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...

Macro Mandarin

Enjoyed a family day out to Dartmoor today, despite the brisk north west wind.... Well that's how I described it to my wife early this morning when I suggested we should go to Dartmoor today - blasting freezing cold wind originating from the centre of the Arctic circle would have proved a far more accurate description!

Due to this wind it was an in-car picnic and sheltered spots-only visit to Dartmoor. Our first spot was one of my favourites, Steps Bridge.  Am sure I'm with most people when I say I much prefer a woodland in the spring/summer, when the air is full of bird song and you're surrounded by nothing but luscious and vibrant colours. Saying that though there is something quite charming about the winter woodland, monochrome colours pretty much everywhere you look as the natural world re-sets itself for another busy season...

Something that could never be described as monochrome however was the highlight of the walk around Stover after lunch...

This was one of the six Mandarins that we saw, with this pair being the most obliging...

Here's a few more of the handsome drake...

This female was also fairly showy, among the Mallards in the prime feeding spot...

There were no Goosanders on the lake whilst we were there, with Tufted Ducks being the only diving ducks present...

Other than the usual Dippers, Siskins, Marsh Tits, Nuthatches, etc, that was it on the bird front today.  However I always leave Dartmoor looking forward to my next visit...

Lapwing Quiz; The Results

So here's the original photo, which I gave people 15 seconds to look at before making their guesstimates of how many Lapwing are on the shingle island...

A total of fifteen replies gave answers varying from 226 to 900. And a quick calculation of these revealed the mean answer to be 496, which is precisely 29 less than the correct answer of 525...

Thanks to all who got involved with the fun and well done to the closest two; @hjwright99 with 521 and @alexmxck with 520. You win exactly nothing, but hold your heads high....well unless you cheated of course!

I took this photo on Saturday when there were at least 1,500 Lapwing on Black Hole Marsh, it was completely crammed full of them...

Along with a Greenshank, about 30 Snipe and 26 Dunlin...

Roosting Dunlin

Off the beach there's still four Common Scoter, plus yesterday a group of five Red-throated Divers flew west whilst I happened to be watching (well chatting to Roger actually!). I have been checking the gulls on the Estuary whenever I've had the chance, sadly no further sign of Gav's Caspian with nothing else of note either.

Count the Lapwing!

Just for a bit of fun...

Clicking 'full screen' (the disjointed square that appears in the bottom right hand corner once you've pressed play) will help a lot ...

Tweet me or leave a comment with your estimate. Photo taken today at Black Hole Marsh.

Lyme Regis

An enjoyable family wander around Lyme Regis this afternoon revealed the lingering immature drake Eider distantly off the Cobb...

And 13 Purple Sandpiper feeding along the shoreline off the eastern end of the sea front...

Just a pity the sun wasn't out!

Who's Nicked Our Cattle Egrets?

Wasn't a bad sunset over the Axe Estuary last night...

I was there to check the roosting egrets, and came away feeling surprised having not seen any Cattle Egrets! Looks like they've all gone to Abbotsbury. Two adult Med Gulls on the Estuary were as exciting as it got.  Saying that I was surprised to see a distant Starling murmuration, albeit a small one (a mini-murm!) over Seaton. It turns out they are roosting behind solar panels on a house roof near the Orchard car park...

Today, during a local wander to get little Harry to sleep, a female-type Black Redstart was showing well along the sea front...

Other recent little snippets of interest from me include a lingering Greenshank and four Shoveler in the valley, up to three Common Scoter, Red-throated Divers and Great Crested Grebes settled offshore, and a pair of Blackcaps in Mum and Dad's front garden.

Maybe it's a good time to be reminded that in roughly eight weeks Wheatears will be here!

A Balmy Boxing Day Walk at Branscombe

Long time no post!  Sorry, it's been a busy few months with lots going on. But before I go any further let me wish you all a (belated) Merry Christmas.

Late this morning we went for a family walk in Branscombe. It was really mild out, with plenty of Robins, a Dunnock and a Goldfinch in full song - and then this Peacock butterfly came flying past...

Around the sewage works I couldn't find any Firecrest or Yellow-browed, but among the eight or so Chiffchaffs were two lovely examples of tristis Siberian Chiffchaff, the first ones I've seen this winter. I couldn't get any decent photos of either of them as they never came that close, but here's two record shots of one bird...

Like a ghost in the undergrowth!

Almost didn't post this one as it's so dreadful, but it does show upperpart colour well, more like a Garden Warbler than a Chiff!

Beer Head from Branscombe - shame a Great Spotted Cuckoo didn't fly into view!!  It felt warm enough for one.

And lastly, as I've not posted a shot of him on here for a while, here's our little man enjoying Christmas 2018...

He's turning into such a wonderful young man

Really hope I don't keep you guys waiting as long for the next blog post...
 

