Bird Ringing

Here it is, the final catch up post...

During September and so far this October it feels like we've had more than our fair share of wind, which has seriously hampered mist netting efforts. Even more so because my prime autumn bird ringing location, Beer Head, is so exposed. Still, this autumn I have managed six sessions up there, the 2nd, 18th and 25th of September, and 3rd, 8th and 14th of October.  All sessions were over by about 11am, and I never had more than two 60 foot nets up, in fact on two dates I just had one 60 foot net open. Thanks must go to Peter B who has helped and accompanied me on four of the dates, his help has proved invaluable.   

During these six sessions 226 birds of 23 species were trapped and ringed, and they were:

5 Swallow
4 Meadow Pipit
8 Wren 
7 Dunnock 
2 Robin
2 Redstart (both ringed on 2/9)
2 Stonechat (both ringed on 8/10)
3 Blackbird
1 Lesser Whitethroat (ringed on 2/9)
2 Whitethroat (singles ringed on 18/9 and 25/9)
52 Blackcap
75 Chiffchaff (incl. one grey bird ringed on 14/10)
4 Willow Warbler (all on 2/9)
25 Goldcrest
2 Firecrest (singles ringed on 8/10 and 14/10)
1 Spotted Flycatcher (ringed on 18/9)
8 Long-tailed Tit
3 Coal Tit
7 Blue Tit
8 Great Tit
2 Chaffinch
1 Goldfinch
2 Bullfinch (ringed on 18/9)

What a superb ringing site Beer Head is turning out to be.  It continues to amaze me just how many birds move through the two hedgerows I net, and how quickly they pass.  So few birds are re-trapped here, just the odd resident Dunnock and tit, on release all the migrants just motor on with their migration.  And it's always worth remembering I only net a tiny part of Beer Head, so the true number of birds that move through the whole place is probably quite significant.  Anyway that's enough text, here's some pics...

Lesser Whitethroat.

Head shot of Lesser Whitethroat showing that gorgeous steely grey iris.

Male Redstart.

It's fitting that I've caught three Coal Tits as they are everywhere this autumn, I've not seen a Continental ater bird yet though.

Gorgeous male Stonechat.

A lady Stonechat.

Firecrest number one, a male.

The second male Firecrest, from above to show off that lovely head pattern.

The grey(ish) Chiffchaff from 14/10 - colour wise it reminded me of a Garden Warbler.

At the rear with a standard collybita bird, it was far from a tristis but still very striking and nothing like the other 74 Chiffs I've ringed here this year.

And it's not only all these birds Beer Head can offer. There really are worse places to spend the morning...

Looking east towards Seaton and Axe Cliff.

A Frustrating Few Days

It's saying something when it's mid October, winds are coming straight from Russia, your nearest headland has had Olive-backed Pipit, Little Bunting, two Red-backed Shrikes and numerous other scarcities, and the highlight of the week so far is...

Second from right...

At the back

Yes, a weirdo duck.  I'm pretty sure it's a MallardxGadwall hybrid, and it was a nice bird, but please I want proper birds!!

To be honest the wind has been a major problem, for both birding and ringing.  I've tried checking all the sheltered spots but that's still turned up nothing. I know Bun's spent a lot of time out and about too, and no doubt Ian M - yet not even a Yellow-browed Warbler to show for our efforts. Grrrrrrr. 

I can't really grumble too much as I have seen plenty of birds, just not anything special. I had my first Redwing over the house after dark (whilst bringing the washing in, see there is an up side to house work!) on Monday night, and this morning I saw my first day time ones with five on Beer Head just after dawn.  Also on Beer Head this morning a good passage of Skylark east, along with a few Siskin, two Redpoll and some invisible Crossbills (sounded like a small flock).    I was actually up there ringing, I decided to go for it despite the wind. As there's a bird ringing post coming up on this blog I wont give any details of what we caught (it wasn't much!), but as a teaser, here's the best bird from the mist nets this morning...

