An Avian Black Hole

A word you won't read very often on any of the Axe patch birders blogs is the word Undercliff. We tend to pretend it doesn't exist.

Roughly 2/3rds of the coast line of our patch is completely unbirdable. Which is a right royal pain in the butt.  Underneath all our large cliffs is a deep and dense jungle of trees, shrubs and bushes that you can barely get among, and even if you do find yourself on one of the few paths through it, you can basically only see what is right next to you. 

East of the Axe it is known as the Undercliff. Below Beer Head and to Branscombe it is called the Underhooken. I call it the Axe Avian Black Hole.

The Underhooken this morning

I honestly think this is the reason why there are no Hippolais or rare Sylvia Warblers on the patch list, and could well be why we have only seen one Long-eared Owl in the last 30+ years!  The rarest bird ever seen in any of the Undercliff was the Beer Head Iberian Chiffchaff on 28th April 2007. I was only able to find that because it was right on the upper edge of the Underhooken and was audible and (very briefly!) viewable from the top of Beer Head.

The only scarce species its seem to be good for us for is Ring Ouzel, and that's simply because they are big enough to see from a distance. They can be flipping elusive though and often disappear for hours at a time.

So our Undercliffs are probably fantastic for birds (the amount of Blackcap song from down there in spring is amazing!) but completely pants for birding. This strong easterly wind though has proved hard work to bird in, and seeing as it edged a little more north east this morning, I did what I haven't done for about five years - I went in...

Underhooken

And what a waste of time it was. One Stonechat and one Chiffchaff was the 'highlight' of the mile walk through all this lush and sheltered habitat from Branscombe to Beer Head. It's a bloody hard path too, one minute you are right next to the beach...

And then you are massively high up...

And the amount of these really don't help, they make it so much more painful...

So although I saw nothing today, I'm glad I tried something different this morning. Before I descended into the jungle, the best on top of Beer Head was a moderate visible migration, just Meadow Pipits, alba Wagtails, Swallows, House Martins, Goldfinches and Linnets though.  All were flying east tight against the cliff edge.

In my previous post I predicted my first Redwings weren't far away, and I was right! Unusually they were day time ones too which was nice. I had seven (a flock of five and two singles) fly low east during a short dog walk around where I live yesterday morning. I also noted ten Song Thrush during the same wander so yesterday was clearly something of a thrush day. There had also clearly been an arrival of Chiffchaffs too as I saw a good handful at all the places I visited during the morning. Still no stripey ones though.

I should also mention the lone Barnacle Goose with the Canada Geese on Colyford Marsh on Tuesday afternoon, I found it during a quick pre-work tour of the Estuary.  Although there has been an arrival of 'Barnies' in the north over the last few days, the chances are it was in fact this bird; http://creamteabirding.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/barnie.html

Right I'm probably going to head out again in a minute. Not sure where I'll be going, although I certainly know where I won't be going...

The Weekend

Haven't got much to report really.  We are all a bit gripped/puzzled by a pager report of a second-winter Ring-billed Gull on Black Hole Marsh yesterday afternoon. It would have been great to have seen this bird for sure! 

On Friday last week, after Jess finished work we had a wander around the lanes of Colyford and I was surprised just how many birds were there!! Must have seen at least seven Chiffchaffs amongst two different tit flocks, for the umpteenth time this autumn I was convinced I was about to find a Yellow-browed Warbler!  

The highlight though was really out of the blue.  We had almost got back to the car when amongst a few Pied Wags a male Yellow Wagtail was perched on a telephone wire over a back garden of a farm house!  I was looking into the sun, but it really did seem to have a darker head.  I honestly thought I was cracking up though. I would say 90% of mid to late autumn Yellow Wags I see, but for the vent area, are almost yellow-less, this was yellow through the whole breast and belly!  I had a small digital camera with me, so took some snaps - these don't show much but seem to show a white throat and white super, along with two distinctive wing bars.  Anyway, I grilled it for a bit longer with my binoculars but learnt no more about it, then it took off and flew east with a Pied Wag.  It did call a few times when it flew and I have to say sounded pretty bog standard, I suppose it may have been a little less 'pleasant-sounding', but there was certainly no buzzing or rasping qualities to it.  

So my conclusion is, it was a Yellow Wagtail of some sorts...

A distant and silhouetted Yellow Wagtail

On Saturday, we were feeling energetic and walked from home to Branscombe!  Luckily we dropped a car off at Branscombe village hall first so didn't have to walk both ways - four miles is ok, eight would have been way above my limit!  Yes I am that unhealthy!!!

It was a stunning day and some of the views were totally splendid, this one in particular...

Looking west from Beer Head

There was a fair bit of overhead passage with Mipits, Skylarks and Siskins most numerous.  Grounded migrants were few and far between, with a Redstart below the main Beer Head car park being the highlight.

From Beer Head we walked to Branscombe through the Under Hooken.  It really is scary how much cover is down here, all these photos taken show different sections of it...

 

 

 

Simply impossible to bird. Too much cover which you can't get into or see over

 Annoyingly, later that day a male Ring Ouzel was found here. Drat.

Sunday as ever I spent at work, and whilst out the back managed a work tick!  A lone Jay flew low west over town - not unexpected I have to say.  It was nice to see a couple of small flocks of Wood Pigeons and Jackdaws going over, but not many passerines.

Monday morning, I decided to give Axe Cliff a look about.  It was nice to see a Ring Ouzel, with a very vocal bird perched up for a couple of minutes in a small tree near to the start of the Undercliff (another massive area of impossible to bird premium habitat!).  Otherwise save for a few Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests, and a flock of c150 Skylark, the selection of grounded birds was limited.

I have to say, overhead was disappointing too.  I was expecting a lot lot more passerines, with just low numbers of Mipits and alba Wagtails seen along with a few Finches.  I did however see 290 Wood Pigeons and one Stock Dove fly west - and it was nice to take a few photos of migrating Pigeons again...

 

The only time Pigeons become interesting!

After Axe Cliff, the Axmouth FC scrape gave a Grey Plover amongst half a dozen Lapwing - a new bird for me on this field!  And that was really it for yesterday.

Today I have been in all morning, with a net open in the front garden.  Amongst the small number of birds I've caught and ringed were a Goldcrest and two Coal Tit - migrants?  I'm sure the Goldcrest was, weighing five grams with next to no fat.