A Foray to the Exe

Having seen the Bowling Green Marsh Yellow-browed Warbler last week, I knew how ideal it would be for Dad to see. So yesterday after a hospital appointment, I took him out for his first trip to the Exe since his stroke in October last year, a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.  The Brent Geese must have heard he was visiting as they treated us to some superb fly pasts - probably about 6-700 birds in total...

The Yellow-browed performed equally well, with some exceptionally close view of it feeding alongside the road right down in the stinging nettles.  The very first view we had of it was pretty special too, as it flew low down the middle of the road right past us.  In this single flight the Yellow-browed went from bushes near the entrance of Goosemoor to roughly 80m the other side of the Bowling Green hide - presumably taking it from the end of its feeding circuit back to the beginning?  

Excuse the very frustratingly positioned vegetation in the below photo, which looks horribly like fishing wire!...

There's been plenty of reports of this bird having a dodgy right eye, it was pretty much fully closed whilst we were watching it.  Sadly it evidently now has problems with its left eye too, being half-closed. Poor guy, I don't rate his chances much :-(

I'm almost embarrassed to say that this trip out saw my first visit to Goosemoor.  A lovely reserve with several excellent vantage points...

And it's clearly a great place for Greenshank...

A truly wonderful and very very special afternoon out for me.  Great to be able to start repaying Dad for all the weekends he took me out birding when I was in my teens...

A Surprise Yellow-browed

Well that was a bit of luck!  

I was walking Harry between my house and his Grandparent's house late morning yesterday when a Yellow-browed Warbler started shouting at me.  Amazingly it was coming from the very same group of trees one inhabited last autumn, and represents my fourth in the street that I live in (Primrose Way) in four years!  I have to say I didn't think I'd get one this year as there have been far fewer in the UK this autumn than the past few years.  

Once I'd dropped the little one off, I returned with my bins and enjoyed some decent views of this little sprite. It was in a mixed flock of tits, which also included a couple of Goldcrests and a Chiffchaff.

I also spent some time yesterday looking through the Estuary gulls, it was a really windy day and early October often proves a great time of year to find scarce gulls.  There were a heck of lot of large gulls about (three large flocks) but despite trying I couldn't find anything of value within them.  It was nice to see five Med Gulls dotted around though, four first-winters and an adult, my highest count since late summer.  Also on the Estuary was this Bar-tailed Godwit...

And to end this rather short and sweet blog post, here's a couple of random photos taken from Seaton Beach during the past few weeks...

That's More Like It!

Well Ophelia has come and gone, but in birding terms delivered nothing. She didn't bring any American land birds or waders, and didn't even drag up that many sea birds on her journey - bit or an ornithological flop really. But since then things have picked up...

The last week has seen an exceptional arrival of Firecrest across south Devon and Dorset, well some parts of south Devon and Dorset! Portland recorded an unprecedented 150+ on Sunday, with probably just as many around Prawle/Start/Soar. But other places (Dawlish Warren, Exmouth, here) recorded none on the very same day!  Pleasingly they have started trickling through here now, I had my first at Spring Head, Axmouth on Monday afternoon, with another on Tuesday up by Axe Cliff Golf Course car park. Dad had six at Beer Head also on Tuesday, and Bun another in Beer village. Such smart birds.

A quick look along the beach to see what Ophelia had left us revealed just six Ringed Plover, a Little Stint (presumably the lingering bird) and a whole load more Man o' War.

Looking east along Seaton Beach on Tuesday morning

Wednesday gave us a nice double, although sadly one of which I missed.  Our Reserves Officer James Chubb saw a Great White Egret on Colyford Common (which had previously been at Abbotsbury Swannery), but it soon took flight and headed off south west. So proving to be as brief a visitor as the other two recorded here this year. Drat.  What followed cheered me up though...

Yellow-browed Warblers have proved much scarcer this autumn than recent years, presumably solely because we've not had the easterly winds of the previous few autumns. So, stepping out my front door early afternoon, I was really surprised to hear one call from trees just up the road - my third from the garden! I didn't have great views of it, but Tim White clearly did an hour or so later as he managed THIS fab picture of it - always such smart birds and always great to see/hear.

The drizzle and completely still conditions of last night saw (well heard!) an excellent nocturnal passage of Redwing and Song Thrush overhead, which gave me high hopes for this morning.  But those hopes have not really been lived up too (as usual!), although it did feel really good out there. There was one lovely highlight though...

