Balearic Bonanza and White Stork Update

This windy weather has brought some seabirds into Seaton Bay, and Ian Mc has done well to keep on top of them - sea watching every morning since the breeze began.

Yesterday morning he reported a fairly decent passage of Balearic Shearwaters prior to 9am, 64 west.  This encouraged me to try a mini-sea watch during my lunch break from Seaton Beach, and sure enough I soon saw a flock of six fly west.  I went back in the evening and was pleased to count 23 in just fifteen minutes from 18:45, giving us a day total of 93. Although that's with the sea not watched for most of the day, so I wouldn't be surprised if the actual day total was 150+.

This morning news came through from Ian Mc that there was an even heavier Balearic Shearwater passage going on, he and Mike counted a very impressive 155 west by 09:40. Today was also my birthday, and although I couldn't have made it out for this early watch, when Jess asked me what I wanted to do today my answer was simple.... sea watch!  I watched 10:15 - 12:15, adding another 26 Balearic Shearwaters to the tally, plus five Kittiwake, three Auk sp and a Sandwich Tern. Ian saw another seven Balearics during a mid afternoon watch, and I added a further three this evening during a one hour watch from 17:30, plus a first-winter Common Gull and another Kittiwake.  So adding all these together that's 191 Balearic Shearwaters west past Seaton today, by a million miles our highest ever day count! In fact as far as I can recall this is our first ever three figure, with my previous highest being 71 on 10/9/12. In recent years there's been no decent counts of Balearics here at all, this species seems to be venturing into our part of Lyme Bay far less frequently.  Thanks Ian and Mike for being so helpful with times and counts today, really useful as it's enabled us to work together to get as much coverage on the sea as possible.

Now for an update on the Lyme Regis/Seaton White Stork, and the Sidmouth one which amazingly wasn't the same as ours! The Lyme/Seaton bird (unringed with a tracker and snipped primary tips) was photographed flying over Prawle Point by Pat Mayer on the 19th (the day after it was here), whilst another White Stork bearing a small black ring was stood on the roof of Lidl's in Sidmouth!

Anyway on the morning of 20th I was surprised to get a message from Wild Zoological Park in Bobbington, near Wolverhampton.  Both White Storks were theirs - free-flying display birds that had been whisked away by a thermal the previous day (17th).  And here's a snap of them together...

(c) Wild Zoological

They have names of course, Victor and Violet, and the reason Violet was ring-less was because she came to the zoo with foot and leg problems. Victor is back home now, he flew down from Lidl's roof when he saw his 'keeper', but Violet is still on the loose.  If you see her please let me or the zoo know, she could still be in the South Hams area.

Big White Birds

Just a quick update, but one that does include plenty of pictures of big white birds!

On Sunday night Phil found a Great White Egret on Black Hole Marsh (although a tram driver reported to me an egret that looked larger than a heron earlier that day, but from experience I've found sometimes driver's bird ID can be a bit ropy!).  I was stuck home Sunday evening, but a glance out the bedroom window was all I needed because there it was sat on a tree alongside the Tower Hide!  It stayed there about twenty minutes 'til it got too dark to see.  Please excuse the quality of the phone-scoped pic...

My second GWE from the house

This morning Jess suggested an early morning walk in Lyme - which I didn't vote against seeing as Richard let me know the night before that an unringed White Stork roosted near the Cobb.  I thought we had missed it as it was last reported flying east over town, but soon after our arrival there it was flying over town coming back west...

And much to our disbelief, it landed on the RNLI Station which we were stood right next too!!

Amazing views! After about half an hour it took off and flew west a little way out to sea, but seemed to turn back east and drop back in towards Lyme...

As we drove off a little while later, I could see it again in flight and heading west, so as we came back into Seaton I suggested we briefly stopped off at the sea front in case it kept on flying west.  And amazingly this greeted me...

Incoming Stork!

And it did exactly the same as it had in Lyme, it landed right next to us!  On a roof I'm more used to seeing Black Redstarts on...

The big white bird on the roof!

A White Stork on patch!

Soon after I left it, Kev watched it fly west over Beer Head and it's been seen today on the Exe, and finally this evening on a pub roof in Sidmouth!

Sadly though, although the sheer joy of seeing this amazing bird still lives on, the feeling it's given me inside has completely withered....  Look closer at the open wing shot on the RNLI building and there's clearly been some sort of human intervention with the tips of these primary feathers...

And despite the lack of rings, it's wearing some sort of satellite tag.  If anything this makes it even more intriguing though, why tag it and not ring it!??

So come on, own up, who is tracking this Stork!? Please get in touch!

Slovenia

What an incredible few days!

A few weeks ago and completely out of the blue Nikon approached me and asked if I would be interested in featuring in a short film about birding. I managed to sort some last minute time off and was pleased to be able to agree.  I had it in my head it would be shot somewhere in the UK, maybe Norfolk or up a mountain in Scotland or Wales? So when the director said he had chosen Slovenia as the location I was somewhat surprised!! Soon into the trip though it was clear why he had chosen this magnificent country...

