First Wigeon

Enjoyed a bird-filled morning down Black Hole Marsh this morning, with the bonus of some lovely weather. And there was an Axe first.... three Mr Waite's on the platform at once...

My totals for the visit were;

2 Wigeon (first of the autumn - bang on cue)

3 Teal

14+ Ringed Plover (maybe 19 as had five high west over Colyford Common)

70 Dunlin

68 Black-tailed Godwit

3 Whimbrel

6 Greenshank (a good Axe count, and included my first juvs of the year)

1 Yellow Wagtail

5 Willow Warbler 

There's just so many wading birds on Black Hole Marsh at the moment, with many of them showing really close to the Island Hide. A photographers dream...

Dunlin

The Wigeon weren't quite so cooperative though...

A Frustrating Few Days

This could easily be a down-beat blog post, but I'm going to try my hardest to not let it go that way...

Let's start with a nice Wheatear photo, one of four that I saw yesterday...

Positive positive positive...

The Little Stint from the Tower Hide was nice yesterday too, as was meeting Mike Hill (an ex Channel Island ringer).  But that was about it.

A good look round the Estuary and marshes this morning revealed the following;

45 Wigeon
190 Teal
2 Shoveler
4 Water Rail
14 Lapwing
2 Ringed Plover
9 Dunlin
1 Little Stint
75 Redshank
19 Black-tailed Godwit
16 Bar-tailed Godwit
6 Chiffchaff
3 Yellow Wagtail

No White Wags this morning, but had a couple on Black Hole Marsh over the weekend. I wasted far too much of this morning grilling this (I thought) interesting looking first-winter male Wigeon...

Sadly its underwings proved it was just an Eurasian Wigeon, but there you go, you've got to be in it to win it.  Thanks to Bun for the second pair of eyes from a different angle.  Not only did it waste my time, but it reminded me of the 'fun' we had over the winter of 2011/12 when a pale female Wigeon was knocking around...

http://stevesbirdingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/more-wigeon-fun.html

Right that's me done, I'll sign off with a few random photos...

Juv Little Egret Seaton Marshes

An atmospheric shot of Jess at Seaton Marshes

The moon, taken on the night of 16th Sept with my Nikon P900

Osprey

A quick check of Seaton Marshes before work yesterday meant I happened to be in the right place at the right time when an Osprey decided to use our little valley as a highway out of the UK. 

I knew there was one about for a good five minutes before seeing it as all the birds up river scattered in a way they only do for an Osprey. I actually thought I had missed it as I'd been waiting for so long, but all of a sudden it came cruising down river with a few Rook in pursuit...

The bird began circling just south of Seaton Marshes hide, and before I knew it it was high above Axe Cliff Golf Course and still gaining height.  Next stop France...

This was - amazingly - my first Osprey of 2016. Usually see a few in spring and autumn but not this year, they've all been on the Exe!

I had a good walk around Black Hole, Stafford and Colyford Marsh this morning and saw;

21 Dunlin

1 Curlew Sandpiper

3 Knot

2 Ruff

16 Bar-tailed Godwit

2 Common Sandpiper

3 Wheatear

2 Yellow Wagtail

10 Chiffchaff

1 Spotted Flycatcher

Wigeon numbers are increasing by the day on the Estuary now, am keeping a close eye on them as an American flavoured one in eclipse plumage could easily sneak through.

The 'W' Word

Well it's hard not to think of winter when you see the first of these of the autumn loafing on the Estuary...

Male Wigeon

Otherwise it was much the same on Black Hole Marsh, although it was pleasing to see the Greenshank on here - a gorgeous silverly juv.  Yesterday it was nice to see a Green Sand close to the Island Hide, they have been present in unusually low numbers this autumn...

Juv-1w Green Sand

Such a pity the sun wasn't behind me for this photo!

Summer Meets Winter

Within a few minutes this morning I saw four Wigeon and a Cuckoo!  Not two species that go together very often...

Obviously the star bird of the morning was the Cuckoo. I wanted to have a good count up of all the waders at high tide today (see below for totals), but this was interrupted when Ian Mc saw a Cuckoo at Black Hole Marsh. This is a species I thought I'd blown for the year list as I missed out on calling spring birds.