Arctic Tern Remains

Just a quick one to say the Arctic Tern was still around today, I watched it feeding off the seafront late this afternoon with Black-headed Gulls.  So 11th Nov becomes my latest date for a UK Arctic Tern!

I also noted my first Fieldfare of the autumn this morning, not far from my house - nice to hear that 'chack' again! Weeks later than I usually get my first though. 

Other news from the patch today include three Black Redstarts (one adult male) between West Walk and Seaton Hole.

Arctic Tern

Although we've had wet and windy weather for most of the last week, last night the south coast got a real battering so I was keen to spend time on the sea front this morning.  It was clear to see it had been a lively night...

Looking east from Spot On Kiosk

I wasn't expecting to see many birds passing, and I was right; just two Kittiwake and a Gannet flew by in the 45 minutes I was watching.  I was hoping more for a storm-blown Little Gull or such-like, and was encouraged by the 300+ Black-headed Gulls feeding at various points off the beach.  Sadly there was no Little Gull, but a cracking juv Arctic Tern more than made up for that!  It remained on view the whole time I was there, feeding close in between Fisherman's Gap and the mouth of the Axe.  It even came close enough to allow for some reasonable shots...

Black-headed Gull above the Arctic Tern

Arctic Tern showing off the white-trailing edge to its secondaries, this would be darker grey if it were a young Common Tern

Arctic Tern showing nice short all-dark bill and again those lovely pure white trailing edges to the secondaries

I took this when it was much further down the beach, but I wanted to show how juv Arctic Terns can look almost Sabine's-like at times - they have such contrasty wings quite unlike young Common Terns.

Later in the day, early afternoon, I was delighted to see the Arctic Tern again, but this time on the Estuary!  Only the third Arctic Tern I've ever seen on the Estuary - I've seen more Black Terns here!

Arctic Tern roosting with gulls

Arctic Tern resting on the water, lovely cute head and small bill obvious here

Arctic Tern flying down the Axe - perfect wing pattern on show here

Again, but this one is a video still. Best pic showing overall shape in flight

The wind was still quite strong early afternoon, and when it is so windy I find using 'flight-style' pretty useless when ID'ing terns, but here's a video anyway. Sorry it's so shaky...

I do apologise for the overload of photos of one tern, but we never do that well for any terns here really and Arctic Terns are scarce - you could easily go a year without seeing one.  So I just had to make the most of a lingering and fairly showy one, in my favourite plumage too!.  I'm pretty sure this is my latest ever Arctic Tern, but I have seen a later Common Tern here (which is unusual), with an adult on the Estuary on 13th Nov 2014 found by Tim Wright.  One day I will use these pics to do an ID post for juv Arctic vs Common - I just need to get some pics of a young Common Tern now! 

I had another look along the estuary later in the afternoon, when it was nice to get some good views of six Cattle Egret in the field just south west of Boshill Cross...

4 of the 6 Cattle Egrets

Looking where this Cattle Egret is stood I do wonder how often Cattle Egrets get pooped on!?

There weren't many gulls on the Estuary, but one of the most distant flocks contained a second-winter Yellow-legged Gull which was rather nice, not a common age here...

Third from right along the back, a nice long-winged bird

Yellow-legged Gull again with wings up showing tail pattern

Four species of gull here allowing good comparisons of mantle colours and size

Not a bad day really :-)

Late Little Stint

I jumped into action the other day, when Phil made a surprise discovery of an apparent Little Stint on Black Hole Marsh. He didn't have his telescope or camera with him, so considering the late date (31st Oct) I just had to check it out.....

Phil's impressions were dead right, it was a Little Stint.  The only one we've had this year so it was well worth the effort, although aiming my camera at it probably wasn't as the light was dreadful...

Little Stint

A lone Lesser Redpoll flew over Black Hole during my short visit there, and as well as the stint, on Black Hole there was a male Shoveler and a Greenshank.

This evening I dashed out after work to try and catch up with a tern sp. that was seen on the Estuary mid afternoon.  It was virtually dark when I made it over there so wasn't surprised to miss it, although there was just enough light left to see a redhead Goosander fly down river at about 5pm.

Earlier today it was great to see numerous Redwings and Song Thrushes bombing around my housing estate at dawn, easily the best arrival of thrushes so far this autumn - but hardly surprising given the numbers calling overhead during the previous night. 

Good news on the Cetti's Warbler front.  The snow of last winter knocked out all our local Cetti's Warblers, well singing males at least, there may have been one or two females still hanging on.  In the past it's taken years to get numbers of this species back on the Axe after cold weather wipe-outs, but within the last two weeks alone I've noted two at Lower Bruckland Ponds and two around Black Hole Marsh, then yesterday morning the Axe Estuary Ringing Group ringed four around Stafford Marsh (see HERE). Excellent news indeed.

A Cetti's Warbler struggling in the snow and ice - taken on 2nd March this year