As I drove over the lower Axe bridge into Seaton, I was amazed to see a flock of six Avocet fly across in front of the car! A really mega-sized flock by Axe standards.  I watched them fly upriver, they then circled around a bit before seeming to drop down on Black Hole Marsh. So I went around for another gander...

And that brings me and this blog up to date! So good to feel proper autumn excitement - we are a go...

Found it!

My first attempt at finding where the Cattle Egret is spending the daytime began at 07:30 this morning.  At 07:41 it flew out of roost in Axmouth, but it was still so dark and it flew upriver so surprisingly quickly that my plan of following it north just didn't work.

So this afternoon I drove around looking for cattle, and from a distance saw a bunch of egrets drop in near a farm in Colyton.  I soon realised it was the farm where the three Cattle Egret were back in January 2009, and a closer look showed these egrets to be 13 Little and the Cattle. Gotcha!

It's Colcombe Farm, but please don't drive down the farm track. View the egrets from the Colyton to Shute road. There's a bench on the left just after turning on to the Shute road from the Colyton to Whitford road, just before the upper track down to the farm and virtually opposite a lay-by.

I'd had a good morning as well. Was really pleased to see the Yellow-browed Warbler, Tufted Duck and Grey Plover all still waiting patiently for Jan 1st. And a wander around Colyford WTW showed there has been a sudden explosion in Chiffchaff numbers, with at least 45 feeding along the northern edge of the WTW and around the neighboring fields. 

Who said December was a quiet month?

Winter Birding

I've seen a few nice things over the last couple of days, most of them distinctly wintry. I'm also finding myself willing every good bird I see now to stay put until Jan 1st - yes I'm already getting fired up for my Patchwork Challenge 2017 year list and it's only November! 

I'll start with yesterday afternoon, and an enjoyable half an hour along the Estuary up to dusk revealed three redhead Goosander (sat on mud north of Tower Hide), two Med Gulls (adults), 24 Dunlin and a Grey Plover.  It's been such a good autumn for Goosander on the south coast, and many other species of wildfowl (especially sea faring ones), I do wonder if that means we have got a proper cold winter coming?

This morning started on the sea front where I could see my first Great Crested Grebe of the winter off towards Seaton Hole. There were also three Black Redstarts about this morning, the two female-types still at Seaton Hole and an adult male near the Spot On Kiosk (thanks Dad)...

I also popped in to Lower Bruckland Ponds this morning, where the Yellow-browed Warbler was showing well right by the entrance bridge. It spent most the time flitting about in the trees as they do...

But in the frosty conditions it did briefly come right down to ground level...

Also present was a female Tufted Duck, which has been here for a couple of days at least...

Yellow-browed Warbler and Tufted Duck.  What a dream Jan 1st duo that would be...

The Waxwings Are Coming!

A big gap on my Axe patch list is Waxwing. During the two last decent influxes (2010/2011 and 2012/2013) there were a handful of patch records. A few of the local birders have seen them here (Phil, Gav and James Mc) but these were all brief sightings and weren't twitchable. There have been some lingering birds, but the local birding network didn't learn of these until after the event.  This winter though I am hopeful that I will be taking a photo here that looks something like this...

Ok, maybe not quite so many birds but I am confident of at least one!  And why? Well considering it is still only October, there are heaps and heaps already arriving in to the UK. Some years there can be just the odd one or two in the whole of the UK prior to Christmas, but there is already a flock of 220 in Scotland! And they have already been seen as far west as Bardsey Island (Wales) and Christchurch Harbour (Dorset). Chances are we won't get a sniff down here until after the New Year when they've eaten all the berries between here and the east coast, but boy is it looking promising... 

I had an hour our birding this morning before work, and was delighted to find another Yellow-browed Warbler, this one at Lower Bruckland Ponds. Unlike my last, pleasingly this one remained for others to see.  Amazingly there were two more on patch today as well, with the bird found by Twilight Tim at Black Hole Marsh on Friday still present, along with a new bird at the bottom of Stepp's Lane, Axmouth, found by James Mc.

Maybe it is now time for the south coast to shine after the east coast has enjoyed all the glory.

That's Birding

Irrespective of previous years, wow has my lack of Yellow-browed Warblers this year been frustrating!!  In other parts of Devon birders seem to be hearing/seeing them every time they step outside, they really have been turning up everywhere and anywhere!  Over the last few weeks I've been out every morning, and each morning headed out thinking 'well today will be the day'... wrong every time!  I reckon I've seen about 150 Chiffs in the last month, I bet there's not many other birders in the UK have seen that number of Chiffs this autumn without a single stripe!

