Cattle Egrets Up Close

As I type this cloud is arriving! Cloud!! Fingers crossed for some passerine action tomorrow...

I had a quick scoot around this morning, it was overall still pretty quiet but there were a few nice highlights.

I was really surprised to see four Med Gulls on Black Hole Marsh at dawn this morning, three first-winters and a second-summer. They were a surprise as I've not seen a Med here for about three weeks, and there's only about thirty Black-headed Gulls!  If you can pick out all four in this photo I will be impressed...

Maybe this will help... The second-summer is on the left with two first-winters on the right...

And this really cute and gorgeous subtle first-winter on the post...

There was no sign of the Cattle Egrets on Black Hole Marsh, but a walk around Seaton Marshes afterwards showed why. It was 07:30 and they were still in the roost!  It was so nice to finally get some good views of them...

And one final surprise for the morning was a pair of Pintail east past the sea front during a brief sea watch, along with a drake Common Scoter. 

I had ten minutes out again this evening, which I spent at Bridge Marsh. Two Goosanders were flying around landing on both the Coly and the Axe, just after Tim White reported two from Black Hole Marsh (so I guess they were the same birds?). And that was about it for me today, so all in all a good day even though I've spent most of it at work.

Patch bird of the day though goes to a male Black Redstart. I was sent a photo of one - which looked an absolute corker - present in a private garden near Boshill mid morning today. I know it's not really a rare bird, but a spring male is a good as they get. This was made even more gripping because I haven't even seen a single Willow Warbler today!    

And to complete this post, a few random photos from today around the Patch...

Pair of Yellowhammer at Axe Cliff

Comma at Axe Cliff

Male and female Kestrels at Seaton Marshes this morning

Venus pre-dawn

Cool Clouds, Shy Sun and Mega Moon

Beer Head this morning didn't show any summer migrants, but the sky looked pretty smart to the east with low cloud perfectly mirroring the coast below. My photo doesn't do it justice as it looked spectacular, but Assistant Warden Glen at Portland Bird Obs did a much better job of capturing it over Portland (see here).

Cloud from Beer Head

I've been doing a lot of looking up lately, namely to see the stunning partial eclipse last Friday.  Cloud threatened and it wasn't looking good on the morning - but in fact the cloud actually helped!  It acted as a natural filter and made the event far easier to see and photograph...

8:52

9:07

9:12

9:28

9:41

9:47

10:17

The moons been looking stunning most evenings recently too, with a waxing crescent moon showing low to the west at dusk with Venus just above...

Bird wise it seems as though spring has halted somewhat, and the cold weather that's coming doesn't bode well for the rest of the week.  Best bird today has to be the lovely male Ruff that I've seen a few times at various locations in the river valley.  Sadly never anywhere close though...

Spot the Ruff!

Beer Head

So I've been able to give Beer Head two more visits with the mist nets, last Friday and Monday just gone. Both sessions were fairly brief (dawn until mid morning), and both involved just two mist nets (a 60ft and a 40ft).

Friday started breezy and clear, but thankfully the wind soon died down and the session turned out to be quite a success.  Although the variety could have been better, I was more than pleased with 37 new birds trapped and ringed;

My able helper for the morning Peter, with the haul from the second net round (all two nets!).

Pleasingly, 18 of the 37 birds were Willow Warblers (4 ads, 14 juvs), with the other migrant birds trapped being six Blackcaps, four Chiffchaffs and a surprise juvenile Swallow.  I think most/all the Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs were probably Beer Head (or nearby) breeding birds, and the Swallow could even have been too, but the Willow Warblers would all have been on their southward migration.

Later that day I was pretty chuffed to learn the ringing team operating at Durlston Head (a migrant hot spot in south Dorset) that morning caught fewer birds than me (29). Sorry chaps, but to a backwater ringer at a new site which attracts far less migrants - that's very pleasing to hear!  It will probably never happen again though.

Monday morning was even windier, and sadly the wind never dropped. Wind + sun = not good mist netting conditions.  A nice bonus thanks to the early start was seeing Venus and Jupiter low to the east...

Venus is the brighter looking dot

This is the closest they've been to each other (looking from Earth) since 2000

Only caught ten birds in the couple of hours we were ringing - not the best session for local C ringer Doug to have joined me for the first time!  There were clearly very few migrants around, with singles of Willow Warbler, Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler trapped and ringed...

The Sedge Warbler (a young bird) was the first I've trapped up here - so made the session worthwhile.

Interestingly, amongst the ten birds ringed were five 'new' young Robins (all had completed their post juvenile moult), which i think were migrant birds. We didn't catch any during the Friday session which would also support this theory.

Birds that I saw but didn't ring during these sessions included on Friday a surprise Green Sandpiper over, along with a Ringed Plover and a Yellow Wagtail. And on Monday my first Tree Pipit of the autumn lingered for about half an hour before flying west, with two more Yellow Wags over.