The Warblers Are In (Including One With A French Accent!)

I'm back from the big city! It was a great trip and enjoyed every minute, but Devon welcomed me back in fine form...

On the way back to Seaton after being dropped off in Exeter by National Express yesterday late afternoon, an Osprey flew low over the road up the River Clyst. It continued flying north for a short distance before it began to circle and gain height. Makes up nicely for the one I missed on patch whilst away!

I managed an hour out birding on patch before it got dark; two Ringed Plovers on the Estuary being the best - our first ones for the year. Here's one of them, distantly...

About a month later than normal!

Now to today, and I had a VERY enjoyable morning with the AERG at Colyford Common. We caught 36 birds, and as the title suggests, during the previous night there must have been one BIG arrival of warblers...

We caught eight, and I saw/heard another three of these...

Sedge Warbler

We caught two, and I heard another one of these...

Reed Warbler

We caught one, and I saw another two of these...

Whitethroat

These three were firsts for the year for me. The other warblers we caught were three Cetti's Warblers (both re-traps), two Chiffchaffs, and this female Blackcap...

Well a brown cap!

There was one obvious highlight out of all this lot though...

Yes it is a Sedge Warbler again...

But this one had this on its leg...

Yes that does say Paris... this Sedge Warbler had already been ringed... in France!

The best of the non-warblers caught were a couple of Reed Buntings and three Goldfinches.

Whilst wandering about I scored with another year tick in the form of a Greenshank which spent a few minutes flying about over Colyford Marsh. Also saw three Wheatear on Colyford Marsh, and a Yellow Wag (in flight only - it seemed to have a very pale head), two White Wags, five Dunlin, one Ringed Plover and this Little Ringed Plover on Blackhole Marsh...

This is the plumpest you'll ever see an LRP!

There were a few butterflies about in the sunshine, including my first Orang-tip. I didn't get a photo of it, but did get a photo of this sleepy Peacock...

Found resting in the ringing hut!!

I got home at about 2pm, and after some food was out again for a couple of hours. The highlight of this foray being yet another warbler! It was great to see a/the Lesser Whitethroat back besides the railway line between Whitford and Kilmington...

Welcome home!! :-)

To complete my bird sightings for the day, three more Wheatears were on Seaton Marshes this evening with two Common Sands on the Estuary. Lower Bruckland Ponds offered singles of Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, and good numbers of Willow Warblers and House Martins.

Had the moth trap out last night, which gave me one new for the garden...

Brindled Beauty

I shall finish this post with an 'awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww' photo...

I couldn't see Mum anywhere!

Identity Crisis

Crank the sound right up for this video folks...

.

A Wiff Waff!!!

This Willow Warbler has been along the track to Blackhole Marsh for at least a week now. Sometimes it does just do bog standard Willow Warbler, most of the time it has a bit of Chiffchaff mixed in, and now and then it does just Chiffchaff! I've heard Willys include a bit of Chiffy in their repertoire before, but never Willys singing phrases of just Chiffchaff! What a cooooool bird!!!!

Beer Head first thing yesterday with Bun was RUBBISH! One Willow Warbler (a 100% pure one!) was the best! Then a look along the Estuary offered me eight Whimbrel roosting on the saltmarsh at high tide, and the best Seaton Marshes gave (bird-wise) was a Yellow Wag north over.

I said bird-wise in the last paragraph, as yesterday at Seaton Marshes I got to see my first local Water Voles! Looking along the ditch from the parking area, two suddenly appeared. One swam across right to the left, whilst just behind it another gnawed down a reed stem (under water) before dragging it across left to right. Fantastic...even if they are a bit plastic!

Also watched an Otter yesterday, feeding off Coronation Corner as the tide was dropping mid morning. I had the biggest catch of the year in the moth trap on Wednesday night. 21 moths of 7 species. The only new for the garden was this....

Powdered Quaker

With a supporting cast of: 7 Common Quaker, 5 Early Grey, 4 Hebrew Character, 2 Clouded Drab, 1 Early Thorn and 1 Double-striped Pug. There was also this little fella on the wall by the trap, he was teeny....

But what is he?? Help!!!

If this morning had gone to plan then I would have seen lots of birdies, as there are loads of migrants filtering through today. But it hasn't....and I haven't! A couple of Wheatears, eight White Wagtails, two Whimbrel and that's it. There's loads about and I really wish I could get out there, but I can't as I'm going away for a few days tomorrow and really need to get myself sorted!!

I shall finish my last post for a few days with a couple of firsts for the year that I did get this morning, some butterflies...

Comma

Speckled Wood

LAST MINUTE UPDATE: I couldn't take it anymore!! Another trip out resulted in my first Redstart of the year, a CRACKING male (thanks Bun and Karen), and at least 12 more Wheatear.

