Wood Sandpiper

Mike B found a Wood Sandpiper on Black Hole Marsh this morning, which was already our third of the autumn migration period.  Having missed the first two however I was really keen to see this one, so headed down to the wetlands this evening...

As you can tell it showed really well for me, affording stunning views in good light from the Island Hide.  Having not seen any pics of this bird before clapping eyes on it in the field, considering the date I was certain I was 'twitching' an adult Wood Sand, but as you may be able to tell it is in fact a fresh juvenile.

In my mind, pretty much all Wood Sands in July, especially down here in the south west, are adults with juvs not appearing until early August (maybe very late July at a push).  I've looked back through my blog and indeed all the Wood Sands I've previously blogged about in July have been adults, so to see a juv in mid July is a real surprise.  An early fledger? Or maybe it was born somewhere a little closer than usual (i.e from one of the few breeding pairs in the UK?).  

If anyone has any thoughts, experience or comments about this then please do let me know!  Am genuinely surprised to be seeing a juvenile so early in the season.

Black Hole and the Estuary were really buzzing tonight.  Four juvenile Little Ringed Plovers were zooming around, noisily, all over the place, with six adult Greenshank an increase from recent days. Also present were three Whimbrel, ten Common Sands, six Dunlin, three Lapwing, two Teal and two juv Med Gulls...

Three distant LRPs. Later they were on the Estuary.

Whimbrel with a sleepy Dunlin

A very cute juv Med Gull

Distant but posing nicely and I like the composition

If Black Hole keeps up like this we are in for a great autumn!

Best Job Ever?

On Sunday evening I was delighted to lead a tram of 19 (plus Allan our driver) up the Axe Valley on a Birdwatch special. 

The weather during the afternoon was overcast with some heavy downpours, and the forecast looked a bit iffy for the duration. But in reality except for a couple of spots of rain as we left Seaton Station, everything including the weather was just so kind to us.  The wind dropped to almost nothing and the rain and clouds soon cleared revealing a magical soft golden light across the valley...

The birds were just as kind to us, and I'll start with the punters favourite as always, Kingfisher.  We had four sightings of probably two birds, with one sitting in full view for several minutes which left smiles on everyone's faces.  The hunting Barn Owl that remained in view for about ten minutes was also a firm favourite, this also posed well for the tram full...

Barn Owl

On the other side of the Estuary, one of the lingering juvenile Marsh Harriers hunted over the reed beds before landing distantly in a field opposite...

For the whole journey, low-flying Swallows, House Martins, Sand Martins and (a surprisingly high number of) Swifts showed really well as they fed low on flying insects. Whilst on the subject of passerines, three Wheatears showed well around Sheep's Marsh...

Wheatear - I just love the pale-edged black primaries

What was really special for me was the variety and numbers of wading birds on show.  At the top end of the trip where we turn around by Colyford scrape, as if three Green Sandpipers, a young Turnstone, a Dunlin and 11 Ringed Plovers weren't enough - a Wood Sandpiper took off from the small pools north of the scrape and flew south, calling all the way.

Adult Ringed Plover left and juvenile Turnstone right

Green Sandpiper

Thankfully on the return journey the Wood Sandpiper showed better, unusually feeding on the Estuary with a group of Redshank...

Look at the size difference - juv Wood Sandpiper flanked by two Redshank

Black Hole Marsh showed good numbers of Black-tailed Godwits and Dunlin plus a close Greenshank, with the Estuary giving another three Greenshank, a further three Turnstone (four is a cracking good count for us!), two Whimbrel, a heap more Black-tailed Godwits and at the very least 14 Common Sandpipers.  

Next year I'm going to try and arrange a few more Birdwatch tram trips for autumn, particularly August and September.  Seeing large numbers of wildfowl during the winter is always good, but nothing quite beats the variety, quantity and almost endless possibilities that can be seen during a trip in one of these months.

Wood Sandpiper and Lesser Emperor

It's been good to spend a bit more time out today, and I'll start with the birds.  A mid morning visit to Black Hole Marsh was timed exceedingly well, as Ian Mc had just found a Wood Sand...