Luckily though this birding malarkey is a funny old game.  This morning was the first morning in weeks that I've not been out birding.  After a bit of a lie in, a rummage through the cupboards showed the breakfast potential was low (very bad news in the Waite household!) so a jaunt to the corner shop was required.  Wandering back through the estate swinging my bag of goodies was already a joyous thing as I knew Pain Au Chocolat was imminent, but when a Yellow-browed Warbler started going berserk in front of me well that was the weekend made!

Amazingly it was in the same row of trees I found a bird in on 30th Oct last year (which stayed for a few days). I watched it at close quarters in some ivy as it called in a somewhat frenzied manner (about 8 or 9 calls in five or so seconds), before legging it home to drop off the shopping and grab my phone and camera.  I saw it a few more times on my return, but sadly couldn't manage a photo and it had completely shut up.  

Hopefully this signifies a change in fortune for me, so let's see what tomorrow brings...

Ring Ouzels

When a load of Ring Ouzels come into the UK, you can usually count on the 'Avian Black Hole' to produce a few for us, and sure enough yesterday afternoon two or three were seen in the Underhooken at Beer Head. This morning the clear skies, the prospect of some Ouzel action and the possibility of some good vis mig saw me at Beer Head just after dawn... 

Two hours up here produced;

2+ Ring Ouzel (probably 4+)

6 Blackbird

6 Song Thrush 
2 Redwing

2 Wheatear

2 Stonechat

9 Skylark

60+ Meadow Pipit

10 alba Wagtail

1 Grey Wagtail 

8 Blackcap

20+ Chiffchaff

1 Goldcrest 

40+ Linnet

20 Goldfinch

2 Siskin

So as can be seen from the finch counts, visible migration was really disappointing considering the conditions. In fact the top of the headland where we usually find our birds was really quiet too (except for Mipits), all the action was on the scrub covered slope down to the Underhooken. All but two of the 20+ Chiffs were here, I was so expecting a Yellow-browed to filter through with them but it just didn't happen.  Of course this was also where the Ring Ouzels were, and these two I saw pretty well...

I'm fairly certain this is a first-winter female (along with a male Blackbird) due to no hint at all of a  pale breast crescent.

Not a great photo, but the clean white breast crescent makes this is a male. It had quite a dirty looking bill with little yellow so I'm pretty sure it was also a first-winter bird.

I had so many more glimpses of Ring Ouzels, and heard quite a bit of calling too, my feeling is there were 4-5 birds down there but I just couldn't prove more than the above two. At one stage I had a bird calling way off to the right where I didn't see any of my two go, but I only had the female in view at the time.

A quick look at Seaton Hole afterwards showed another ten Chiffchaffs, but lots of walking around the patch this afternoon has still failed to give me a Yellow-browed. And there were what 10+ on Portland today!? So I have to say I'm feeling a bit like how this Wheatear looked on Beer Head early this morning...

Oh well, must keep at it...

October Dawns

A gorgeous sunrise this morning, this was the view from my bedroom window...

Birding-wise, autumn has moved on some more, with a noticeable increase in Song Thrush, Robin and Goldcrest numbers over the last few days.  The wading bird situation is still a bit samey, with Black Hole Marsh this morning showing;

1 Grey Plover

16 Dunlin

77 Redshank

2 Bar-tailed Godwit

1 Common Sandpiper

We've had a Yelow-browed Warbler too, at the weekend.  Colyford resident Peter Vernon was quick with his camera when he spotted a small crest/warbler in his garden on Saturday, through a steamed up kitchen window...

(c) Peter Vernon

(c) Peter Vernon

Well done Peter! Hopefully there will be many more to come.

Yesterday Axe Cliff was completely blown out, but there were stacks of Meadow Pipits and Skylarks about, with a Siskin and a couple of Reed Bunting over the only slight oddities. A couple of Ringed Plover were on the beach, but the wader situation on the Estuary was exactly the same as this morning.

Although this wind looks like it is going to be too strong for the rest of this week to really get amongst it, considering the amount of birds arriving on the east coast and the northern isles at the moment we should be in for a good few weeks. I imagine my first Redwings are just a few days (or nights) away.

Hopefully October turns out to be more fruitful than September was...

Going, Going, Gone...

Having been out birding every morning this week, it's hard not to feel a little sad when you realise many of our UK breeding birds have left us...

Obviously Swifts and Cuckoos are long gone, but now all those lovely Redstarts, Pied Flies and Wood Warblers that brighten up our wooded valleys have departed our shores, and won't be back for another seven months.  Most of the Yellow Wags, Whinchats, Lesser Whitethroats, Willow Warblers, Garden Warblers, Grasshopper Warblers, Reed Warblers, Sedge Warblers and Tree Pipits have gone too, and we will probably only see dribs and drabs of these, if any at all, from now on.  Come on, how can this not make you feel a little sad?

