Find Axe Birder an Axe Waxwing

Knowing that my window of opportunity for adding Waxwing to my patch list is pretty limited, I thought I'd try and increase my chances by offering a reward. Yes folks a REWARD!

The person who finds me my first Axe Waxwing will receive.... a whole entire homemade 'Jessicakes' cake!  And of whatever variety they want.... who likes Coffee and Walnut? Chocolate? Lemon Drizzle?  Choice completely YOURS.  

There's not many rules, in fact just these four;

1/ It must be a Waxwing.

2/ The Waxwing(s) must be on patch. I don't mean my Patchwork Challenge Patch but the whole Axe patch (which in summary is Seaton, Colyford, Colyton, Axmouth, Beer and everywhere in between).

3/ I must see it/them.

4/ If there's any debate over the true finder, my decision will be final.

Best of all about this is who says the finder has to be a birder?  This competition is open to everyone, Waxwings are striking birds that could drop in anywhere.

And in a final attempt to fire you all up...

The Waxwings Are Coming!

A big gap on my Axe patch list is Waxwing. During the two last decent influxes (2010/2011 and 2012/2013) there were a handful of patch records. A few of the local birders have seen them here (Phil, Gav and James Mc) but these were all brief sightings and weren't twitchable. There have been some lingering birds, but the local birding network didn't learn of these until after the event.  This winter though I am hopeful that I will be taking a photo here that looks something like this...

Ok, maybe not quite so many birds but I am confident of at least one!  And why? Well considering it is still only October, there are heaps and heaps already arriving in to the UK. Some years there can be just the odd one or two in the whole of the UK prior to Christmas, but there is already a flock of 220 in Scotland! And they have already been seen as far west as Bardsey Island (Wales) and Christchurch Harbour (Dorset). Chances are we won't get a sniff down here until after the New Year when they've eaten all the berries between here and the east coast, but boy is it looking promising... 

I had an hour our birding this morning before work, and was delighted to find another Yellow-browed Warbler, this one at Lower Bruckland Ponds. Unlike my last, pleasingly this one remained for others to see.  Amazingly there were two more on patch today as well, with the bird found by Twilight Tim at Black Hole Marsh on Friday still present, along with a new bird at the bottom of Stepp's Lane, Axmouth, found by James Mc.

Maybe it is now time for the south coast to shine after the east coast has enjoyed all the glory.

A Bit Of Ruff

Last night Jess and I went on an Owl hunt. Sadly we didn't see any, but we did hear a very vocal Little Owl near Musbury. That will do for me - patch year tick!

Today I was hoping a quick sweep of the river valley would produce the two Ruff that Tim found last night on Black Hole Marsh, and I'm pleased to say it did. They're both cracking males and were opposite Axmouth FC along with a few Lapwing, Dunlin and a Green Sandpiper.  There's obviously been some wader movement recently; our wintering Bar-tailed Godwit flock has doubled to two, five Golden Plover were on Bridge Marsh and there were again over a hundred Dunlin present. 

So my year list is on 116, with the total patch list for 2013 standing at 121. Don't forget you can keep track of my year list attempt by clicking on the '2013 patch year list' tab at the top of this blog.

I really thought I had blown it for a patch Waxwing this winter (yet again!) as numbers in the country have really dwindled since Christmas, but within the last week they have really been teasing us. At the start of the week there was a flock of 25 just five miles north of us, and today up to ten spent a couple of hours in a street just four and a half miles west of the patch.  So although it is highly annoying they haven't been on patch - they've certainly given me renewed hope that the Waxwing gap on my patch list may soon be filled...