Axe Cliff and Surprise Crossbills

Yesterday morning, although it was clearer than I was hoping, I went up to Axe Cliff soon after dawn. After a short while I realised I was actually grateful the sun was shining, it was a real pleasure to be out with the fine weather ensuring the local breeders were showing and singing well...

Male Yellowhammer with a back drop of Lyme Bay and Beer Head

I was staggered by the numbers of Common Whitethroats around.  In recent years there's normally about six singing males in the area of Axe Cliff that I cover.  Yesterday however I noted 13 singing/displaying males, along with a 14th non-singing bird. They were all behaving like they were local breeders too - so is it simply going to prove a good summer for the species? Has anyone else noted good numbers of Whitethroats this year?  On the other side of the coin though, I usually come across one or two singing Lesser Whitethroats here, but none during this visit.

The Whitethroats were all sat out proudly and partaking in frequent song-flights

This one on a more natural perch

A lovely highlight was a Hobby that flew low east across the fields soon after I arrived, with the only definite 'grounded migrant' being my first Spotted Flycatcher of the year.  Not that it stayed grounded for long - it soon continued west along the cliff edge.

This morning during a family outing I was surprised to hear Crossbills calling from Bovey Down, then about half an hour later watched two flying around above me calling at nearby Blackbury Camp.  Presumably the date indicates local breeding?  Mid summer is usually our best time to see (or more often just hear!) Crossbills, when family groups are dispersing from their breeding grounds.  Anyone with more experience of the Crossbill breeding cycle have any thoughts on this? Could they actually be breeding here!?

Gotcha Gropper

It was a lovely still and cloudy dawn this morning, which got me out the door nice and early again. A quick look around Black Hole and Seaton Marshes was disappointing, but Axe Cliff beckoned as the conditions were just too good.

It was however quiet for new migrants, unlike Portland today which seems to be having another good day. My hour walk revealed just three new migrant passerines in the bushes; a Willow Warbler, a new Whitethroat (saw four this morning) and this invisible reeler...

Yes I did it - I got my Gropper! You will probably need to turn up the sound and listen carefully to the above YouTube clip, but that's all I can offer you I'm afraid as per usual for a spring migrant Grasshopper Warbler it didn't show. I am so happy to get one of these on my Patchwork Challenge year list, because if you miss out on Gropper in the spring, you have probably missed them for the year - autumn ones are hard to catch up with here.

It was nice to get some better views of the very vocal but highly elusive Lesser Whitethroat on today's visit, although a completely clear view was only just about manageable...

And here's one of the Common Whitethroats, this particular individual has been in since Wednesday...

Whilst walking through a field of Rapeseed it was a bit odd to suddenly hear some Brent Geese calling, but I couldn't see a thing. I did eventually get to see them when I arrived at the first decent viewpoint over the sea, a nice flock of eight Pale-bellied Brent Geese...

They soon swam in towards the rocks just east of the river mouth, and began feeding here...

All in all a rather pleasant morning out with a nice bit of variety. Oh I do love spring.

Redstart

Yesterday was not a good day for me. The south west coast of the UK saw an really impressive fall of migrants - with many places recording multiple Redstarts, Grasshopper Warblers, etc. Portland had a truly epic day. And it was a day that I didn't have much time to go out. I managed to give Seaton Marshes and the Boshill Cross area a good look, but they were both surprisingly quiet. With the clear skies the action was obviously on higher ground, Ian Mcs morning trip to Beer Head proved this with five Redstarts and a Pied Flycatcher. I so so wish I was able to give Axe Cliff a visit, but I wasn't. So I did the next best thing and went there this morning...

It started well with a singing Whitethroat being my first of the year - I recorded at least three by the end of my two hour walk.  And it was good to see the Lesser Whitethroat that I heard here last week still in situ, and showing quite well today.  A couple of Wheatears pitched in briefly before heading north, and I heard up to eight Willow Warblers singing from various spots.  Best of all though was this absolute beaut...

Oh yes. An absolute stonking male Redstart.  I often find spring Redstarts quite skittish and unsettled, but not this fella. He had found a warm and sunny corner of a field, and was showing off superbly - an absolute pleasure and joy to watch.  When I walked back half an hour later he was still there. 

I can confirm the best way to get over the disappointment of missing a good fall and a whole lot of potential, is to go out and watch one of these! I just need a 'Gropper' now to completely cure me.