Wood Sand and two Dunlin

Not just any old Wood Sand - a breeding plumaged adult!

Remained distant so was a good test for the P900

I've had a look back through my blog and notes, and am pretty sure this is my first every June Wood Sand on the Axe.  We don't usually see the first returning autumn ones until mid July at the earliest, and all spring birds have been in April and May.  Not only is it the earliest, but it's the least worn adult I've seen too - still in pretty much full breeding plumage. So so different to the pale brown juvs we see in August, nice.

Also on Black Hole Marsh were numerous Black-tailed Godwit and Redshank (one juvenile), two Dunlin, three Teal and a Green Sandpiper. A little later Sue Smith also had a Little Ringed Plover and a Greenshank - autumn seems to be starting early this year.  Although saying that, many of the Black-tailed Godwits and Redshank never actually left us!

A Black-tailed Godwit looking like this can surely only be an adult, so why not even bother going north?

A little later an enjoyable tram ride showed additions in the form of a Greylag Goose on the Estuary and a Lesser Whitethroat singing at the north end of Colyford Common.

I also found time for some dragonflying this afternoon, which was nice because during the last month weather and work has not allowed for much of this.  I spent an hour and a half at Lower Bruckland Ponds dreaming of finding a Vagrant Emperor (been an influx of these to the east coast), so when I spotted a mostly brown Emperor with blue restricted to segment two I thought I'd only gone and done it....but not quite!  I soon realised it was a male Lesser Emperor, still a cracking insect and a really exciting find, but I can't help by feeling just a little short-changed!

Male Lesser Emperor Lower Bruckland Ponds

This is the fourth male Lesser Emperor I've found here (16th July 2006, 10th Aug 2012 and 19th June 2017) but easily the most enjoyable, because it was actually showing well. Hence why for the first time I actually managed to get photographs!  The other three were all brief flybys with Emperors in hot pursuit, but this one seemed to have found its own territory and spent the half-hour I was there patrolling - I even watched it fly up and pluck a Common Blue out of the air before feasting on it.  Amazing!  

Male Lesser Emperor again - showing blue on side of seg 2 (unlike Vagrant Emperor)

Out of focus but still so recognisable!

Other Odonta on show included my first couple of Small Red-eyed Damselflies of the year, at least 16 Scarce Chaser (one female), eight Four-spotted Chasers and excellent numbers of the other usual species.  This is such a great dragonfly site.

Now I know I have posted plenty of Scarce Chaser photos on this blog before, but as they are one of my favourites I just can't help but post a few more...

Scarce Chaser male

Scarce Chaser male from underneath

Scarce Chaser mating pair

What a top late summer day! 

Wading Birds

I have just written the Axe Estuary monthly report for July, and what a great start to 'autumn' 2018 we've had. Yes I know it is early to be using the 'a' word, but before you start throwing your keyboards at the screens let me clarify I don't mean autumn as in the calendar autumn, I mean it as in the autumn bird migration (southward post breeding passage). Every year the autumn passage for wading birds starts in July, often in June in fact, but this year in particular we've had an excellent variety of species. This sadly though probably indicates they've not had a good breeding year, so although we are seeing more, it's bad news.

I missed the first two Wood Sands of the year here (and the first since 2016), and I guess I missed the third as only one of the two that Tim Wright had drop in on Black Hole Marsh on Wednesday night was still present on Thursday.   When I saw it Thursday morning it wasn't close like it was later in the day, but great to see nonetheless...

A juvenile Wood Sandpiper along with an adult Dunlin

Personally I've also seen a couple of Greenshank, three Green Sands (great comparison on offer of adult and juveniles), the lingering Spotted Redshank, 40+ Black-tailed Godwit, up to 16 Dunlin and Common Sands and a Snipe.  The first few gorgeous lemon yellow Willow Warblers have been noticeable in the bushes over the past week, looking extremely lovely. A lovely adult Hobby flew low south west through Black Hole on Thursday too, which could well have been a local bird.

With a couple more sunny days now upon us, my search for a local Southern Migrant Hawker continues...