3 male Firecrest

Oh well, try again tomorrow...

A Busy But Blustery Beer Head and a Glossy House Tick

Too windy to even contemplate bird ringing this morning (and maybe this week?), but I still thought Beer Head was worth a walk around today despite the crystal clear skies and strong north wind. 

The regular haunts on the east side of the head were completely blown out and did appear to be pretty bird-less, but looking over the Underhooken, along to Branscombe and the upper slopes of Branscombe were sheltered enough to show there was quite a lot of passage going on.  I spent almost an hour looking over the Underhooken watching Goldcrests and Chiffchaffs filtering up the cliff edge, then flicking over the top and off inland. Sadly there wasn't anything rarer (or stripier) among them.  

Overhead passage was ok, not great numbers (Skylark and Meadow Pipit the most numerous), but there was some nice variety. Best of all being a flock of six Crossbill that flew east, low enough to see a couple of nice red males too. There were the expected Chaffinches, Linnets, Goldfinches and Siskins, along with a single Reed Bunting and two Redpolls. Still a few Swallows and House Martins about, but seemed to be noticeable fewer than just a few days ago.

I've already mentioned the Chiffs and Goldcrests, but it was also a Stonechat day - I had at least 18 in all, which is a great count for Beer Head.  And with them two Wheatear, one of which posed in a nice autumnal way...

I am still waiting for my first Redwing, but there were noticeably more Blackbirds and Song Thrush about so I don't think it's far away. To complete my list of sightings from this enjoyable two hour wander, three White Wagtails were nice to see as they were my first of the autumn, and a couple of Yellowhammers dropped in (although they could have been local birds)...

I'm sure you have already read about them on another website/blog/social media platform, but on Saturday as I was driving towards Portland, two Glossy Ibis were flying the opposite way.  They weren't seen from the sea front here (the obvious place to stand when you are told two birds are following the coast west), but it later transpired they were seen circling over Black Hole Marsh at midday, and then feeding on Colyford scrape later in the afternoon.  

Thankfully Phil refound them on Sunday afternoon, but I didn't manage to see them, well one of them, until 4pm today.  It was worth the wait though because I saw it from my bedroom window!  To be honest I thought they'd gone as they were last seen at 11am today on Colyford scrape, and I checked that place several times since and saw nowt.  But as I was typing away on my laptop I heard a very low flying helicopter going over, so thought it was worth a punt.... and among a sky full of panicked birds, a lone Glossy Ibis came circling down on to Black Hole Marsh. Result!  This is my fourth patch record of Glossy Ibis, the others being;

• A flock of six on Black Hole then Colyford Marsh on 19/09/09, found by Clive and they stayed for about six hours.
• On 13/09/10 a flock of 18 that had been on the Otter Est for days flew past Gav and Bun on Beer Head, I was at Axe Cliff and could see them flying east and then north up the valley. Later the same day they were at Dungeness (Kent)!
• A one day bird on Seaton Marshes on 8/11/13 found by Tim White.  

As you can see from those records, Glossy Ibis don't usually stay with us very long at all, but these two must have found something they like!

Portland

Had a nice day out today with Jess and Honey. Went a little further east than usual, which was nice as I haven't been here for several years...

Didn't appear to be many sea birds offshore despite three pairs of eyes looking...

We enjoyed a really nice walk up to the slopes past the Coastguard Lookout, through the Top Fields to Southwell, back down across the the Bill Road through Eight Kings Quarry then along the East Cliffs back to the bill end.  

It wasn't a birdie trip, but was nice to see a few Wheatear, heaps and heaps of Stonechats (15 in one field!), a few Chiffs, Blackcaps and Goldcrests, loads of Mipits, and to finish the walk off perfectly...

The resident Obs Quarry Little Owl

The best bird of the day was during the journey over; a single Marsh Harrier circling by Abbotsbury Castle before it flew high east along the Fleet. Pity I didn't see the two Ibis that were going the other way though!

