A Flurry of Spring Ticks

Thought it was about time I gave you all a lockdown house list update.  And as expected there's been a nice flurry of ticks over the past few days.

My lockdown house list now stands at 79, and the recent additions include a whopping three full fat house ticks. Seriously impressive considering I've lived here for over seven years, and it just shows what a little extra effort can achieve. I'll start with today, which ended in the most exciting way...

At 4pm today I was stunned to hear a Grasshopper Warbler reeling briefly whilst in my back garden, twice, which was handy as that confirmed nicely I wasn't hearing things.  The first record for the house and another spring migrant I was fully expecting not to connect with this year.

After these two short bursts of reeling, I remained in the garden for the next half hour, and sporadically popped out there until 6.30pm, but there was no further sound of it.  Being a Gropper though, I was hopeful it may start up again later in the evening, and at 8.20pm it did just that.  As soon as I heard it again from the garden I nipped out the front door and jumped into the field next to my house.

Although it never showed, I was treated to the most vocal migrant Gropper I have ever come across. It was still going strong beyond 9pm, and the experience got even better when a Barn Owl began quartering the field I was crouched in! Just amazing. Aren't birds brilliant.




Today was a gloriously sunny day, like most of the previous lockdown days. And like all the other sunny days I've spent most of it in the garden... which of course means I've been looking up!  The skies have been busy too, with the highlight being my first Hobby of the year over low east early afternoon.  There's been plenty of raptors up all day, with numerous Common Buzzards as usual, five different Sparrowhawks (two displaying), two Kestrels (one displaying), and the day started in fine form with two Peregrines tussling and calling to each other low overhead when I first opened the back doors this morning.  I am so so lucky to live where I do.

Peregrine

Sparrowhawk

Common Buzzard

The Hobby represented the eighth species of raptor recorded from my house during lockdown. A ninth will be a good one whatever it is...

Also today Whimbrel was added to the lockdown house list, about time as they've been on the Axe in varying numbers for a week or two now.

Yesterday produced a nil result, but Monday gave another house first!  During a window watch over the valley in the evening, just as I was trying to work out what the large plover-sized wader was that I was watching flying north over Black Hole Marsh, it banked around revealing black wing-pits.  Grey Plover is a good Axe bird, and it reminded me that the previous evening whilst stood in the back garden, amongst a burst of Redshank calls I thought I heard Grey Plover call once but couldn't be sure.

Sunday finally rewarded me for my daily scoping of the only bit of Axe Cliff Golf Course I can see from my back garden, which is over a mile away...

Maybe distant and small, but potential is there...

When I posted the below photo on Twitter it opened the flood gates to a flurry of sarcastic remarks - as to be expected.  But it depicts one of the reasons I have been scoping this far away golf green so often, for a Red-legged Partridge!  There were actually two of them on view just before I grabbed this shockingly poor (come on it's over a mile away and taken with my mobile!) photo...

No it's not a rabbit!  

Red-legged Partridge was a full fat house tick.  But it didn't end there for my lockdown ticks, as this scope view on Sunday also gave me Yellowhammer (thankfully a bright male - otherwise it would have been unidentifiable) and Skylark.

Saturday morning began with a Willow Warbler singing from trees next to the back garden.  A species that hasn't been in anyway numerous this spring. The crystal clear mornings aren't conducive to dropping migrants - and Saturday morning was practically the first cloudy and damp morning that we've had all April!

And that brings me all up to date.

What a thrilling post this was to write, one that is positively bursting with decent birds.  And I didn't leave home once.  Lockdown listing isn't just great fun, but it's making me appreciate far more, and look closer at, the vast array of wildlife that's not just on my doorstep, but can quite literally be seen from it.

A rare tern to the left of me, another to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with Moths...

...but not really stuck at all, because it was an absolute joy to dust off one my moth traps a couple of nights ago.  I have Fran to thank for that, whose interest in learning what moths were/are using her garden was all the encouragement I needed!

One Skinner trap was run all night on the evening of 25th/26th,  and although I was distinctly rusty it was great going through the egg boxes again.  I didn't have time to give the micros, pugs and minors a proper look, but the rest of the macros were made up of 184 moths of 32 species.  A very respectable catch and a credit to Frans back garden!  

My highlight was the Lime Hawkmoth, I've only caught a couple of these in Seaton in the past...

Lime Hawkmoth

And an L-album Wainscot was nice to see, a south coast special... 

L-album Wainscot

Was great just seeing some of the common ones again too...

Elephant Hawkmoth and Scalloped Hook-tip

Moths aren't the only insects causing me recent glee... the huge invasion of Painted Ladies is just incredible!  Not seen numbers like this for years...

Painted Lady upper view

Painted Lady underside

I have been birding quite a bit lately, with the main aim of finding a patch Quail.  Not had any luck yet but I did stumble upon a churring Nightjar at a new site a couple of night's ago which is great news, and the fields between Axmouth and Rousdon seem to be home to more Yellowhammers than ever!