Cheat Birding

I was making my way back from town yesterday when I decided to pop into Black Hole Marsh for the late morning high tide. It was such a last minute decision that I wasn't even equipped with my telescope, but still thought it was worth a quick look...

From the Island Hide all seemed quiet, and no one already in there had seen anything of note. I soon picked up an elegant looking wader in the far corner of the marsh though, feeding near a Common Sandpiper.  Despite the distance I was pretty sure it was the Wood Sandpiper found the previous day by Sue Smith, and realised I had a way to confirm this. Over to the Nikon P900...

Yes, despite the ridiculous distant, zooming right up and taking a couple of shots was more than enough to see that this was indeed our first Wood Sand of the autumn!

I promise this laziness will not be a regular thing...

The Birds

It's time to review what the birding has been like on the Axe over the last month or so, and what I've seen...

I'll start back when I first became laptop-less, in late August.  The Baird's Sand proved a one day wonder on Black Hole Marsh, but the Wood Sands lingered.  Although big numbers were only present for a couple of days, there were between five and 14 for the next few weeks - still amazing numbers when talking about Wood Sands!  What proved as amazing as the numbers were the views they were offering...

Personally I think there's not many places better for seeing wading birds up close in the UK than Black Hole Marsh.  Just look at that Wood Sand in the photo above, it couldn't be closer to the Island Hide!

We had quite a few juv Little Stints over the course of August/September, never more than two at a time, but we probably had about seven or so over the course of the autumn.  Curlew Sands though have proved scarce this autumn, and all we managed were a couple of juveniles on 24th Aug...

A front view and a back view! Both are Curlew Sands I promise

Otherwise we had good numbers of Ruff (up to double figures) and the odd single Knot, Turnstone, etc...

Knot

Black Hole Marsh really came good on 30th/31st Aug. Late on 30th a patch first and Devon mega appeared in front of Tim Wright, a Citrine Wagtail! (the grim details and a photo here).  Sadly after barely a minute it flew off and was never seen again. Gutting.  The following morning birders searching for the rare waggy turned up a cracking Spotted Crake and a Wryneck - on fire!!!  I didn't see any of the three rarities, but so happy for the chaps that did and very pleased for the patch. A Bittern was seen on Colyford Marsh by many on 8th Sept, but since then Black Hole and Colyford Marsh have remained rarity-free zones. 

Over on the Estuary  it's been fairly quiet.  The small wader flock from Black Hole Marsh could often be seen here at low tide, and good numbers of gulls on 21st Sept included 180+ Great Black-backed Gulls and a lovely first-winter Yellow-legged Gull.  I saw my first Wigeon of the autumn on 24th Aug (it was actually on the sea), but from mid Sept numbers have been building, there are probably about 80-100 present now.  A nice surprise this morning were two Pintail on Colyford Marsh scrape, my first ones this year. Unusually a Razorbill has been present for a good few weeks on the Estuary, often on the river as far north as the Tower Hide. Bit of an odd sight.

Back to the sea, and an evening walk along Branscombe Beach with Jess and Honey on 29th Aug showed there were large numbers of Gannets offshore (despite no wind at all), and thousands of whitebait washed up on the beach.  

I was interviewed by BBC Radio Devon about this, not quite the 'freak phenomenon' they were hoping for though!

Because of this, the next morning I spent a few hours at Spot On Kiosk, and was rewarded with lots and lots of birds. Most of these were feeding gulls and Gannets, but I did see c35 Manxies and at least six Balearic Shearwaters, a couple of which were lingering and feeding offshore.  A Greenshank in-off was a bonus too, and vis mig over the beach included three species of wagtail for the first time this autumn (Pied, Grey and Yellow).

A bird ringing update will be in another post (once I have IMPR up and running again), but I have spent a fair bit of time at Beer Head, and have had some good mornings there without really seeing anything that special. You don't always need rare birds to have a good day.

The 1st Sept was a pretty good morning up there, in two hours I logged 25 Yellow Wags, one Grey Wag, two Tree Pipit, eight Wheatear, two Redstart, three Spot Flies and a late Swift.