The Birds

It's time to review what the birding has been like on the Axe over the last month or so, and what I've seen...

I'll start back when I first became laptop-less, in late August.  The Baird's Sand proved a one day wonder on Black Hole Marsh, but the Wood Sands lingered.  Although big numbers were only present for a couple of days, there were between five and 14 for the next few weeks - still amazing numbers when talking about Wood Sands!  What proved as amazing as the numbers were the views they were offering...

Personally I think there's not many places better for seeing wading birds up close in the UK than Black Hole Marsh.  Just look at that Wood Sand in the photo above, it couldn't be closer to the Island Hide!

We had quite a few juv Little Stints over the course of August/September, never more than two at a time, but we probably had about seven or so over the course of the autumn.  Curlew Sands though have proved scarce this autumn, and all we managed were a couple of juveniles on 24th Aug...

A front view and a back view! Both are Curlew Sands I promise

Otherwise we had good numbers of Ruff (up to double figures) and the odd single Knot, Turnstone, etc...

Knot

Black Hole Marsh really came good on 30th/31st Aug. Late on 30th a patch first and Devon mega appeared in front of Tim Wright, a Citrine Wagtail! (the grim details and a photo here).  Sadly after barely a minute it flew off and was never seen again. Gutting.  The following morning birders searching for the rare waggy turned up a cracking Spotted Crake and a Wryneck - on fire!!!  I didn't see any of the three rarities, but so happy for the chaps that did and very pleased for the patch. A Bittern was seen on Colyford Marsh by many on 8th Sept, but since then Black Hole and Colyford Marsh have remained rarity-free zones. 

Over on the Estuary  it's been fairly quiet.  The small wader flock from Black Hole Marsh could often be seen here at low tide, and good numbers of gulls on 21st Sept included 180+ Great Black-backed Gulls and a lovely first-winter Yellow-legged Gull.  I saw my first Wigeon of the autumn on 24th Aug (it was actually on the sea), but from mid Sept numbers have been building, there are probably about 80-100 present now.  A nice surprise this morning were two Pintail on Colyford Marsh scrape, my first ones this year. Unusually a Razorbill has been present for a good few weeks on the Estuary, often on the river as far north as the Tower Hide. Bit of an odd sight.

Back to the sea, and an evening walk along Branscombe Beach with Jess and Honey on 29th Aug showed there were large numbers of Gannets offshore (despite no wind at all), and thousands of whitebait washed up on the beach.  

I was interviewed by BBC Radio Devon about this, not quite the 'freak phenomenon' they were hoping for though!

Because of this, the next morning I spent a few hours at Spot On Kiosk, and was rewarded with lots and lots of birds. Most of these were feeding gulls and Gannets, but I did see c35 Manxies and at least six Balearic Shearwaters, a couple of which were lingering and feeding offshore.  A Greenshank in-off was a bonus too, and vis mig over the beach included three species of wagtail for the first time this autumn (Pied, Grey and Yellow).

A bird ringing update will be in another post (once I have IMPR up and running again), but I have spent a fair bit of time at Beer Head, and have had some good mornings there without really seeing anything that special. You don't always need rare birds to have a good day.

The 1st Sept was a pretty good morning up there, in two hours I logged 25 Yellow Wags, one Grey Wag, two Tree Pipit, eight Wheatear, two Redstart, three Spot Flies and a late Swift.

The best day for me though was 17th Sept. Up to the day before I'd seen just a handful of migrant Meadow Pipits, but it was bursting with them!  I left the head 3.5 hours after arriving, and had counted at least 750 Mipits, some flying straight through, but most landing among the long grass in large flocks briefly before continuing on west.  It felt so so good for a rare pipit, but sadly it never happened.  The bushes were just as busy as the fields, with good numbers of Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps, what will probably prove to be my last Willow Warbler and Redstart of the year and a single Spot Fly.