So now, for a good birding autumn, we are highly dependent on birds born and bred outside of the UK.  And down here on the south west coast, you can usually judge whether it's going to be a good one by how much arrives in the north and east of the country. Once good numbers of birds are in the UK, they then naturally filter down through the country or along the coast. So far things are looking good...

Taken from www.birdguides.com

Although this is a darn good count of Yellow-browed Warblers, every year more and more are arriving into the UK, usually within the last few weeks of September so they are bang on cue.  Last year was our best ever autumn for them here with five different individuals noted, let's see if we can beat that.  My earliest ever here was on 2nd Oct (two in fact, at Lower Brucklands in 2013) so let's see if we can beat that too... I tell you one thing, I certainly wouldn't mind another one from my front garden! :-)

It's looking promising for Lapland Buntings too, a quick look at http://northronbirdobs.blogspot.co.uk/ reveals they had a day last week with 110 on the island which is pretty impressive. 

And why all this waffle? Well I've not seen much that's why. I guess the best of the batch was a Lesser Whitethroat on Stafford Marsh yesterday morning, and an invisible Golden Plover over Beer Head an hour or so later.  Axe Cliff this morning and Beer Head yesterday were pretty much the same, quite a few Meadow Pipits along with less than a handful of Wheatear and Chiffchaff and a couple each of Yellow Wag, Grey Wag and Stonechat.  

No bird photos, so here's the moon again. It looked stunning and so red on the evening of Tuesday 20th...

A Cracking November Day Plus Another Yellow-browed

The first part of this post's title does not refer to the weather, it's been pretty grotty for most of the day, but at least the wind has remained light/non-existent. Birding wise though I have had a thoroughly enjoyable day with some real nice highlights, and that's despite spending more than four hours of the day sat in front of this laptop! (Probably five by the time I've finished writing this post!).

Had to take the dog for a walk this morning, so soon after breakfast we headed up to Beer Head for a wander (thankfully Honey is used to frequent pauses during her walks!).  The bushes were in general very quiet, with just a Chiff and two Goldcrest noted. There were clearly a few thrushes about though with 15+ Blackbird, 15 Redwing, six Song Thrush and a Mistle Thrush noted.  Overhead passage was also quiet (probably due to the occasional drizzle) with just small numbers of Skylark, Meadow Pipit and Chaffinch, two Redpoll and singles of Siskin and Reed Bunting.

It was a very worthwhile walk though as there was one major (and overdue this autumn) highlight, a beautiful Short-eared Owl. It came up from the base of some bushes just a few feet in front of me, and treated me to an amazing close fly by. But within what seemed like a few seconds it was distant, beyond the cliff edge. Oddly though it then remained on view for forty minutes as it didn't seem to know what it was doing or where it was going, drifting off north, then back south, flying off to the east then back west. It finally seemed to be heading off as I was getting back in my car, I could see it distantly flying east across Seaton Bay.  

Just about identifiable.

A rather dramatic photo I think, or just crap...

 

Despite all the time I spend up Beer Head during the spring and autumn, this was amazingly my first Short-eared for the site! There has been a couple in the past but I have just never jammed in to one here, which is surprising because I've seen half a dozen at Axe Cliff, a few less in the river valley, one over the sea front and two in the Beer Cemetery Fields (just inland from Beer Head).

On the way home I pulled in at Seaton Hole where at least one of the Firecrest was still showing, there's been at least two here for a week now...

It was a male, not that you can tell that from this pic!

I was home by mid morning and got my head down.  Lunch time was soon upon me and I realised there wasn't much food in the house, so en route to the shops I stopped off at Axmouth Yacht Club. I've been here a few times in the last week but haven't seen any more Black Redstarts since the two last Tuesday, so was surprised to see three today including a stunning adult male.  None of them were very co-operative though and remained skittish...

Male Black Red

And again

One of the female-types

Back home, and after a bite to eat and another couple of hours of laptop work, it was time to take Honey out for her second walk of the day.  I drove along the Estuary on way, where small numbers of gulls included my first Med Gull (an adult) for almost a month...

