This drastic weather change has seen a significant pulse of wader passage on the Axe Estuary, which is to be expected with rain in late April.
This morning the star bird was a Ruff briefly on Black Hole Marsh, before flipping over to the Estuary. Obviously we all know how stunning/bizarre spring males are, but this was a she, and she was truly beautiful. A really small and dainty bird, probably not that much bigger than a Curlew Sand, but so exquisitely marked. Just look at those tiger-striped tertials and greater coverts, absolutely stunning...
I wonder where she's been wintering and where she may be heading off to breed?
Hello there Mrs
Also today, probably the same Grey Plover I saw from the house last week, and which Phil heard a few days ago, was showing distantly on the Estuary. Along with a single Bar-tailed Godwit, four Whimbrel and a few Dunlin and Ringed Plover...
100% winter plumaged Grey Plover on this side
But a few black spots on this side, with a Bar-tailed Godwit and a Whimbrel
Good to see there's still some gull passage going on, with two first-winter Common Gulls and at least 25 Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the Estuary this morning...
All ages - I keep reminding myself there's still time for a late white-winger
Yesterday I took my exercise walk in the afternoon, and was delighted to see a flock of thirty odd Dunlin on the Estuary. Then in true spring fashion, in came another flock and I was now looking at 64 Dunlin and five Ringed Plovers. In birding I don't find much more exciting than being amongst spring wader passage, when out of nowhere flocks of breeding plumaged waders drop in en-route to their tundra breeding grounds, having wintered somewhere south of the UK.
So many waders! Never a common sight on the Axe.
Always feeding in such a frenzied way!
More rain tomorrow so possibly more waders to come!? Stay safe everyone...
Wow it's hot today. A look along the river at about 08:30 showed there had been a bit of an arrival of new waders, with three Black-tailed Godwits alongside three Dunlin (my first of the autumn) along the waters edge...
Summer plumaged Blackwit and three Dunlin
Among the gulls three Med Gulls were on show, the first-summer that I yesterday labelled 'distinctively bland' and these two beautiful juveniles...
If you're not familiar with the juvenile plumage of Med Gull, I urge you to come over to the Axe Estuary or Black Hole Marsh and take a look at one. At this time of year they should be present pretty much daily now in varying numbers, and they really do have a delicate beauty to them. Gorgeous things.
The moth trapping last night would have gone better had Mum and Dad's resident pair of Herring Gulls not taken an interest in the trap before I got to it! Still there was a very good variety of moths and good numbers too. Nothing new for me or the garden, but the two scarcest species (which were actually both on the wall of the house) were...
Female Four-spotted Footman
The Fern
It was great to get the chance to introduce Harry to a Poplar Hawkmoth, his reaction was epic...
May kicked off with much calmer weather than April ended, but there were still some birds to be found. Am sure I would have turned more up yesterday if I had more time, it felt quite rare out there.
A twenty minute walk along the beach mid morning showed a flock of ten Sandwich Terns west and a mixed flock of 24 Dunlin and Ringed Plover high east. There didn't seem to be much happening further out but I reckon a longer watch would have revealed something, it felt good for a scarce Tern.
I didn't get out again until the evening. A look along the Estuary showed the five Bar-tailed Godwits and at least 16 Whimbrel were still with us. And Black Hole Marsh at dusk surprised me with a Little Ringed Plover, quite a late date for a new spring bird...
The Marsh Harrier was still present on Colyford Marsh as well, a distinctive bird with a broken outer primary on its right wing. I'm not sure if it is still present today, as shock horror I've not been out birding at all this morning!
Let's hope this May is a good one for spring overshoots. I get the impression there are still plenty of common spring migrants to arrive too, I have still not seen a Swift yet!
Wow what a day. The best birding day of the month turned out to be the last day of the month, and that was simply because we had some different weather. A nice south easterly wind has been blowing all day (since yesterday in fact) and we've had lots of rain. And this meant birds birds birds!
Although south easterlies aren't our best wind direction for sea watching (that's south westerlies) I just had to give the sea a look - quite a long look in the end! I started the day with a four hour sea watch and then had two twenty minute glances during the afternoon, all from the Spot On Kiosk. These are the exact times, and this is what I saw (east unless stated);
05:50-09:50, 13:10-13:30, 15:10-15:30;
2 Dark-bellied Brent Goose
110 Common Scoter (75e 35w)
5 Great Northern Diver (all singles and all west)
70+ Gannet
6 Manx Shearwater (two singles and a four)
4 Arctic Skua (ad pale-phased west at 08:40, ad pale-phased and near-ad pale-phased close east together at 09:02 and ad dark-phased west at 09:40)
3 Mediterranean Gull (all first-years)
6 Common Gull
40 Black-headed Gull (most flew in)
21 Sandwich Tern
1 Arctic Tern (so close that I think it came out of the Estuary then flew east at 08:20)
4 Dunlin (in)
3 Sanderling (one east with a flock of ten Whimbrel and later two flew in sat on beach briefly then headed off west)
72 Whimbrel (biggest single flock being 38 birds)
2 Guillemot
14 Razorbill
8 auk sp.
