The Cold Weather Continues

There was one heck of a frost this morning - and in many places it never thawed! I see we have a few more days of this cold weather, then it's milder from Thursday. But that's not the last we're going to see of Jack Frost, it's set to go Arctic again next week!

The sea was 'steaming' all day, it just didn't clear. This really foiled my plans of adding Scaup to my patch list! Standing on the sea front first thing didn't prove a total waste of time though, as a red head Goosander flew west along the beach. Mid afternoon off Seaton Hole, two Eider, five Common Scoter and 16 Great Crested Grebes were close enough in to still be seen.

Seaton Marshes showed two Ruff feeding on grain by the lagoon, a male and a female. The female was a ring-less first-winter bird, so not the bird my grubby hands fondled a few days ago! Also here a Golden Plover flew north over the reserve and a Water Rail showed well near the parking area.

Had a look around Kilmington late morning, where one field boasted an impressive 130 Common Snipe, along with a single Jack Snipe - which was nice! I wasn't quick enough to get a shot of the Jack, so you will have to make do with a few poor quality Common Snipe pics...

A Great Snipe would have been nice!

Also here were a couple of Fieldfare, 30+ Redwing, 15 Lapwing and four Teal. I then had a look at Kilmington WTW where I was hoping for a grey Chiffchaff or two. In the end I only saw two Chiffchaffs of any description - they were both green. Two Water Pipits feeding on the filter beds were a bit of a surprise though, I've never seen one here before. A Goldcrest was working hard to find food nearby, flitting along fences, machinery, and even...

I was a worried it was going to electrocute itself!

I had a look for the Yellow Wag early afternoon, and it was showing on one of the smaller filter beds. It remained distant so there's nothing I can add today to help the ID debate.

A look along the Estuary at 13:30 revealed my best count of Med Gulls so far this winter, with six adults present all in the lower part of the Estuary. Three were ringed; one just a metal ring, one red colour-ringed which I couldn't read, and the third a white colour-ringed individual with '3N93'. This is a bird I think I've seen before - I've sent the details off and will post the response when I get it.

I had another look along the Estuary at 14:10, and saw not one Med Gull! I headed round to Seaton Hole and all six were present in the roost. Meds always seem to arrive at the Seaton Hole roost early, with few if any dropping in at or towards dusk.

My old man found a Waxwing today on the Otter, and there was another in Newton Abbott. I do hope we get one - it's a bird I'd love to see on the patch. We've got plenty of places for one to stuff itself full of juicy red berries, I just hope it's in a place where someone will find it!

Yellow Wagtail Part Two

Well I've been stuck in work all day today - oh what fun!

Whilst my fun was being had, I've had several e-mails and texts about the Wag. It's proving to be a very interesting episode - many thanks for finding it Phil!

Martin Garner has written a piece on his excellent blog about our bird (see HERE), and if you look at another post of his (HERE) there are some pics of true Eastern Yellow Wags. The last photo on this post shows a bird that puts my worries about the amount of pale on our birds bill to bed, well and truly!

Also, James Lidster kindly made me aware of a grey flava he saw it in Holland about a month ago, see HERE.

I wonder though, will anyone ever really know where this bird was born? There is so much with birds and birding that we just don't know. And then there's all the stuff that we don't know, we don't know - if that makes sense!

All good fun and all a massive great learning curve :-)

I'll be visiting the Wag again in the morning - just need to nail that call because that will tell us what it is....or will it....

Yellow Wagtail.... In December?

....oh yes!

'Bird of the day' was a pale Yellow Wagtail found by Phil this morning at Colyford WTW. I was ringing on Seaton Marshes (more on that later) so couldn't get there until early afternoon.

Phil had only had rather poor views of it, and that was what I was expecting. But a glance through the trees and fence from the footpath which runs along the northern edge of the sewage works revealed it feeding on the nearest filter bed!

It's a very interesting bird, very interesting indeed...

Hmmmmmm....

There's a few 'odd' things about it..... aside the fact it's in Devon in December!