I spent about an hour looking for this bloody bird - but my back up plan worked in the end. It was last seen when Sue Smith saw it land in trees beside the tram way, but it immediately vanished. Knowing autumn Cuckoos are incredibly lazy I waited, and waited, and waited... for the first tram of the day to come up from Seaton.  Sure enough as the tram came through (the bright pink one too!) out popped the Cuckoo.  It flew from tree to tree in front of the tram, before flying across Colyford Common and landing (distantly) on some overhead wires...

An epic Patch Year Tick!

After a few minutes it took off and flew towards Stafford Marsh, when I lost it. As I write this it's not been seen again, but I wouldn't be surprised if it hangs around for a while - juv Cuckoos often do.

I've already mentioned the Wigeon, there were four of them on Black Hole Marsh with 6+ Teal.  We don't usually get Wigeon until late August/early September, so these can certainly be called early returners.

Now for the waders.  Black Hole Marsh is still superb for wading birds, but there were a few bits on Colyford Marsh too. Totals being; one Wood Sandpiper (Colyford), one Ruff, two Greenshank, three Little Ringed Plover (one BHM, two west over), ten Lapwing, 12 Green Sands, 20 Ringed Plover and 42 Dunlin.

Earlier today (at 5:45 to be precise!) I went up to Beer Head - I must be mad!!! Apart from half a dozen Willow Warblers my notebook remained empty, so here's another scenic shot...

My favourite one yet

Waders And Wigeon

Bun texted me this morning to say a message had come on his pager about a Curlew Sand on Black Hole Marsh. This would be our first of the year so I went down there pretty sharpish.

There was indeed a Curlew Sandpiper present, a juvenile viewable distantly from the Island Hide. There were lots of other waders about too, with the following noted; seven Ringed Plover, one Little Stint (yesterdays bird), 15 Dunlin, two Knot, three Ruff, nine Greenshank, nine Blackwits and three Barwits...

Can you get a more noticeable size difference between sexes of the same species?? The male is just HUGE!

Nice to see a few ducks about too, with my first four Wigeon (pretty much bang on cue) and 15 Teal...

Distant and silhouetted Wigeon!

A Day (And A Post) With A Bit Of Everything

Today has been a day of a bit of everything! Gardening, visits to the local tip, shopping (well Argos anyway!), county recorder work, watching sport, birding and mothing!! I shall start with the latter...

This morning I was very pleased with my 35 moths of 6 species. This included no new species for the garden, but several (in blue) were new for the year...

22 Common Quaker
5 Twin-spotted Quaker
3 Hebrew Character
2 Oak Beauty
2 Early Grey
1 Small Quaker

Here are a couple of pics...

Oak Beauty - one of my early spring favourites :-)

Examples of the three species of Quaker, I'm sure you can work out which one is Twin-spotted and which one is Small!?

The birding today hasn't been too exciting, a first-year Med Gull on the Estuary and a drake Gadwall on Blackhole Marsh being the best it got...

Distant - but still exciting.....yeah?

I'm ashamed to say it, but yesterday was the first time I'd been to Blackhole Marsh since a whole load of work has taken place here. We have a new...

...car park

...field studies centre - very posh it is indeed!

....and track, though this won't be opened until the new hide is up and running

To make up for that shockingly bad photo of the drake Gadwall above, here's a pic of a male Wigeon taken on the Estuary yesterday. Just for interest, this is the original photo...

Good old Lumix, you just have to do what it 'says on the tin' - point and shoot!

But then, after a bit of 'playing', I can post this....

This is why I love my Lumix even more - you can crop ruthlessly and still get a decent enough image!

Since my Sand Martins the other day, there has been little more evidence of the imminent spring, although in the garden a male Blackcap has been singing well over the past couple of days - very pleasant. Whilst talking about the garden, I must mention that I've just been watching a Marsh Tit out the front room windows - a very scarce and highly irregular visitor to our garden.

This weekend it is the Grizzly race, an annual cross country run which starts and ends in Seaton. So I have been in a bit of sporty mood today, and whilst out and about this afternoon, couldn't help thinking how any one out 'being sporty' and 'fit' should be prepared as dull rain clouds were encroaching fast. So when I saw this chap cycle past...