1 Yellow Wagtail (flew east along beach calling).
I'm pleased to say there's four year ticks in that list; Arctic Skua and Tern, Manxie and Sanderling. I had to wait for the skuas, they only arrived once the cloud came over and just prior/during the first rain showers of the day. Although the numbers always make a sea watch for me (Whimbrel and Scoter today), and of course the skuas which are always notable birds here, my star bird of the watch was the Arctic Tern. Our 'commic's' are usually distant, but this thing virtually flew over my head! Great to be able to see all the diagnostic features, but best of all that distinctive bouncy flight and super long tail streamers. Now if I was to be a bit whingy a Black Tern would have been nice, but I'm not today - it's just been such a fab fab day!
Whimbrel flying east
Arctic Skua - just!
One of the closest Gannets of the day
With many other birders watching the coast today, there were a couple of interesting re-sightings of my birds. My four Manx Shearwaters in the afternoon flew past Sidmouth half an hour earlier (Dan), and it took my dark-phased Arctic Skua twenty minutes to fly from here to Budleigh (B Heasman) and then another forty minutes before it flew west past Teignmouth (L Allnat). Always find this kind of stuff fascinating, thanks for getting in touch folks.
Considering the amount of wading birds passing over the sea, I knew the river valley would be worth keeping an eye on today. By the end of the day on the Estuary there were;
10 Ringed Plover
12 Dunlin
5 Bar-tailed Godwit (three sum plum males)
3 Black-tailed Godwit
36 Whimbrel (giving me a day total of well over a hundred - very notable count for the Axe)
1 Greenshank
From left to right; three Barwits, a Whimbrel and a Blackwit
Is there a finer wader? Summer plumaged male Bar-tailed Godwit
And again
And again! x2
Four of the five Barwits from today
And this wasn't it. Wandering towards the Colyford Marsh hide early afternoon I noticed all the birds that were clearly on the main scrape on Colyford Marsh lift off and behave as though they'd just been spooked by something. Two minutes later I was watching my/our first Marsh Harrier of 2017. Year tick number five of the day...
Female Marsh Harrier
And again, but a little more zoomed in
I must just thank my wife, who's been amazing as always and was quite happy to let me fill my boots when it came to birding - she knows how much I've been longing for this weather. In my defence I did find time to build a bed today as well!
Before I sign off for the night I will quickly tie up yesterday's birding news - don't worry it won't be long as I only had about an hour out. Saying that it was a pretty good hour though! First up was an Avocet that flew in calling on the Estuary just as the tide was coming in...
Avocet and Shelduck
Then there was a new in Lesser Whitethroat singing alongside the tram line opposite Coronation Corner. And finally my forty minute wander along the beach with the dog which produced a Great Skua east and a Mute Swan and 22 Pale-bellied Brent Geese west...
Pale-bellied Brent Geese, later seen off Dawlish Warren
May is my favourite month for sea watching without a doubt. Everything is in fresh spring plumage and the variety of what can fly past is as good as it gets (skuas, terns, shearwaters, divers, wildfowl, waders, etc) and we often do get a good blow at some point during the month. I love it!
But this can cause problems.... Birders know just how painful it can be when you are tied up with 'daily life' and there is a bird or are birds you want to see. It could be a rare, a movement or fall and you're stuck at work/in the middle of a shopping trip/have the kids for the day - I'm sure we've all been there. Now I'm very lucky, first of all Jess is very understanding, and has now learned it is always best for everyone if I just go. But I am sensible about it, and I can cope with missing most things now except for 1/ a patch tick and 2/ may sea watching. Although with sea watching you can kind of predict what you are going to see, there is just something so magic about watching birds migrating over the sea as they head to their breeding grounds. I find it so SO hard to leave/ignore a busy spring sea.
The weather looked good for Monday 2nd May, not great but good enough, so I watched from the Spot On Kiosk on Seaton seafront 05:55-08:20 and 14:00-15:00 and saw;
4Great Northern Diver (1 s/pl e, 2 s/pl w and 1 w/pl on the sea)
1Black-throated Diver (w s/pl w)
16 Pale-bellied Brent Geese (w in one flock at 06:08)
31 Common Scoter (all w, biggest flock was seven)
122 Manx Shearwater (40 in morning and 72 in afternoon, all west)
1 Great Skua (w at 07:45, Dan J had it past Sidmouth just under half an hour later)
2 Arctic Skua (2 d/ph hassled gulls then flew e at 06:30, they were later seen past West Bay and possibly the same two through Chesil Cove at 07:50 per John Down)
4 Kittiwake
6 Sandwich Tern (two groups of three w)
2 Whimbrel
2 Ringed Plover (two singles w along beach)
4 Sanderling (two two's w with Dunlin)
210 Dunlin (a very impressive movement with flocks of up to 40 flying w, they dried up by 8am)
So although I have had much better May sea watches, there was a real nice variety and some decent movement. The skuas were the first one's I've seen on patch for almost 18 months (missed the few we had last year) and the Dunlin movement was really quite spectacular. It's just a pity there wasn't a bit more rain about because then the waders would have come on to the beach and up the river valley instead of just passing.