Male Yellowhammer

I will not give up with the Quail hunt though, this year has to be our year!

They're getting closer!

This is a sight I have longed to see on patch...

Bottom right hand corner

Yes it's a Cirl Bunting, a stunning male at that.  Truth is though I am still longing to see one on patch, but since a small number have been found just a few miles outside our patch boundary by Clive and Dan, there's a real sense it could happen any day now!

Such smart bird, with a head pattern to rival any American sparrow!

In the glorious blue skies of this afternoon, things were looking really promising with one or two singing males and a pair keeping themselves very much to themselves.

Enjoyed some super views, perched and on the ground

Female Cirl Bunting on a not quite so natural setting!

I love the russet on the sides of their breast

It's clearly a good spot for buntings, with at least nine Yellowhammers present too...

Three Yellowhammers - interestingly none of these were singing

Surely it's only a matter of time now...

Slow Going

I don't think it is just here that spring seems to have stopped for the time being. Although I've not had much time out this week (an hour or so in the field both first thing in the morning and last thing at night) it's clear that it's really quite quiet.  In fact I hadn't had a year tick at all this week (so unusual for the last week in April) until just before 7pm tonight...

Whenever I've been around in the evenings over the past few weeks I've been checking the little pre-roost gathering of up to twenty Pied Wagtails that can usually be found either on Bridge or Colyford Marsh. A White Wagtail would have been nice enough (still not seen one this year) but a pair of Yellow Wagtails on Colyford Marsh this evening were way more exciting!  Hard to beat a spring male Yellow Wag if you ask me - I just love 'em! And a year tick too :-)

Otherwise today has been poor, as was yesterday. Tuesday was a little better though with the increased water level on Black Hole Marsh at dawn offering 16 Dunlin, six Ringed Plover (both notable increases), a Greenshank and a Common Gull, plus five Cattle Egret over north and seven Whimbrel on the Estuary (been this many pretty much all week).  Walking back from the Island Hide I briefly caught sight of a large yellow bunting and crossed everything that it was going to turn out to be a Cirl Bunting...

...It was a Yellowhammer. Still really notable though, I can't recall seeing many/any Yellowhammers on the deck in the river valley. I have had a few fly over, but not perched up in a bush which is promising, it would be great if they started nesting here. It was nice to see a Sedge Warbler quite well too for a change...

At both ends of Tuesday there were at least 200 hirundines feeding low in the valley, by far my biggest gathering this year and no doubt congregating low due to the bitterly cold north wind. They were mostly Sand Martins and Swallows with the odd House Martin mixed in.  It was fascinating watching them during the evening, because when a huge dark cloud came over and the light level dropped instantly, they all flew up and started behaving like a murmuration of Starlings...

I have been keeping an eye on the sea since my Great Skua, but it's been as quiet as the land. I had four Sandwich Terns fishing offshore on Tuesday, a Ringed Plover flew east on Wednesday and today the lingering Common Scoter remains...

I'm actually well impressed with the above photo, as the Scoter is at the very least half a mile out!  

Having moaned in my last post about the lack of sea watching weather this spring, I am literally salivating at the forecast for Saturday evening/Sunday.  I've asked Jess to keep our imminent arrival in there til Monday at least...

 

Cattle Egrets Up Close

As I type this cloud is arriving! Cloud!! Fingers crossed for some passerine action tomorrow...

I had a quick scoot around this morning, it was overall still pretty quiet but there were a few nice highlights.

I was really surprised to see four Med Gulls on Black Hole Marsh at dawn this morning, three first-winters and a second-summer. They were a surprise as I've not seen a Med here for about three weeks, and there's only about thirty Black-headed Gulls!  If you can pick out all four in this photo I will be impressed...

Maybe this will help... The second-summer is on the left with two first-winters on the right...

And this really cute and gorgeous subtle first-winter on the post...

There was no sign of the Cattle Egrets on Black Hole Marsh, but a walk around Seaton Marshes afterwards showed why. It was 07:30 and they were still in the roost!  It was so nice to finally get some good views of them...

And one final surprise for the morning was a pair of Pintail east past the sea front during a brief sea watch, along with a drake Common Scoter. 

I had ten minutes out again this evening, which I spent at Bridge Marsh. Two Goosanders were flying around landing on both the Coly and the Axe, just after Tim White reported two from Black Hole Marsh (so I guess they were the same birds?). And that was about it for me today, so all in all a good day even though I've spent most of it at work.

Patch bird of the day though goes to a male Black Redstart. I was sent a photo of one - which looked an absolute corker - present in a private garden near Boshill mid morning today. I know it's not really a rare bird, but a spring male is a good as they get. This was made even more gripping because I haven't even seen a single Willow Warbler today!    

And to complete this post, a few random photos from today around the Patch...

Pair of Yellowhammer at Axe Cliff

Comma at Axe Cliff

Male and female Kestrels at Seaton Marshes this morning

Venus pre-dawn

The Clickers Are Out!