A Red Reward On Day One

I have negotiated a new shift pattern at work... I will still work all day Sunday, but during the week instead of working four days 1pm-10pm, I will now be working five days 5pm-10pm. Today is the first day of this new work pattern, and the change has already proved worthwhile!

This morning we were ringing on the Borrow Pit at Seaton Marshes, from 07:00 - 13:30. I spent nearly the entire time looking skywards, several Buzzards, three Sparrowhawks, one Peregine and a few Swallows and House Martins were all I noted....no Red Kites.

I spent AGES trying to get a shot of one of the two House Martins which spent an hour or so flying about over our heads. I took loads of pics, a House Martin was only in about five of these, in four of them it was out of focus, which leaves this feeble attempt...

I reckon I could have got away with naming this as a Storm Petrel!! Yes, Storm Petrel over Seaton Marshes - bit of a surprise!!! ;-)

I'll put a couple of in hand bird photos at the end of this post, but to sum the session up we caught 19 birds, with a Blackcap and two Chiffchaffs being the only migrants.

After a bite to eat at home, I headed for Blackhole Marsh. As soon as I arrived, a Little Ringed Plover could be seen on one of the islands...

I presume one of yesterday's three?

I hunkered myself down besides the hedge half way along the west edge of the marsh to get out of the cool north wind to start a bit of a sky watch. It was fairly quiet until about 13:45, when it went a bit mad!

All the Gulls took to the air from beyond Seaton Marshes and the lower part of the Estuary, which got me scanning frantically with the bins... but whilst looking at the skies a long way south of me, the calls of Whimbrel started ringing out from much nearer...

A flock of six were flying around over Blackhole Marsh - my first of 2010

And it was very kind of them to do this..

Land!

Can you see the seventh wader in this picture?

One a little closer

With the Gulls still up and making a bit of a fuss, I turned my attention back to the skies. I clocked up a few Buzzards, but then, high to the south west picked up a Red Kite heading north.... superb!

I watched it for about five minutes as it slowly drifted north, although it was some way to the west of me and always high in the sky. That is why this 'record shot' of it is so rubbish...

....very very very rubbish!!! But still, a Red Kite :-)

So there you have it, starting at 5pm is certainly a good thing!

I had the trap out in the garden last night, but it was a lot cooler and as a result only caught four moths. They were singles of: Common Quaker, Hebrew Character, Early Grey and Red Chestnut.

I shall finish this post, as promised, with a couple of photos from this morning's ringing...

A fine male Greenfinch

Song Thrush and Blackbird (both first-year birds)

L.I.P....

... Little Invisible Plover!

After a top morning catching up with some of the family who are down for the weekend, I spent a few hours out on patch during the middle of the afternoon. With the clear skies and light breeze I opted for a spot of sky watching.

The highlight of a watch from Blackhole Marsh was a Little Ringed Plover which flew north calling non-stop at 15:30....it's a good job it was vocal, as I couldn't see the bugger!! I alerted Bun who was at Colyford Common, and he soon had it too...well his ears did anyway!

I was almost surprised I DIDN'T get a Red Kite, bearing in mind the numbers being reported at the moment!

On Blackhole Marsh, of note were: 34 Black-tailed Godwits, eight Redshank and five White Wagtails. Here's three of them...

...just!!

On Colyford Common, my third and fourth Wheatears of 2010 were nice to see. It's proving a VERY poor spring for this species - it's about bloody time this blog hosted a couple of Wheatear photos...

Both were males too :-)

It was another double figure haul in the moth trap last night, 18 moths of 5 species.

First for the garden were these two...

Clouded Drab; two different variations of

And this...

...which i'm pretty sure is a Red Chestnut??

The rest were: 12 Common Quaker, 2 Hebrew Character and 1 Early Grey.

Am working for most of tomorrow, will have to spend as much of my time as possible in the back yard me thinks!! It's about time I bagged another Co-op Osprey...

Double Figures At Last

The sunny skies over the last couple of days haven't helped in dropping migrants for us to enjoy! Just a couple of White Wags remain at Blackhole Marsh, and bird of the day today was a surprise Lesser Redpoll over the back garden at half nine this morning.

The title of this post refers to the contents of my moth trap this morning. 11 moths of 6 species constitutes the first double figure catch of the year! There was one new for the garden...

Pale Pinion

The rest of the catch was made up of: 4 Common Quaker, 2 Hebrew Character, 2 Early Grey, 1 Small Quaker and 1 Oak Beauty. There were a couple of micros too, including my first Plume Moth of the year...

I still prefer my name for them... 'flying T'

I shall close this short post with a snap I took at Axe Cliff yesterday morning. As there were no migrants about I was pointing my Lumix at anything...

Song Thrush... note the blue skue behind; blue sky = no migrants!!!