• Very pale under parts, no yellow on throat/breast/belly/vent area. I did think I saw a touch of yellow on the feathering at the base of the tibia though (i.e. the birds trousers).

• Greyish upper parts with a slightly paler rump and subtly duller cap and nape.

• Very 'leggy' appearance - also note hind claw length (though not sure how this compares with a flavissima?).

One feature I didn't expect to see on a Yellow Wag as grey as this though was the amount of pale on the base of the bill. An all black bill would have been much better!

What about the call I hear you ask? Well - we don't know! Depsite this bird being watched for a good couple of hours today, and being flushed several times (not by us I must add!) it didn't call once!

I have my idea/theory/guess at what it may be - but what do you think??

Ok, now time to rewind the day... it was an early start for me, meeting other members of the AERG at Seaton Marshes at 06:45. I would have found getting up a lot easier if I'd gone to sleep at say 10pm the night before, and not 2am as I had!

What followed was probably the most successful cannon net catch we have ever had.It was touch and go whether it was going to go ahead because of the recent cold snap, but an increase in temperature helped the boss decide we were good to go.

We 'banged' not long after 07:30, and under the fired net were 191 birds!!

Most of these (131 in fact) were Teal, with smaller numbers of Wigeon, Mallard and Shelduck. A nice treat were two Shoveler - a species infrequently ringed in the UK.

Adult drake head on

First-winter drake side on - looks quite menacing doesn't it!

These Shoveler weren't the only gems in the net this morning - there were some waders too!

Six Black-tailed Godwits included two controls (birds already ringed but not by us). We colour-ringed the other birds with the Axe's combination (yellow/red/yellow) on their right legs, as well as individually unique combinations on their left legs. The one I processed is lime/orange/lime...so keep your eyes peeled!

A Lapwing was a first for the ringing group - and a new bird for Fraser. Very smart it was too! This, or anything else already mentioned wasn't my highlight though....

We had no idea a Ruff was amongst the mass of feeding birds when we fired the cannon at dawn...but there bloody was!!! And guess who got to ring and process it :-)

Soooooo teeny!

The bird's wing length (backed up by bill and tibia measurements) nailed it as a female. Leg colour, and most importantly active wing moult, helped age it as an adult. What a stunning bird - I felt (and still feel) so privileged to have ringed it!

All in all - another excellent day on patch. Rounded off nicely with an Estuary jaunt which showed the Bar-tailed Godwit still along with two adult Med Gulls...

one being 'Red ZTL8'

What A Difference A Day Makes

I was planning to be on the sea front by dawn. I would have had to walk down, so had my alarm set for 06:30. For some reason either it didn't go off, or it just didn't wake me, and there I lay in bed snoozing for longer than I had expected!

When I finally did wake up, I gambled and got my car out. All was fine, and I got to the sea front at 09:30. All WASN'T fine here! I'm flipping glad I stayed in bed...

...you could barely see the sea!

A look up the valley didn't show anything that was obviously new, but six Gadwall and yesterday's Barwit were still present...

With Blackwits about halfway along the Estuary

The Bewick's Swan remains with the small gang of Mute Swans opposite Stedcombe. This photo is rubbish; the only reason I'm posting it is because it shows how small the Bewick's looks...

Teeny!

Lower Bruckland Ponds is nearly entirely frozen over, except for a small patch in the corner of the top pond. This was covered in ducks, though only two of them weren't Mallards. One was this...

Shoveler

And the other was this....

Answers on the back of a postcard please! What is it and where? (ps Coot isn't a duck!)

I then had a look at Bindon Barns, hoping for a nice rare Bunting. This never materialised, but there were up to 30 Yellowhammer feeding on the spilt grain...

Certainly worth keeping an eye on then, I would LOVE a patch Cirl Bunt!

It had just passed midday, and another look over sea showed the horrible 'sea steam' was clearing. So I went to Seaton Hole.

A very nice surprise here was a distant Velvet Scoter - my first on patch for a wee while. The word distant is an understatement though - I couldn't tell you what age or sex it was! Hopefully it will stay with us for a few days or more, and drift in a bit closer!

Also here were two Eider, eight Common Scoter and a flock of six Tufted Duck which landed briefly on the sea before flying off west.