Went up to Axe Cliff this morning - and what a splendid few hours I had in glorious 'classic autumn' conditions...

Could easily see Hope's Nose (although you can't in this picture) and I think Start in the distance

Anyway I was up here at 7am this morning, and stayed until 09:20. At first there didn't seem to be much going on, both overhead and on the deck, but when I got to the cliff edge there certainly was some westward passage going on, with the following totals logged;

3 Skylark
54 Swallow
87 House Martin
1 Sand Martin
2 alba Wagtail
2 Yellow Wagtail
6 Grey Wagtail
635 Meadow Pipit
2 Tree Pipit
6 Chaffinch
4 Siskin

On the deck, the selection was limited. Rarely do you get good numbers 'bush birds' up here, so six Blackcap, two Whitethroat, five Chiffchaff and two Willow Warbler was about an average haul. The highlight without doubt was this gorgeous juv Whinchat...

That's Beer Head in the back ground of the lower pic

Whenever I come up here at this time of year, it always feel like an Ortolan is just around the corner. The other patch birders know this is one species I really want to see here. (For non patch birders, that's because virtually every other patch birder HAS seen one [or two!] here). Anyway, today yet again wasn't the day, but the number of these around was encouraging...

Yellowhammer

A quick look from the farm gate after Axe Cliff showed the three Greenshank still on (a now full!) Colyford scrape.

Spring Is Fading Fast...

Colyford Scrape this morning had two Ringed Plover and six Dunlin on it. Which although poor - is twice as good as yesterday morning!

In May most years we get flocks of Dunlin in three figures on the Estuary - but not this year! It really has been woefully poor for wading birds this month - I think the distinct lack of rain has a lot to do with it. The beach is usually a really good place for resting spring migrant wading birds - I've 'endured' several morning beach walks over the past few weeks and haven't seen a single wader!

Anyway that is more than enough negativity from me in this post, so here are a few snaps I've taken over the past couple of days... (yes you can tell it is quiet because I am pointing my camera at these birds!)...

Three breeding plumage Little Egrets acquiring breakfast outside Colyford Common hide yesterday

How exciting - a Canada Goose!!

A Mistle Thrush collecting food in Axmouth - a nice juicy caterpillar and a worm for its chicks

A singing male Yellowhammer at Axmouth

Last night I had a moth trap out in that back garden, a few more new species for the year were amongst the 34 moths of 13 species...

1 Red Twin-spot Carpet
1 Silver-ground Carpet
1 Scalloped Hazel
1 Peppered Moth
2 Poplar Hawkmoth
1 Elephant Hawkmoth
2 Orange Footman
2 Shuttle-shaped Dart
9 Heart and Dart
1 Hebrew Character
1 Ingrailed Clay
8 Trebble Lines
6 Vine's Rustic

Elephant Hawkmoth

Ingrailed Clay

Off to work for me now - something I seem to be doing too much of, of late...

Patch Tick!

This morning the Axe Estuary Ringing Group had a session planned at Colyford Common - at this time of year we net in the crop field and the north end of the reserve. I was there at half seven, and although ringing was never 'busy' - there was always a trickle of birds.

Just as I was closing the ring on a 'new' Cetti's Warbler that we had just caught, these small clumps of reeds...

(known as Fraser's reed bed)

....suddenly came alive with the calls of Bearded Tits! EPIC!

After a bit of scanning, I spied a female/juvenile sat out on top of one of the nearest patches of reeds. Another female/juvenile joined it and they spent the next few minutes flitting between reeds calling to each other. PATCH TICK!!!!

All nine of us managed to see them, and as we were cursing ourselves for deciding NOT to put a net up in the reed bed today, the Beardies took to the air and gained height rapidly. They started heading off north, but turned around and disappeared into the sun south east. Calling all the way.

Now if I hadn't have had a Cetti's Warbler in my hand, then I'm sure I would be posting some photos of them. But I did, so here's a photo of another Tit with a long-tail...

Pity it didn't bring a stripey warbler with it!

Saw plenty of other birds whilst ringing. A couple of Brambling paused briefly in trees, where a Fieldfare 'chaked' from for half an hour or so early on. A few Redwings were knocking around, as were up to ten Reed Buntings. Overhead Skylarks were passing over in good numbers, and a few small flocks of Wood Pigeons totalled c250 birds.

On Colyford Marsh, a low flying Buzzard spooked over 300 Wigeon and 150+ Lapwing. At least four Rock Pipits were on Colyford Common with a Green Sandpiper and a Snipe also noted.

Nice to see plenty of Common Darters still out in the sunshine, and a female Migrant Hawker.

For some unknown reason, I put a moth trap out last night! I really shouldn't have bothered as this morning I had only one moth to look at....a worn Large Yellow Underwing.

I'll end this post with a couple of photos I forgot I took! They were taken during my second unsucessful search for Lap Bunt at Axe Cliff sometime last week...

Now that's what I call a Bunting!