I was only out there for three nights, and it really was all work and very little play. Each day we were filming for most of the morning, broke for lunch at about 11:30ish, and then travelled to a new location before filming again until dark.  For the first day and a half we were in the Julian Alps, the Triglav National Park. We started off at the foot of the mountains on the east side, near to where we spent the Wednesday night, a cabin called Mihov Dom.

The Gorenjska region of the Triglav National Park.

Mid afternoon on the Thursday we were filming at what is apparently the cleanest river in Europe, the Dragonja, at Trenta.

It was so hot here! Amazingly clear water though.

Then by Thursday evening were right on top at the fantastic Mangart, which is the third highest mountain in Slovenia, right on the border with Italy. The views were absolutely outstanding and the drive up was simply incredible.

Amazingly from here you could even see the Adriatic Sea, in the above photo it is in the dip between mountains in the middle of the photo. With a bit of zoom you can see it a little better...

That night we stayed in the breathtaking Mangart Pass Hut which is at about 2000m, situated just below the Mangart Saddle. 

Friday morning it was more mountain filming at Mangart, before heading a long way south to a place called Lake Cerknica and nearby forests.

A forest somewhere in Slovenia!

Lake Cerknica. This was just one of a large network of water bodies.

And this is where we remained until I was picked up and taken back to the airport at 13:30 on Saturday. What a whistle stop tour of a magnificent country, I really look forward to coming back and exploring more of it.

Although it was pretty much all work, in between takes and during breaks of course I kept my eyes and ears open, and managed to see the following...

Golden Eagle - one by Dragonja River and another at Mangart.
White Stork -  a few seen in the lowlands.
Great White Egret - 10+ around Lake Cerknica.
Wood Sandpiper - 2+ at Lake Cerknica.
Little Ringed Plover - 2+ at Lake Cerknica.
Black Woodpecker - two feeding at a tree stump alongside a track through a forest on east edge of Triglav National Park.
Grey-headed Woodpecker - one flying between two areas of woodland in south of country, also heard several times.
Alpine Swift - a couple seen on the way up and at Mangart.
Crag Martin - one seen from car on way up to Mangart.
Ashy-headed Wagtail - a pair (male in song) at Lake Cerknica.
Alpine Accentor - one at Mangart.
Water Pipit - at least six at Mangart, looked like a family party.
Crested Tit - common in lowland woodlands.
Black Redstart - seemed common in lowlands, but also a pair at Mangart.
Nightingale - a fledged young showed well by Lake Cerknica.
Sardinian Warbler- a female feeding young by Lake Cerknica.
Hooded Crow - everywhere!
Alpine Chough- most numerous bird at Mangart, saw at least 15.
Red-backed Shrike - seemed quite common in lowlands.
Great Grey Shrike - one seen whilst traveling in lowlands.
Serin - a couple of singles seen in lowlands.
Snowfinch - at least four, including a male in song flight, at Mangart.

Out of all these species, two were especially special for me.  The Black Woodpeckers were amazing, and I was so so lucky to see them - they had chosen to feed on a tree stump situated right next to the forest track we were driving along! And then there were the Snowfinch. I can remember being struck by this species the first time I opened up the Collins book, I just love birds with black and white on them. So to have a male song flighting around my head, and a really close fly past by a family group, was just incredible - and in stunning (but cold, it was 3c!) scenery too. 

The only birdie photos I managed to take were these...

Alpine Chough - adult and baby.

Great White Egret

White Stork

From this trip not only have I learnt that Slovenia is in amazingly beautiful and dynamic country, but also that the people are wonderfully kind and nothing is ever too much trouble.  You really need to get used to all the welcome drinks you are given, some are really strong!  Oddly though, the Slovenians apparently haven't discovered butter yet.  Every meal we sat down for (three breakfasts, three lunches and three dinners) there were mountains of bread on the table, but not one knob of butter!  Also, they don't seem to bother with locks on toilet/bathroom doors, whether in a private house or a public bar/restaurant/lodge...

And as for the film, once it is finalised and edited I hope to post it up here. 

More Spring Goodies

Whilst at work last night, a White Stork was serenading birders at Colyford Common... gripping!

So this morning, I was out early and very pleased to see it was still with us beside the scrape at Colyford Marsh. A little while later I photographed it from Colyford Common hide...

my third patch White Stork

At about 09:20 it was seen to take off, and fly off north west...

Another bonus this morning was a cracking Wood Sandpiper on Colyford Common. It spent about five minutes on 'the wet patch' (viewable from the Field Studies Base), and even began singing (something I've never seen or heard before!). I didn't take any photos of it as the light was awful - though just as I was thinking about getting my Lumix out for a record shot, it took off and flew north calling...