To complete this post, a Brambling flew over the garden at 9am, but almost no Skylarks and not one Lapwing! What a difference a day makes....

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....

I Did What!???

Sorry for the delay in writing this post, I have had a very busy weekend! But yes the rumours are true - I have been birding in Devon NOT on patch.....

Last Friday, I had to go to Exeter, but thought I'd make a bit of a day of it! So I was at a very cold and frosty Ide by 07:40...

Up to 70 Redwings flew over, as did a Golden Plover. A Chiffchaff showed in an adjacent hedge, and at 08:05, a Hawfinch dropped out of the sky, landing on a fairly distant tree for about half a minute before flying off west.

This was the trees and field I was looking over...

...basically where I was told to go and where I've seen them before

But after a further hour, I hadn't had another sniff of Hawfinch. I was going to give up, but decided to try a little further down the lane just before I headed off....and there they were!!!

Hawfinches suddenly started calling from above me...

You may need to turn the sound up for this video!

There were three chasing each other around, one flew one way, another went another way, but one stayed put for a short while, allowing me to fire off this quick pici with the Lumix...

Cracking birds!

I left here, popped in to Exeter, then carried on south - I was heading for Torbay.

Broadsands was my first stop, here I met up with Mike and Josh.

A perfect day for it

In the bay were seven lovely Black-necked Grebes and a Red-throated Diver. We then headed for the 'bunting fast food restaurant' where up to 14 Cirl Buntings where showing, although very jumpy thanks to passing noisy dog walkers. Also here a couple of Siskins were feeding in alder trees with Goldfinches.

Cirl Bunts with a Reed Bunt and a Chaffinch

I then headed for Berry Head, where a tame Lapland Bunting had spent the last couple of days. I'm pleased to say it was still there! It really was tame, with dogs, children and prams passing within feet of it!

I didn't like to get too close to it as there were other birders and photographers there, but these are my best pics with the trusty Lumix...

What a bird! It is clearly a first-winter, and almost certainly a male



And here's a short video; it would have been much longer if a passer-by hadn't started talking to me!!

After another meet up with Mike, a look off Paignton failed to show the Long-tailed Duck, but there were singles of Common Scoter, Red-throated Diver and Black-necked Grebe. It was then time to come home and go to work.

Well - I really enjoyed myself, great to go birding in this part of the county again. I can see a few other off patch day trips in the months ahead...

I did no birding at all during the weekend, just plenty of wedding planning, a day at work and a three hour gig. This morning though I've been back out on the patch, and have seen a few interesting birds. Expect another blog post later or tomorrow....

Pleasant But Quiet

I woke up to, as forecasted, a very hard frost and ice. Just what winter should be like!

After a brief and unsuccessful sea watch, I headed up to Beer Head. The only birds that could possibly be described as being grounded migrants were a couple of Song Thrushes and a Goldcrest. I was surprised by the eastward trickle of Finches along the cliff edge; it was mostly Linnets with smaller numbers of Chaffinches and Goldfinches, with two Siskins and a Redpoll adding variety.

Two adult Med Gulls were on the Estuary mid afternoon, with the wintering Common Sandpiper - but that's all I've seen of note today.

To end this post, here's a few wintry snaps that I took this morning...

A frosty Axe Valley from Beer Head

The pools opposite Axmouth FC (of Dowitcher fame) frozen over

Axmouth FC pitch

I've heard of 'water off a duck's back' - but not 'ice off a swan's back!!!'

Knot Worthy Of A Blog Post

There was a lone Knot on the Estuary from Coronation Corner this afternoon. Also managed a good count of 162 Teal, split almost exactly 50/50 between Colyford Marsh and Axmouth FC.

Earlier today, a sea watch 08:00 - 09:00 revealed:

6 Red-throated Diver (west, in three lots of two)
1 Great Northern Diver (showing well on the sea)
6 Common Scoter (5 east and 1 drake on sea, later there were 2 females on the sea)
90+ auk sp. (I can't say I saw a single Guillemot though)

What an exciting birding day.......