Blackhole Marsh Saves The Day

A Beer Head wander first thing showed next to no grounded migrants. A few Linnets, alba Wagtails, Meadow Pipits moving over west were nice to see though, as was a Siskin (also over west).

There really was SOD ALL in the bushes, so tonight when I read about Portland's mega fall today I was just a little gutted! Though on PBO's website they do mention they had cloud cover at dawn - we didn't - clear skies. Just shows how important weather is when it comes to falls of migrant birds. Anyway enough of that, back to this morning...

After Beer Head I headed for Blackhole Marsh, where this treat was waiting for me...

Hmmmm...what's that distinctive little shape down there??

Yes folks, our first Little Ringed Plover of 2010...

About bloody time!!

There were also two very smart White Wagtails near by and a Common Sandpiper - I reckon a spring migrant (the one wintering bird is always around the harbour). It was nice to hear these all around too...

One of many Willys!

That should have been it for me today in the field, but a shout from Bun had me dashing back to Blackhole Marsh at about 13:00, to see this...

PHWOAR!!!!!

There were now four White Wagtails here too. Later on in the day my old man scored with our first Sedge Warbler of 2010 also at Blackhole.

To round off the birdie section of this post, here's a nice 'tame' photo...

I do love my Lumix :-)

And now to Moths...

I wouldn't have bothered putting my trap out last night if I'd known how much rain was actually going to fall! I had many soggy egg boxes this morning! I'm pleased to say there were a few moths though, 7 of 4 species to be precise. Two of these were new for the garden...

Grey Shoulder-knot

Small Quaker

The other four moths were a Common Quaker and three Early Greys... now whoever named that moth must have been blind! The three this morning where stunning beasts, certainly not just grey - one of them had an amazing pink hue to it!

I shall finish with post with a photo of another insect, a brave butterfly flying around a rather windy Beer Head this morning...

Small Tortishell

Spring?

Two half-hearted and rather brief sea watches at either end of the day weren't very good at all. A couple of small parties of passing Common Scoters and two each of Sandwich Tern and Kittiwake being the best. Phil and Ian M gave our little bit of the English Channel a much better grilling than I did...

...but they too didn't see much

In fact, looking at the three of us, and these two guys...

...it was hard to tell who was having the more productive morning!?

It's Easter if any one didn't notice! And one of the great things about that is that Kym returns home from Uni for four weeks! :-) And the first thing she does upon her return is turn my bedroom upside down (well, right way up really!!), to make space for all her 'girly stuff'.... all seven lorry loads of it!!!

Anyway, whilst the big clean up was happening, she made a discovery in one of my desk draws...

My original 32X wide angle lens for my Kowa telescope!

Digi-scoping using my zoom lens is far from ideal. I have to digi-scope using the lowest zoom, which is 16X, and that isn't that much zoom at all! If I crank the zoom up on my scope, the field of view reduces dramatically, and any digi-scoped photos I have even taken with some added zoom from the scope have been utter crap! So the discovery of this is just BRILLIANT!

Within the next few days I'll post some comparison pics of digi-scoped photos taken through the two different lenses, just in case anyone out there cares!

Anyway, I had the first go with my new setup this afternoon along the river...

Bright sunshine and a devilish heat haze didn't help with this one!!!

And these things never stop moving when I'm watching them!!

If it wasn't for the fact I am so used to using a zoom lens (especially for sea watching) I would have the wide angle lens attached all the time. Anyway, let's get back on track...

As the post title suggests, apart from Swallows, Sand Martins, Chiffchaffs and a couple of singing Blackcaps, it really doesn't feel like spring! I still go out birding wearing my big black duffle coat, and I still look forward to a steaming mug of tea on my return home... or is it just that I am getting old???

I've Finally Seen A Wheatear....

................................................ APRIL FOOLS!!!!

Have I heck!?!?! This morning I 'enjoyed' my seventh spring stomp of Beer Head....and saw NOWT!

Yesterday, in the morning the AERG caught 79 ducks on Seaton Marshes, 77 of them being Shelduck! This included 15 'new birds' though (most being adult females), which indicates we've had some new birds come in to the area to breed. Whilst we were ringing and processing the birds in the hide, an Otter proved a nice distraction fishing in the lagoon.

Migrant wise, yesterday, all I saw were loads and LOADS of these....

All trying to get out of the cold wind!

And several of these....

Cute birds...but damn hard to photograph in flight as they are all toooooo quick!!!

My hirundine totals for yesterday stand at approx: 350 Swallows, 80 Sand Martins and two House Martins.

With so many of these about, and so few other migrants, I have a theory... I reckon these are all birds that were already in the UK, and the crap weather and low temperatures have pushed them back south to the coast. Counts from prime migration hot spots over the past few days back my theory up as very few have been noted arriving into Britain.

Am working a day shift tomorrow, but hope to spend some time in the field on Saturday....