Still All Quiet

A look over the sea from Seaton Hole showed not much; a Red-throated Diver, four Great Crested Grebes and 20+ Razorbills.

The Estuary revealed just four Med Gulls and four Barwits.

Great news about the Woodlarks; there were 18 present today, and possibly one or two more...

These are fast becoming one of my favourite birds!

All Quiet

Well I say it's all quiet - but this morning I have seen at least nine Woodlark (location witheld) and the Snow Bunting which is still present on Seaton Beach. It was nice to see the Snow B in sunshine for a change...

I wonder where her mate went!?

Otherwise, the sea produced just two Great Crested Grebes, three Razorbills and a Guillemot. The Estuary showed four Barwits and two Med Gulls. And Colyford Marsh, nothing but Canada Geese!

I have just remembered though that I forgot to post how I got on with my latest woodland survey (carried out on 30th Nov) - in private woodland near Colyton. A single Crossbill, three Marsh Tit and several Lesser Redpoll were nice to see. But the main talking point was the Woodcock. The most I've ever had here is 11 (in the middle of last winter). Bearing in mind how mild it has been so far this winter (no frosts) and how early it is in the season, I was very surprised to see a total of ten! I had some excellent views too - one day I WILL get some pics!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow....

On Friday morning I woke up to this....

Lots of snow falling

I then spent Saturday in Taunton, being amazed at how much snow there actually was! Little did I know what was around the corner...

This morning, within two hours (between 06:30-08:30) a colossal amount of snow fell. All the main roads have been impassable, at work we haven't have any deliveries all day, no post, etc...so proper snow!

I've lived here 19 years and I've not seen it like this before....

Proper deep snow!

Today wasn't going to be a birding day, but the action in and over the garden has kept me glued!

Had one garden tick today - a bit of a good one too! At 9am five Woodlark flew north west over the back garden. I was quite surprised by this as there didn't seem to be as many Skylarks on the move as there had been the previous couple of days. A few Snipe and stacks of thrushes were also noted going over.

In the actual garden, well it has been mayhem!!!

Have had five species of the thrush, the highlight being the Mistle Thrush that landed on the front lawn for all of three seconds before flying away - so no pics of him. There's plenty of Redwing pics though...

There were always 10-20 in the garden, but birds were continually flying off and being replaced by 'new' ones

At least six Song Thrushes also seen...

Song Thrush and Redwing

And a few Fieldfare...

These always stayed high in the berry trees though

Other non-thrush bird included up to four Blackcap...

Three of them looking like this one

Four Bullfinch....

Three of them looking like this

Two Pied Wags, a heap of Long-tailed Tits and a female-type Black Redstart.

Just outside the garden, there were bucket loads of thrushes....thousands of them! Most thawed bits of road/verge had a Meadow Pipit or two, and a few houses down a male Black Redstart sat up proud...


And then began feeding on the berry's of some ornamental palm tree like thing...

Check out the ice on his feet!

But, although the birding has been just incredible, I feel sooooo sorry for them all. I just hope this doesn't last long. In the mean time - please keep feeding your garden birds!

Cold Weather Birding

Apologies for the lack of blog posts - when I've been on this laptop within the last few days I've had much more important things to think about! I have been updating the Devon Birding Blog when I could though.

So, I hope you are ready to read one monster blog post covering the last FOUR days! It is worth reading as I have seen lots of nice stuff. The best day was today, and that's right at the end. So you may as well read the rest of the rubbish between that and this....

MONDAY

Spent the first couple of hours of light at Colyford Common - it was freezing! Three Ruff flew low north west over at 8am, and amongst the frost were one Water and 11 Rock Pipits and a Green Sandpiper.

A look along the A3052 revealed 13 Golden Plovers (one by the pig fields, 12 beside Boshill Cross). All day small flock of Lapwing were flying south down the valley and presumably out to sea.

A good look along the Estuary and over Colyford and Seaton Marshes produced wildfowl totals of: 12 Brent Geese (the same flock as a couple of weeks ago), c450 Wigeon, 380 Teal (a good count for us), 11 Shoveler and six Gadwall...

Four drakes - Gadwall aren't common here

Shoveler on ice from Seaton Hide

Two adult Med Gulls were on the Estuary and a look at Lower Bruckland Ponds showed no unusual ducks, but a Cetti's Warbler was my first ever there.

Tuesday

This was a day of limited birding for me. First thing I had to carry out my monthly bird survey in private woodland near Colyton. I was surprised to see quite a bit of snow still on the ground (bearing in mind we hadn't had any at all in Seaton!)...

There were even some light snow showers

I flushed four Woodcock during my walk round, which was nice! Even nicer though was a lovely flock of ten Lesser Redpolls.

