Ringing At Radipole

I was late leaving home this morning, and as I turned in to Weymouth, these three shapes that I spied from behind the wheel on a road side tree made me even later...

Waxwings!

I knew there were three in the Weymouth area somewhere, but didn't know where. So quite jammy really :-)

Anyway, I finally rolled in at Radipole half an hour late, where this was waiting for me...

First-winter Black-headed Gull

We spent the next hour and a bit catching birds, and by the end of the morning I'd ringed two of these...

Coot - this was an adult male

I am starting to 'warm' to Coots, but their sharp claws can be surprisingly painful! I was wearing thick jeans, and I wondered what was stopping me from lifting this Coot away from me...

So powerful!

I processed (meaning they were re-traps which just needed measuring and weighing) two of these...

Drake Tufted Duck :-)

And last but not least, I ringed one of these...

First-winter Herring Gull

So, I hear you ask, how did we (and regularly do) catch this nice array of birds?

Well there's three things you need; bread, grain and Luke Phillips - it is that simple! Mind you, I think the fact the birds here are used to being hand fed is a rather important factor too!

This is Luke baiting the catch area...

And you just gotta watch this - this is Luke in action....

Impressive or what!?

Though not everything always plays ball, like this greedy Mute Swan...


And these two Gadwall that just didn't come close enough...

Just 'too wild!'

The drive home was enlivened by a couple of Black-necked Grebes and 40 Med Gulls in a surprisingly choppy Portland Harbour, and several Scaup - including a couple of stunning adult drakes - viewed from a distance at Abbotsbury Swannery.

What a cracking day :-)

Ticking Over

I have a week off work, which is always a good thing! The birding hasn't exactly been exciting though...

This afternoon, the flat light and calm seas meant I just had to head to Seaton Hole and Seaton sea front...

Ideal sea scanning conditions

This revealed 80 Common Scoters, nine Velvet Scoters, three Eider, 14 Great Crested Grebes and two Red-throated Divers. The Wigeon were also resting on the sea, with about 500 off the Yacht Club.

I only saw two adult Med Gulls on the Estuary mid afternoon today, but yesterday there were five, including a new red colour-ringed bird. There are good numbers of Common Gulls about at the moment (150+ today), am just waiting for one of these to pop up...

Found this bird in January '08 on our delightful little Estuary, a stonking adult Ring-billed Gull!

Finally I had a bit of a nasty 'grip-off' this morning - a rarities form containing all the gory details of five Waxwings in Colyton on Boxing Day landed on my doormat; I was over the moon - honest.....

I'm Still Here!

I can only apologise for the lack of blog updates of late, I have had such little time for birding and/or blogging. Records and descriptions are coming in thick and fast at the mo!

All you need to know is I have still not seen a Waxwing on patch! I've seen nine in Axminster, which is close. But not close enough!!!!

The weather over the last week has been so much better than the dull and damp disaster that was last week...

This afternoon from Seaton Hole

I did manage a look on the sea off Branscombe yesterday morning, with Ian Mc. This showed 20+ Red-throated Divers, good numbers of auks, and a Velvet Scoter passed west. Off Seaton, I could see only seven Velvets yesterday, the week before I counted 11 - my highest count for the patch ever!

Also yesterday, the male Black Redstart that has been in residence at Seaton Hole lately, was replaced by a female. Nice to know at least two are still on patch since the big freeze! The female remained too distant to snap, but today the male came close enough...

A very smart fella! Presumably the bird that was in our road over Christmas?

Also today, whilst at Seaton Marshes a smart drake Goosander flew up river. Another surprise came my way about half an hour later. Whilst grilling a flock of 200 Skylark and 150 Linnet in the fields above Axmouth, a flock of 16 Golden Plover flew over west...

As you can see, I only JUST about managed to snap them!!

Hopefully the next blog update won't take as long to come as this one did - sorry!

2011 Birding

Here it is, my first post about 2011 birding, bet you are excited.....!?

00:00:01 on Jan 1st my year list was precisely zero... and at 10am it was STILL zero as I was still in bed asleep!! I did soon get up after this time though and ventured out on patch....

Five Velvet Scoters had been seen off the sea front earlier in the day, so I headed here first. I was pleasantly surprised to see there were now eight Velvet Scoters loosely associating with the flock of 42 Common Scoter - all female-types (the Velvets not the Commons!). Two Brent Geese flew in from the east and landed with the Scoters, a Jan 1st bonus! I also logged three Red-throated Divers and several Razorbills.

The Greylag Goose was still opposite Stedcombe Vale (and still is today), and a scope of the viewable Swans in fields between Musbury and Colyford revealed the continued presence of our adult Bewick's Swan. Lower Bruckland Pond revealed an incredible array of diving ducks (for us anyway!). Three days later 14 Tufted Duck and two Pochard were still there...

Nine Tufties on top, two Pochard and two more Tufties below

A big BIG bummer on the 1st though was missing the patch's first Waxwings, with nine briefly on the edge of Seaton before flying towards Colyford. A nice Ruff opposite Axmouth FC the following day made things a little better.....oh who am I trying to kid!? Did it heck!!! Bloody Waxwings!!!

I've also managed to miss a patch Bittern already this year, but whilst looking out for it yesterday evening from the farm gate a total of five adult Med Gulls flew down river to roost. A red head Goosander headed the same way, but much slower - swimming all the way! The eight Velvet Scoters were still present on Thursday and to complete my patch sightings for the year so far, two male Pochard were on the Estuary today.

Back to Waxwings, and I have wasted so many hours cruising around our local housing estates with my windows down and my eyes looking everywhere else but at the road! I have totally failed, and am really getting frustrated by it now! So frustrated in fact that when I had to pop to Exeter to complete a bird survey a few days ago, I went to get my 'Waxwing-fix' at Marsh Barton. This is exactly what I have wanted to see during my efforts on patch...

Even from two miles away, it is just so obvious as to what these are - there is just 'something' about the way Waxwings sit up like this

Anyway, I very much enjoyed watching these 29 stunners, despite the fact the weather was totally shite...

They spent 99% of the time I was there sat up in the tall bare tree, and only 1% of the time on the berries!

And that's how my birding year looks so far! Now time for bed....