them along many stretches of the River Coly.  It was Friday morning when I had two (one singing) just south of Colyton, and Phil has seen them in the same place on the two days since. My problem is they are currently about a field and a half north of my PWC patch, so I just have to hope they wander a little further down river - whilst I'm watching!

Winter Birding

I've seen a few nice things over the last couple of days, most of them distinctly wintry. I'm also finding myself willing every good bird I see now to stay put until Jan 1st - yes I'm already getting fired up for my Patchwork Challenge 2017 year list and it's only November! 

I'll start with yesterday afternoon, and an enjoyable half an hour along the Estuary up to dusk revealed three redhead Goosander (sat on mud north of Tower Hide), two Med Gulls (adults), 24 Dunlin and a Grey Plover.  It's been such a good autumn for Goosander on the south coast, and many other species of wildfowl (especially sea faring ones), I do wonder if that means we have got a proper cold winter coming?

This morning started on the sea front where I could see my first Great Crested Grebe of the winter off towards Seaton Hole. There were also three Black Redstarts about this morning, the two female-types still at Seaton Hole and an adult male near the Spot On Kiosk (thanks Dad)...

I also popped in to Lower Bruckland Ponds this morning, where the Yellow-browed Warbler was showing well right by the entrance bridge. It spent most the time flitting about in the trees as they do...

But in the frosty conditions it did briefly come right down to ground level...

Also present was a female Tufted Duck, which has been here for a couple of days at least...

Yellow-browed Warbler and Tufted Duck.  What a dream Jan 1st duo that would be...

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.

Unseasonal Ducks...

Well I say unseasonal, but in recent years July has proved a good month for wandering wildfowl. I once had a flock of Pochard fly in off the sea during a heavy rain shower in this month - and they are a true patch rarity.

Anyway today's oddities were two Gadwall at Lower Bruckland Ponds, and then these that dropped in out of nowhere...

Tufted Ducks

They only stayed for about 30 seconds, before flying off back west. In this brief post I must also mention the Little Ringed Plover on Black Hole Marsh early yesterday morning, as amazingly it was my first of the autumn!

The Great Storm of 2013

Early on Monday the biggest storm since 1987 came.... and went... 

I'm not saying it wasn't bad, because it was, but it lasted only a couple of hours, and by the time dawn came the wind had already shifted to the west and skies were clearing. It actually turned into quite a nice day!  We were actually true victims of the storm, as a rather large branch landed on Jess's car and caused this...

Armageddon!

The sea on Monday really was disappointingly poor, with a juv Kittiwake along the beach early on being the only 'storm driven' bird noted. The highlight of all the sea watching wasn't even a bird, but a Grey Seal that appeared for a few minutes close in.

The Estuary and valley were equally poor, with a second Tufted Duck at Lower Bruckland Ponds getting 'bird of the day' award!  

Does this qualify as a flock??

Although the wind has made the news, the mildness hasn't. With the exception of today, it's been so warm for late Oct. As a result I'm still seeing many Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters, and more amazingly, on Monday 28th this Common Blue Damselfly...

Sorry it's a bit out of focus!

Tuesday was much calmer, and as a result there was a bit of vis mig. Best of all being my first Brambling of the autumn west over, along with two Lesser Redpoll and plenty of Chaffinches.  Also saw my first 'vis mig' Wood Pigeons and Starlings of autumn 2013. Also had a Swallow flying around over the Estuary later in the day.

This morning was much quieter for vis mig, with the only notable birds being on the Estuary; a late Curlew Sandpiper with five Dunlin and the lingering Ruff and Spotted Redshank.

With the amount of good birds turning up in the south west at the moment there's got to be a chance of something good appearing.  Ideally I'd like a few more year ticks before November begins, oh - that's the day after tomorrow!  Just where has this autumn gone... This year in fact...

Too Busy...

The only birding I've had chance for over the last couple of days has been pre-breakfast birding.  That was except for a ten minute wander around yesterday afternoon - which proved incredibly well timed!

I'll start with yesterday's jam, which was a Red Kite! Amazingly it was in exactly the same bit of air space as the one seen over Black Hole Marsh the previous day, and really not far from the Saturday bird either!  It was definitely a different bird though as Mark's bird was clean winged, mine was missing a few inner primaries from each wing.  It circled over Black Hole Marsh for a few minutes, before being seen off west by Herring Gulls.

Today my pre-breakfast birding was a good look around Black Hole and Stafford Marsh. I was hoping for a Cuckoo as this is often the time of year a migrant might be heard here, but it appears that I missed it as one was calling here for a few minutes the prevoius day. Drat!

There wasn't much to be honest, with a fly over Yellow Wagtail and 11 Whimbrel being the highlights. It was nice to see several Reed and Sedge Warblers back on territory and in good voice though. One Sedge showed so well that I just had to get a video...

A quick look at Seaton Marshes before the shreddies went down a treat showed a female Tufted Duck on the Borrow Pit. I would post a photo of it here but for some reason Blogger won't let me upload it! 

Aythya Action

We have finally had settled snow here in Seaton and around the Axe Estuary - it was rather odd how it happened though!