Small flocks of these just oooooze with character - I love 'em!

I returned home, and stayed here for a good while. Early afternoon though a text from Dad tempted me out down to the Estuary to see three Goosanders...

The same three Gav saw on the sea the previous day maybe?

Whilst here, out of nowhere, this appeared....

...a sleeping adult Spoonbill! For much better pics of it click HERE

Later, a further check of the Estuary produced five lovely Ruff just north of Coronation Corner, four Med Gulls and a 'weirdo' Gull. At first I thought my 'weirdo' Gull was a LBBGxHerring, but it may just be a weird yellow-legged Herring Gull. I took this photo at 16:15; it was almost dark, with an exposure time of 1/4!...

Its legs were yellow - just not bright yellow like an adult YLG. Also note slightly darker mantle shade, slighter size and intense head streaking

Tuesday didn't end well! The alarm at work wouldn't set, so I didn't get out of there until 23:30!

Wednesday

Up for work at 7am, then after a short three hour shift a sweep of the Estuary showed a Knot and the Spoonbill still. I then returned home to bury myself in my laptop once more! I really should have had a kip - 'cuz I was knackered and was due back at work at 17:00. Yes - a lovely split shift!

I got fed up with my laptop, so mid afternoon had another look about. Couldn't find anything different - well that was until I had a look at the small flock of Swans opposite Stedcombe House at 16:00. There sat an adult Bewick's Swan...

Nice!

At first I presumed it was the same bird we had last winter - that often frequented the same spot. But its bill pattern gave the game away - quite different from last winter's bird. Here's a closer pic of today's bird, with a head shot of last winter's bird cut and pasted in...

See, quite different; and it's even obvious on photos as crap as these!!

Today - what a day!!

I woke up to this...

White out!!!

Our road was an ice rink - so I knew I couldn't go out in my car. As I was tucking into my Cheerios, out the front room windows I noticed a small flock of Lapwings fly west. So I kitted myself up and headed out...to the front garden!

Bloody hell it was BRILLIANT! When I started I really didn't think I was going to witness a cold weather movement on the scale that I did!! I watched and counted 08:40 - 12:00.

Most of the birds were flying west, except thrushes and Starlings which were mostly flying north east. So if I haven't put a direction after a species assume this is the way it was going.

I can see the sea from my place, and I could see ducks flying over it. But I only counted ducks which were obviously flying over land - this gave me two garden ticks!! Ok, so this is what I saw....

22 Shelduck
140 Wigeon (50 north)
21 Teal (6 north)
4 Shoveler (in with a flock of Shelduck - garden tick!)
6 Tufted Duck (a mega garden tick, 3 of each sex; they flew west but soon came back east)
1,453 Lapwing (the largest single flock was of 70 birds - a well impressive passage)
1 Golden Plover
1 Curlew
30 Common Snipe (a few of these flew north, have only ever seen a couple of these from the garden before today!)
1 Redshank (flew north - second record for the garden)
5 Buzzard (all singles - and all were properly 'on the move')
2 Kestrel
90 Wood Pigeon
1 Mistle Thrush
63 Fieldfare
259 Redwing
86 Starling
1,154 Skylark (biggest flock was of 230 birds - saw even more later in the day as well!)
14 Meadow Pipit
40 Linnet

There were probably loads more finches involved in this movement, but separating 'vis mig' birds to birds moving from garden to garden from where I watched is almost impossible.

Well what a morning! I really wasn't expecting that!! Here's a couple of pics...

Lapwing flocks

Snipe

After lunch, I gambled and got in my car! Thankfully I made it in one piece to the sea front, and spent 13:35 - 14:35 looking out to sea.

First of all, Skylarks were still moving. During this watch, and during the rest of the day I counted another 930 over west - with several flocks well out sea. For me then, that makes a day total of 2,084 Skylarks west - epic!!!!

Now to the sea, and it was clear wildfowl were also well on the move. On the sea there was a large flock of Wigeon, Teal with a few Gadwall. Now and then though, some would leave this flock and fly upriver, but also several flocks came in from the south and the east and joined them.

Wildfowl quality came in the form of three Eider on the sea (1 immature drake) and a nice flock of 16 Pochard and three Tufted Duck which flew in from the south, then west, then east, then west, then east, then finally away west...

Any fresh water diving duck is a rarity here!

Further interest over the same came from seven Red-throated Divers (4 on the sea and 3 west) and 12 Great Crested Grebes (easily my highest count so far this winter).

It was very hard to tear myself away from this action - but I did and took a look along the Estuary. A female Tufted Duck and 40 Dunlin being the only note worthy birds.