The best day for me though was 17th Sept. Up to the day before I'd seen just a handful of migrant Meadow Pipits, but it was bursting with them!  I left the head 3.5 hours after arriving, and had counted at least 750 Mipits, some flying straight through, but most landing among the long grass in large flocks briefly before continuing on west.  It felt so so good for a rare pipit, but sadly it never happened.  The bushes were just as busy as the fields, with good numbers of Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps, what will probably prove to be my last Willow Warbler and Redstart of the year and a single Spot Fly.

A beautifully well marked juv Spotted Flycatcher

More recently, the 30th Sept was a windy morning, but hirundines were streaming through in their thousands at Beer Head, all going east. In with them plenty of Meadow Pipits, a few finches and on the land a Wheatear and a Spot Fly.

The best day for vis mig variety was even more recently, on 3rd Oct. I was up there ringing and it was fairly foggy, but birds were piling through north.  Several large flocks of Linnets, Goldfinches and Siskins, almost continual Chaffinches and Meadow Pipits, numerous Pied and Grey Wags, the biggest movement of Skylark of the autumn so far (35+), a couple of Redpolls, singles of Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer, and best of all at least two Crossbill. If only the bushes were as busy!  I did see a Firecrest, but sadly didn't catch it...

The only notable birds I've seen since the 3rd were this morning's Pintail that I've already mentioned, and a Firecrest in the middle of Colyton during a dog walk on Sunday morning.

It feels good to be up to date, so from now on as I see I will post, yes regular blog posts will resume.  And I look forward to compiling the bird ringing post too, that will probably come early next week.

Can't See The Trees For The Woods!!!

Just occasionally a birding event occurs that is quite simply mind blowing. However much your mind goes over it, you just can't get over it. And today that happened...

There's been three Wood Sandpipers on Black Hole Marsh for a few days now (there were five).  Sometime last night/this morning another 31 dropped in!!!!!  34 Wood Sands is just completely nuts, and not a number anyone would ever dream about seeing, certainly not in Devon, and probably not anywhere in the UK.  Wood Sands only ever come in ones, twos or threes, sometimes if your lucky six and once before in Devon ten (six was my previous highest here).

They were all juvs, and although spread out across the whole marsh (making counting very hard!), many were showing at point blank range from the Island Hide...

Check the other local blogs, sure to be some cracking shots

What I found even more nuts about this influx was that no other species were involved.  There were plenty of other birds on Black Hole Marsh (one Little Stint, two Green Sands, eight Ruff, lots of Dunlin and Ringed Plover) but all have been present for a day or so already.  

This Wood Sand influx has been witnessed right across the UK, although no other site has had more than 20 birds. I've read about 19 somewhere, along with a few other double figure counts, and smaller numbers dotted about all over.

Wow. Just wow.

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

Great White Garden Tick

Have actually got some bird news to blog about! And I'll start with this morning, I was down Black Hole Marsh early doors for a pre-breakfast bird binge...

A lovely Wood Sandpiper was without doubt the highlight, showing well in front of the platform at the far end.  There were plenty of others waders around too with the water levels looking perfect to draw in a good rare - hope it does too as it's about time I found something half decent!  

Also present 05:45-06:45 were; 8 Teal, 400+ Black-headed Gull, 2 Med Gull (ad and juv), 1 Common Gull, 8 Lapwing, 10 Dunlin, 15 Blackwits, 1 Greenshank, 3 Green Sands and 15 Common Sands.    

As expected for late July, I've seen a fair few Med Gulls, including an impressive nine on the Estuary late morning today (eight juvs and an adult). I also had four (an adult and three juvs) on the Estuary on Wednesday, and on Tuesday morning during a sea watch four more (two ads and two juvs) flew past west. With the ever increasing numbers I wonder how many others fly past the beach when no ones looking...

As well as the Meds, the Tuesday morning sea watch from Spot On (05:45-06:45) showed; 5 Mute Swan (out then east), 31 Canada Goose (all in from east, some flew in off and others continued west), 16 Common Scoter, 110 Manx Shearwaters (all blogging about feeding), 1 Redshank (out then west) and 1 Common Sandpiper. Sadly no big white birds....