I didn't manage to video any of the real goodies, but here's the Brents, a Whimbrel and a Fulmar...
The relatively new phenomenon that is the spring Pale-bellied Brent migration is fantastic. We don't get flocks of geese down here in this small valley, so it is about as 'Norfolk' as birding can get for us. The flock past the sea front was great, but I had an even better sight that evening...
The girls and I were enjoying a wander around Lyme Regis, and just after we arrived I noticed on twitter a flock of c60 Pale-bellied Brents were flying around over Weymouth (Julian Thomas) and then flew west through Portland Harbour. I knew they were coming so kept one eye on the sea, but I actually nearly missed them because of this.... They left west from Weymouth at 17:13 and at 18:05 I was suddenly aware of Brents calling. I turned around and was greeted with the beautiful sight and sound of 70 Pale-bellied Brents flying rapidly west between us (on the end of the Cobb) and the town. It's a short clip, but just listen to that sound!! (and not my wife asking if it's a ship or a boat!)...
A quick calculation indicates they were traveling at about 28mph - love being able to work things like this out! I fired off a quick text to let the other patch birders know that there were heading for Seaton, and Tim Wright managed to make it down to the sea front just in time to see them/some of them pass by.
I would really love to know where these Brents come from, maybe Holland or France? They only seem to appear at around Portland, fly west along our part of the coast then always seem to settle on the Exe Estuary for the rest of that day. It is such a predictable passage now that it clearly is a movement of birds from a regular wintering site to their breeding grounds, presumably in Canada. AMAZING!
Isn't the weather looking promising for the next week. Not for sea watching, but it's looking good for some rare herons, warblers, maybe something better... and surely a tan!?
It's been a frustrating week. I've had two 5am wake ups with the hope of ringing on Beer Head, and both morning's I've gone up there with good intentions. Tuesday though it was far too foggy with clear skies above, so I knew it wasn't worth it and came straight back home, and then today, the promised cloud cover came over too late and there was quite a breeze which would not have been good for mist netting. I did have a walk around this morning instead of ringing, and am pleased I didn't bother with the nets as it was very very quiet. So basically it's now Friday and I am completely knackered for no good reason. Got an even earlier wake up tomorrow, but at least I know this one with be worthwhile...
The other reason this has been a frustrating week is because despite all my efforts, I haven't seen anything remotely scarce. Hoopoe's are flooding in to the UK at the moment, along with a nice assortment of other spring overshoots, I have looked looked and looked....and seen nothing of note.
Wednesday morning I almost killed myself (and the dog!) by flogging Beer Head to Branscombe and back in the scorching heat. Ironically the best bird I saw during this three hour slog was the Yellow Wagtail that flew over me as I stepped out the car right at the start! Otherwise all I saw were half a dozen Willow Warblers and a couple of Wheatears. At least the Wheatears were kind to me...
At least I saw a few butterflies, with two Clouded Yellows, two Specked Woods, a Holly Blue, a Brimstone, an Orange-tip, a Red Admiral and several Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells.
There has been a few more waders about on the Estuary this week, since midweek I have seen Common Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Dunlin, Greenshank and four Ringed Plover. There's also been two Ruff kicking about since Tuesday but I haven't caught up with them as yet.
The only other notable birds I've seen this week include my first Sedge Warbler of the spring (a singing male) on the Borrow Pit, Seaton Marshes, on Tuesday morning, and this morning yet another Red Kite. This one had clearly roosted in the valley, because at 06:50 it circled up from the woods above the Estuary and flew off west. Also six Manx Shearwaters flew westduring a quick look at the sea just prior to the Kite.
I'll sign off with a dawn photo from Lower Bruckland Ponds taken late last week. Let's hope next week is a bit kinder to me...
Between bird surveying, and having to be home for the Honey Monster, I squeezed in an early morning visit to Black Hole Marsh today.
Here there were several signs of the autumn migration having moved up a notch, with our first juvenile Little Ringed Plover of the year near the far viewing platform.
Don't see many in June, July is when they tend to start moving through
A summer plumaged Black-tailed Godwit, three Common Sandpipers and six Teal were also on show.
Local breeding birds were present in good numbers too, both in the bushes and on the lagoon. Shelduck really seem to have had a good breeding season, and both Oystercatcher broods are doing well.
Great little birds
Hopefully the good breeding season means we are in for a good autumn...