Lastly, a few decent sightings and counts from my Dad last night at Black Hole Marsh included four Little Ringed Plovers, ten Dunlin, a few Ringed Plovers, and 12 Wheatear on Colyford Marsh. 

Back To Beer

My first ringing session of the autumn up Beer Head was supposed to happen at the end of last week, but due to a poorly pup it got postponed to today....

I didn't have long, so only put up a single 60 foot net for a couple of hours.  Really wish I had more time as I reckon a couple more nets and a couple more hours would have given me 50+ birds.  It was one of those mornings that the bushes often looked quiet, but then all of sudden a little group of birds would flit through and quickly head off, with another group moving through say ten minutes later, and so on and so on. I probably saw about 30 Willow Warblers and five Whitethroats, but if I had walked around more I'm sure I would have seen much more. 

I'm pleased to say I did catch some migrants, with the first migrant netted being a new one for the list of species ringed on Beer Head. It's a very predictable one though, and I was amazed I didn't ring one in the spring...

Common Whitethroat

And in keeping with my thoughts of birds moving through in tight groups, the five Willow Warblers I caught were all in the net at the same time! 

Will never get bored of ringing Willow Warblers - I just hope I get some recoveries out of them.

The two Blackcaps I caught clearly weren't passing migrants, as one of them was a juv still in full juvenile plumage (a '3JJ' in ringers talk).

There were lots of Swallows flying low overhead, along with a few Sand Martins, but I soon realised I wasn't going to catch any of them...

It's a pleasure to provide you with a resting spot Mr Swallow.

They aren't daft - especially with clear blue sky behind the net and sun shining on the net.

Later on in the day after a text from Dad, I nipped to Black Hole Marsh to see a stunning adult Curlew Sandpiper, you won't see many redder than this one - it's a cracker!  There were fewer Dunlin and Ringed Plover on the marsh today, but still singles of Wood Sand, Greenshank and adult Med Gull. Looking south from the marsh I was delighted to pick up a juv Yellow-legged Gull circling low over the fields - my long awaited first juv of the year!  It flew north towards Black Hole before turning west overhead and landing in a nearby field. I went to where it appeared to land afterwards and soon picked it up amongst 300+ Herring Gulls feeding behind a plough. It was always too distant for pics but great to see never-the-less, mostly because I was beginning to worry why I hadn't found any yet this summer. It hasn't been a great year for them so far (probably due to the lack of stormy weather?) but I had started to double and triple check gull flocks that in previous years I'd only need to look through once, just in case I was going a bit gull-blind!

Wood Sandpiper

What A Walk To Work!

Well it's about time I caught up with things, and tell all about the excitement following my last blog post.

Tuesday afternoon I headed off to work, and walked along the cycle track into Seaton. As I came down to the marshes the first bird I saw was a male Whitethroat - my first of the year! Pleased with that, I walked a little further south to the water treatment works on the edge of Seaton Marshes. There were a few Willow Warblers flitting about, but I wasn't expecting what I saw next - a male Pied Fly! 

Now this may not seem like much to many birders, but to us it's a big event...

The twitch!

A Pied Fly of any form at any time of year is notable for us, with autumn being the best time (although we never get more than a handful).  Spring Pied Flies are rare here, and rarer still are spring male Pied Flies.  This is only the third of this plumage I've ever seen on patch, with the other two being on Beer Head - the last four years ago. It's not just about the rarity value though - they are such stunning birds.

I thought I'd best grab a record shot of it when I first saw spotted it, in case it was to disappear...

Still looks amazing despite the awful pic!

Thankfully it did remain, and Karen got some excellent snaps of it, see HERE. Sue also got some great pics of it, along with some shots of the lovely Yellow Wag on Black Hole Marsh earlier that day, see HERE.

It wasn't just birds I saw on this walk in, but plenty of Butterflies too. I only saw Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells, but there were lots of them...

Peacock

Today, all I've had time for was an hours sea watch from the Spot On Kiosk, where I had arranged to meet Gav at dawn.  The conditions weren't great, and I wouldn't describe it as being busy, but it was great to see a few sea birds at last. 

Best of all were three stunning Great Skuas that flew fairly close west together just after 7am. Two adults and one clearly a younger bird with a paler belly and less prominent white wing flashes.  It was also nice to see some Manx Shearwaters finally, with 16 west (two and a distant flock of c14). Other than this I saw a few distant Terns and Kittiwakes, six Common Scoter, two Red-throated Divers and a distant large Diver sp..

Tomorrow looks as though it may be good for some more grounded migrants. Fingers crossed!