Early on Thursday morning whilst Ian M was sea watching he had a Great White Egret fly in off just after 6am, which then lingered in the river valley.  My alarm was set for 06:50, and on seeing the texts jumped up and watched the valley from the house.  About 15 minutes later there it was, flying down river past the Black Hole Marsh area, it seemed to continue flying south too. My third Egret sp. on the house list!  About an hour and a bit later it was in west Dorset at West Bexington and then Abbotsbury - so as usual our little valley proves not big or attractive enough to hold a Great White for long.

I will keep this an insect-free post, but to pre-warn you, Wednesday night was an absolute mega moth night with 406 moths of 68 species in one trap at Mum and Dad's!  So more moth photos coming soon...

STOP PRESS!!! Black Hole Marsh Sinks Under The Weight Of Wading Birds

Black Hole Marsh just gets better and better and better!

For some reason today most the wading birds have been feeding between the Island hide and platform, offering excellent views. Early this morning this area was also heaving with Black-headed Gulls, 24 Little Egrets, four Grey Herons and lots of Mallards and Teal. There must be some seriously good food on offer in this corner of the marsh at the moment!!

I've been there twice today, at dawn and again mid afternoon.  This morning with the exception of an increase in Teal numbers (58), it looked pretty much as it has done recently with singles of Wood Sand and Ruff. This afternoon though four juvenile Little Ringed Plovers have joined the mass of birds, these were showing exceptionally well and I'm sure will be well 'papped' later...

Four gorgeous juv Little Ringed Plovers

Green Sand on the left, Wood Sand on the right

  

The Wood Sand again, but with the Ruff in the background

The only wader I saw in the earlier visit but not the second was an interesting Ringed Plover. It was a juv, but slightly smaller (although doesn't look like that in the photos!) and notable darker than the others - so I guess a Tundra?  And no sadly it wasn't a Semi-palmated Plover.  Here's a couple of pics of it taken in VERY different lights...

Before sunrise!

In bright sun light

No sign of the Cuckoo today, but I saw it on both Thursday and Friday last week. On Thursday I watched it eating caterpillars on an island from the Tower hide for about half an hour, it was always distant though. On Friday it was much closer sat on the wires right in front of the Island hide. Sadly the sun was almost right behind it though!

Still the best Cuckoo photos I've ever taken on patch!

And to complete today's post, some Odonata excitement!  Just before my second visit to Black Hole Marsh I went to Seaton Marshes. Here I found seven male and one female Small Red-eyed Damselfly - my first away from Lower Bruckland Pond (Devon's first ever site for this species).  As usual, the only reason I saw/noticed the female was because...

...it was attached to a male!

Insects Save Otherwise Photo-less Post!

Beer Head showed a bit more variety this morning, with the bushes giving me my first Garden Warbler of the autumn, two Whitethroat, three Blackcap and 15 Willow Warbler. Two Wheatear were the only birds of note in the open areas.  It was nice to see a Wall Brown whilst wandering around - this is one of the few places left on patch where you can see this species...

Showed well too!

I also saw my first Clouded Yellows of the year today, with two at Lower Bruckland Ponds. They didn't stop moving though, and when one did it was playing hide and seek...

Peek-a-boo!

The reason for my visit to Lower Brucklands was to look for Small Red-eyed Damselflies. Sadly there is almost no suitable habitat for them on the ponds now, with a distinct lack of floating vegetation. There's just one small pond which does have lily pads and weeds, and after a short while I eventually spotted a single male. Only the one though...

Hang in there buddy!

To get this post back to bird news - the female Tufted Duck remains here.

Mid morning I had a look around the marshes, with the highlight being a Wood Sandpiper on Colyford Marsh scrape, along with a Greenshank and two Green Sands.  The Wood Sand appeared only for a couple of minutes, had a preen and wing stretch, then flew off NW. Good chance it was a new bird as I don't think the two last week have been seen all weekend? I may be wrong though.

On Black Hole Marsh there's now 40 Black-tailed Godwit, the Ruff still, but much smaller numbers of Dunlin and Ringed Plover than last week. 

And that's that short post done and dusted. Hope to give Beer Head another look in the morning - I want a Whinchat...