Yesterday late afternoon/evening it was snowing almost constantly, but it wasn't settling and it really didn't look like it was going too.  At about 7ish Jess and I went up to her Mum and Dad's in Colyford, we were there about half an hour, and when we came out it was a complete white-out!  We slowly drove back home and were surprised to see everything white here too...

At last!

I spent the night dreaming about all the year ticks I was going to get in the morning with all this snow around, but when I woke up almost all the snow had gone!!!  A quick look around soon after dawn was disappointing, so I headed home and buried my head in my laptop.  I noticed it had started snowing again, so mid morning I headed out again.  And boy, did it snow...

Seaton Marshes

The Borrow Pit

Golden Plover over Seaton Marshes

Bridge Marsh

Thrushes and Lapwing on Axmouth football pitch

From the Farm Gate

And I just have to post this photo.  It was really quite odd. I didn't drive past it, but when I stepped out of my car at Lower Bruckland Ponds it was just there, walking down the road...

Took me be surprise!

It was snowing so heavily it was actually pretty much unbirdable, so I came back home...

Same view as the first photo - but a different dumping of snow!

Whilst at home it was good to see a few birds in the 'garden' today - it really must have been tough going because we had a whopping six species. And not just in the garden, but eating our food too! Here's three of them...

You wait, I'll get a Dark-eyed Junco one day :-)

I spent a few hours out early afternoon when it had stopped snowing, but I didn't see anything better than a Green Sandpiper on Black Hole Marsh and about 100 Golden Plover.  After returning home, I was only back long enough to pour out but not drink my tea, when a text from Gav had me scurrying down to the Estuary to get myself a year tick...

Three sleeping Tufties

Actually, calling this post 'Aythya Action' is a bit of a misnomer. They didn't do anything other than sleep whilst I was there!  But I don't care, three sleeping Tufted Ducks = patch year tick :-)

A Summary Of The Last Week

Well I didn't leave you waiting quite so long for this blog post!

Jess and I have had a week off, and during the week we enjoyed some nice trips out, like...

Bath - the first time I've been here...

Stunning place!

Dartmoor...

Most of these photos were taken around Dartmeet, except for Venford Reservoir at the top

And several trips to Black Hole Marsh...

A 'must visit' for any holidayers in my opinion!

Each visit to Black Hole Marsh showed the cracking juv Spotted Redshank (stunningly depicted here), and average numbers of the more usual wader species (for example Friday showed 24 Blackwits, 17 Dunlin, six Snipe, five Green Sands and a Ringed Plover). Teal numbers increased as the week went on, with a surprise Tufted Duck also present on Friday...

A very distant and underwhelming Tuftie in the rain

A mid afternoon wander over Beer Head on Thursday is also just about worth mentioning, as singles of Yellow Wag and Whitethroat were noted. Sadly not the Wryneck I was hoping for though.

After my Hoary Footman success of Sunday night, I put the moth trap out again on Tuesday evening. When I woke up Wednesday it felt pretty chilly out, so I knew the trap wasn't going to be fully loaded - I was right! Amazingly though I managed another first for the garden - two in a week! This was a very overdue and predictable one though...

Canary-shouldered Thorn

I was back to work today, and typically Beer was almost sinking under the weight of grounded migrants this morning!

Oh Fog It!

It looked very good for sea watching today - well that was until I got down to the sea front at 06:15...

A murky sea

Although in the photo it does look like there's plenty of sea to look at, in reality there wasn't! This probably isn't so much of an issue for all you headland sea watchers, but here in a bay we need to see as far as possible. Luckily at about 06:45 it cleared for just over half an hour, but it came in again, so I finished watching at 07:45. This is what ended up in my notebook...

3 Common Scoter
4 Great Northern Diver (all ended up on the sea, the closest one was a stonking pristine summer plumaged bird - the best example of one I've ever seen here without a doubt)
24 Gannet
39 Manxies
2 Grey Plover
1 Knot
41 Dunlin
25 Whimbrel
2 Bonxies (sat on sea for twenty minutes before flying off west - a great sight as always)
5 Kittiwake
34 Auk sp. (all looked like Razorbill)

After a good few hours at home, the continued foggy conditions encouraged me back down to the beach. But not to sea watch, for a beach walk...

See - still very foggy!

This proved very worthwhile as on the beach there was a flock of 7 Ringed Plover, 8 Dunlin and these 8 gorgeous Sanderling...

What a treat!

Whilst watching the above birds, another flock of waders flew straight through west along the beach and away into the murk. This flock included another 15 Sanderling (so a total of 23) and 10 Dunlin. 20 Whimbrel also flew west (18 and a 2).

After this, a look at Black Hole Marsh still showed no Red-rumped Swallow. But for the second day there were 14 Gadwall (so odd to have such large numbers here in May!?), also 2 Shoveler and these 2 Tufted Ducks...

Always swimming away I'm afraid! Soon after they flew off west

The only waders here were 8 Dunlin. A little later a quick look along the Estuary added 44 Whimbrel, 4 Blackwits and 2 Barwits, with another 14 Dunlin and 2 Ringed Plover past the sea front mid afternoon.

So nothing outstanding today at all - but some lovely highlights. A male Kentish Plover would have topped it off so nicely though....