Second from the right

The biggest surprise though was when I pulled over to have a scan over Colyford Marsh, and I picked up ring-tail Harrier being chased by a Crow over the reed bed. Flipping heck!!  I scrambled for the scope, and thankfully after a nervous couple of minutes of no sign, it reappeared and showed itself to be a gorgeous juvenile Hen Harrier.  Pity it wasn't the rarer species of Harrier, but Hen is rare enough here - only my third ever on patch.  I just managed to grab a couple of dreadfully poor record shots before it dropped down out of view behind a hedge, I'm not sure whether it carried on flying north or landed.

Can just about make out a white rump and I'd say a broad wing tip (if you squint!)

Yes an even worse photo!!

So all in all an excellent day.  I do like early November, it can be a great time of year on the south coast, although a bit of cold weather wouldn't go a miss.  

Yesterday I had even less time out, in fact much to Honey's dismay she only got one walk (tut tut bad me!). Late morning we had a wander up Axmouth village, although didn't walk as far as usual as it sounded like World War Two with the amount gun fire around the Spring Head area!  Anyway, turns out we didn't have to walk that far at all, as half way through the wander I thought I half heard a Yellow-browed call once from dense cover behind a couple of noisy Coal Tits. I got the mp3 out and played Yellow-browed call, and about twenty seconds later a small bird flew from behind me and landed in the tree right by the road, Yellow-browed Warbler.  It remained in this tree and in view for about a minute, but then melted away in to the trees behind and I didn't see it again during the next hour (Gav joined me but sadly dipped).   I thought I took a couple of pics of it but on downloading the photos all I took is photos of leaves!!

Yellow-browed Still Here

Primrose Way is still blessed with the presence of a Yellow-browed Warbler, I saw it a few times today in exactly the same trees as yesterday.  What a lovely bird, and today I even managed some photos. Just...

A couple of hours out with the dog this morning were rather unproductive despite the calm conditions.  A good yomp around Axmouth produced just 15+ Goldcrest, 6 Siskin, 4 Redpoll and a Chiffchaff.

I forgot to mention this the other day, the day after the Chard Spotted Sandpiper was last seen, in heavy rain I spied a distant Common-type Sandpiper on the Estuary.... It came closer and my heart sank, Common Sand it was and it's still there today.  Sadly it appears to only have one foot and it hops instead of walks...

Like Buses!

There's been lots of water in the valley on the last couple of mornings, and I love it when it's like this because all the wildfowl, waders and gulls congregate and they're all dead easy to see (except when there's driving rain!)...

From the farm gate at Axmouth

Haven't seen anything different on the water, but there's way more duck around than I thought, about 350 each of Wigeon and Teal, plus two Shoveler. 

Once the rain cleared today I had a walk around Seaton Hole, where there were a few Goldcrest and best of all a cracking Siberian Chiffchaff.  Sadly it never called but it looked absolutely bang on for tristis.

That's where I thought my birding had ended for the day, but when I was stood outside my front door waiting for Jess to pull up at 14:30, a Yellow-browed called!  Flipping heck - what a house tick!!!  I grabbed the bins and camera, it called again, and I soon found it feeding high up in a line of trees that border a small green just up the road from me.  It was completely on it's own, although there were singles of Chiff and Goldcrest calling from over the road.  I watched it for a couple of minutes (sadly couldn't get any pics) before my lift arrived and I had to leave. Wow. Although I was over the moon with this, I have to say it's not at all unexpected. I've got some lovely trees around my place, including what is the tree/hedge line that marks the north end of Seaton, it really looks tasty and has delivered some good birds before. Hopefully a Pallas's will appear here next - it's about time!

Stripes At Last

Despite a month of walking the dog in places I thought were quite likely to host a Yellow-browed Warbler, and the fact there's been about million in the country, it's taken me until yesterday to see one!

During an afternoon dog walk along the cycle track by Seaton Marshes out popped the head of a Yellow-browed Warbler for all of three seconds. And that was it.  I'd see enough though so sent the texts out, but in the windy conditions there was no further sign. There was actually quite a few birds here, at least two Chiffs (one of which appeared quite grey), three Blackcap and several Goldcrest.

This morning despite the wind and the rain I went back for a better look. No sign for ten minutes but then all of a sudden a Yellow-browed burst in to a spate of calling right behind me. I was then treated to the most fantastic views of it feeding low down in some willows, what a gorgeous little bird. I don't care how common they get, they will always give me a buzz when I see one.  I didn't take any photos because I just wanted to watch it, and I knew they'd be crap in the dull light, but I think Tim White has managed to get some pics of it so watch his blog...

Also this morning, after hearing Mark B was heading our way I met him at Black Hole Marsh where we had good but distant views of the two inexplicably sporadic Glossy Ibis...

Told you they were distant!