Had a nice surprise at the Farm Gate though. Funnily enough I was scoping up the field were Gav had just found a few Woodlark, when I suddenly realised I could hear Woodlarks! Two flew low north (and slightly west) over Norcombe's field - result! I wonder if these two and Gav's are from the wintering population that normally resides in the stubble fields above Axmouth.

A quick stop up the road showed the Bewick's Swan was still present with our flock of 12 Brent Geese.

Seaton Marshes was pretty much my last port of call - and the lagoon was smothered in ducks! Nothing out of the ordinary though. There wasn't much on the Borrow Pit either, but a single Grey Plover flew over heading north east. Ian Mc had seen one earlier on the Estuary, but as this had come from the direction of the town I presume it was another.

So what an excellent day indeed! Phew! Now time to ruin it and go to work. I do have one last picture for you though, taken during my visit to Seaton Marshes...

He was searching non stop for food!

Well I hope you enjoyed reading this mammoth post! I wonder what tomorrow will bring....

Two And Two

Well I have a few days to write about on here!

The morning after my return from Spurn (last Friday), I woke up to clear skies and some over head movement - so I dashed up to Beer Stables to do some counting.

I really like 'vis migging' from here - though it's only any good when the wind has some west in it. As this place is so high and located just after birds have flown over the Axe Valley, passage is very low, often only just above hedge-top height. And it's easy to pick things up along time before they have reached you - bigger birds (ie Pigeons and Jackdaws) you can see coming from as far away as Axe Cliff! The view back over Seaton and the Axe is just stunning...

Anything big flying up the river could be spotted and scoped from here too!

I watched 08:15 - 09:30; and at exactly 09:00 I fell in love with this spot even more...

Two Woodlark flew low (west - like everything) over the fields just to the north of me. They looked simply sublime in perfect light conditons - calling to each other as they flew out of view. This species has been long long LONG over-due during one of my vis mig watches from here/Axe Cliff/Beer Head/my garden. Finally.... :-)

Other counts for this watch were:

7 Wood Pigeon
144 Jackdaw
2 Redwing
5 Skylark
1 Swallow
24 alba Wagtail
27 Meadow Pipit
8 Starling
1 House Sparrow
207 Chaffinch
5 Greenfinch
21 Goldfinch
5 Linnet
19 Siskin
1 Lesser Redpoll

Saturday was mostly a birding-free day, except for a quick look about mid afternoon. Thought we may have a Whooper with the numbers about that day - but a look through the Swan flock opposite Stedcombe drew a blank.

The following day, after James Mc had jammed a couple of Lap Bunts at Axe Cliff, he also took a look through the Swan flock - and there nestled nicely amongst the Mutes was a Whooper! This species is fast becomming a regular wintering visitor on the Axe. I caught up with it on Monday, and took a few snaps of it today...

It appears to be neither of the two birds we had last winter - I've had a close look at bill patterns

On Monday, in the glorious sunshine, I also had a look for a Lap or two at Axe Cliff. I failed, despite seeing about 350 Skylarks! Two Brambling over west were the first patch ones for me this autumn.

The weather on Tuesday couldn't have been more different - with rain and strong south westerly winds! A look through the Gulls on the Estuary early afternoon bagged me a stonking adult Yellow-legged Gull, which Gav duly twitched and photographed. I also counted 385 Great Black-backed Gulls - a good number for us. Much lesser numbers of Lesser Black-backed Gulls included a variety of mantle shades.

This morning, a look from the garden just after sun rise revealed very little going over, so I headed down to the Estuary again.

Looking across the valley from the farm gate was my plan - but calls of Redwings and Siskins kept me looking much nearer. Five Redwing were perched in nearby trees, then a flock of twenty flew over south, a few Mipits and Siskins went north, but nothing prepared me for what happened next!....

At about 09:10, my eyes were drawn to two obviously chunky and short-tailed birds that were flying low south west along the far edge of the field directly in front of me (Norcombe's field). I got my bins on to them just as they were u-turning back north.....bloody hell - HAWFINCHES!! I followed them as they continued north, gaining height all the time. I lost them well north of me - probably as they were about to fly over the A3052.

When I first clocked them they were so low, so I think they had only just taken to the air - a pity they didn't land again. These are the first ones I've seen on patch since the wintering birds of 2005 - a wholly unexpected surprise!

After this, Axe Cliff again failed to give me a Lap Bunt - just oodles of Skylarks still. A check of the pig fields beside the A3052 showed lots of birds - with an adult White Wagtail being a surprise amongst the Pieds. It seems to have a 'dodgy' left wing, which may explain why it is still here!

The last bit of birding of today - and this blog post - was a look around the Yacht Club. I failed to find a Shorelark or Snow Bunting, but did have a female-type Black Red on the roof tops of Trevelyan Road.