I just couldn't help but analyse his 'gear'. I personally give this keen (and I have to say very quick!) cyclist 9/10....

If you can't read the writing, click on the image to enlarge it

And why not 10/10? Well, I think he could do with a red woolly hat ;-)

A Good Day For Ducks

I spent the morning doing some Bird Atlas work on my tetrads near Dunkeswell. The weather wasn't great - but the birding was, with two Crossbills and 8+ Brambling being the highlights.

I was back home early afternoon and headed out birding fairly promptly.

A sweep of the valley showed there were a few ducks about, with three Pochard (two drakes), three Tufted Duck (one drake) and 10+ Gadwall on the Estuary. I took my time and carefully counted (and checked!) the mass of Wigeon this afternoon, and surprised even myself with a final count of 1,800 birds! Most of these were opposite Stedcombe in two large clumps...

Clump one - the biggest bunch

Clump two

There were also smaller flocks on both Colyford and Seaton Marshes. Back to diving ducks, and a fourth Tufted Duck was at (the still surprisingly icy) Lower Bruckland Ponds...

They are so small compared with the monster Mallards!

I wish I was now writing about the success I enjoyed with my hour long Waxwing hunt around town....but I can't :-(

So, how was Christmas for everyone? I had a lovely few days - and it was nice that family, friends and love was the main focus of it. Just how Christmas should be. Mind you, I couldn't help but being over-joyed by this present...

Yes - that is the largest carton of Jaffa Cakes ever!!!

And I couldn't help but feeling stuffed after eating this....

There is turkey in there somewhere!

I shall finish with yet another Redwing photo, sorry...

I am just so pleased all the snow and ice has thawed so that these guys can get back to where they belong!

Counting Coots

Although it is noticeable milder this morning, it wasn't yesterday morning! In fact, for the first time since this cold weather descended upon us, yesterday morning there was actually ice on the river...

Not a common sight at all!

It is was good day for Coot yesterday; I'm pretty sure I smashed the previous highest day count for the patch. Four at Lower Bruckland Ponds and eight on the Estuary weren't anything special or unexpected, but the flock of 18 on the sea were...

Making a total of exactly 30 Coot!

There was a drake Pochard attached to this Coot flock (though it's nearly entirely hidden in the above photo), and a gorgeous pair of Goosanders flew west, including the first adult male I've seen during this cold snap. Two Eider and five Common Scoter were off Seaton Hole, with a further 14 Common Scoters off Branscombe.

To complete yesterday's sightings; 12 Gadwall were on the river (a flock of 11 and one with the Wigeon), the Yellow Wagtail was still at Colyford WTW and four Chiffchaffs were at Branscombe WTW.

This morning, a look over the sea was again eventful. Another two Goosanders flew west, and landed on the sea near the Chine Cafe (both female-types), a immature drake Eider flew in from the south, then east (with the two still off Seaton Hole with five Common Scoters) and best of all, an immature Velvet Scoter was settled on the sea with three female Common Scoters just to the east. I presume the same bird I found last week?

A quick look up the river valley showed nothing unusual, but at least 1,020 Wigeon were feeding on Colyford Marsh, here's some of them...

This was the densest part of the three flocks

Closer to home, in fact AT home, the garden has been full of birds during the cold weather. Song Thrushes are very scarce here, but we've had at least three hanging about lately...

...always quite skittish though, so this was a hard photo to get!

And most days at least two Blackcaps can be seen, though there were four (three females and a male) on Tuesday morning...

Eyeing up that apple core

And as I write this there's a flock of six Redwing feeding in our berry tree - just a pity there's no Waxwings in with them!!

Lastly, the colour-ringed Med Gull I saw a few days ago; White 3N93. Well I knew I'd seen this bird before, and I had - on the 3rd of Feb this year! (see HERE). Between that sighting and this sighting there's been no other reports of him/her.

There'll be no more birding for me over the next few days, so roll on next week..... Oh, but just before I do go, anyone know who saw the 5+ Bewick's Swans at Colyford Common on 8/12/10!??