A beautifully well marked juv Spotted Flycatcher

More recently, the 30th Sept was a windy morning, but hirundines were streaming through in their thousands at Beer Head, all going east. In with them plenty of Meadow Pipits, a few finches and on the land a Wheatear and a Spot Fly.

The best day for vis mig variety was even more recently, on 3rd Oct. I was up there ringing and it was fairly foggy, but birds were piling through north.  Several large flocks of Linnets, Goldfinches and Siskins, almost continual Chaffinches and Meadow Pipits, numerous Pied and Grey Wags, the biggest movement of Skylark of the autumn so far (35+), a couple of Redpolls, singles of Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer, and best of all at least two Crossbill. If only the bushes were as busy!  I did see a Firecrest, but sadly didn't catch it...

The only notable birds I've seen since the 3rd were this morning's Pintail that I've already mentioned, and a Firecrest in the middle of Colyton during a dog walk on Sunday morning.

It feels good to be up to date, so from now on as I see I will post, yes regular blog posts will resume.  And I look forward to compiling the bird ringing post too, that will probably come early next week.

The Moths

As promised, here's a summary of what a bright light has attracted in the front garden of my Mum and Dads during the last month...

In general, September was an excellent month for moth immigration in the UK, especially early in the month. I set the trap every night of the week beginning the 7th hoping for something big like a Convolvulus Hawkmoth or possibly even the holy grail that is the Clifton Nonpareil - but sadly neither greeted me on any of the mornings.  It was though nice to see some of the usual late summer species along with a few (of the smaller) immigrant species.

The night of 7th/8th gave me 117 moths of 18 species, with migrants in the form of White-point and two Silver Y.  

The night of 8th/9th gave 117 moths of 15 species, no immigrants but a Feathered Gothic was a new one for the garden, and it was nice to see my first Canary-shouldered Thorn of the season.

Feathered Gothic

The night of 9th/10th produced 134 moths of 16 species, with the highlight being my fourth Hoary Footman for the garden.

Hoary Footman - I love their pale silvery grey hind wings

And finally was National Moth Night, the night of 10th/11th. This proved the biggest catch of the week with 147 moths of 19 species, and immigrants including a Vestal, a Silver Y and three Rush Veneer.

Vestal

I'll wind up this post with a one more photo showing my last couple of Hawkmoths of 2015 - always sad to see the Hawkmoth season end...

Elephant and Privet Hawkmoths

Fear not folks, strictly birds in the next post I promise. Until then I have two words.... Coal Tits! 

Back In Business

Finally!

A few rather major events have happened since my laptop died at the end of August. The most recent is the thing I'm writing this blog post on - a brand new laptop!  Thanks to my wife for this.  She wouldn't usually get me a new laptop, but I have just had a 30th birthday so the time was right.  Yes, I am now 30, and I quite simply can't believe it. It doesn't bother me, but I just cannot understand how it has happened, it was only yesterday I was 25... or so it feels anyway...

The other rather notable event since my last blog post was this...

Blood moon

It's not a great photo, but it does show the colour well. It was well worth getting up for early this morning, I always find anything space related extremely fascinating. And I've just heard they've found running water on Mars - mind boggling!

Anyway, back to the moon, and here's a few other pics showing the build up to the eclipse.  It was a cracking full moon to begin with...

 And later on the action began...

I have got so so sooooo much to write about, but instead of crafting one massive blog post I will divide it up into three; Birds, Bird Ringing and Moths. Next will probably be the moths, but in the meantime I've got a months worth of laptop work to be getting on with...

Oh nearly forgot, back to my birthday, if you've never tried hummingbird cake you simply must. Best cake I've ever eaten, and I have eaten a lot of cake...

Siskins

I figured I needed to put something bird related up here before I lose all my readers! It's going to have to be brief though I'm afraid...

For me one of the most stand out features of this autumns migration (so far) has been Siskins...

Male Siskin

This really has been an exceptional autumn for migrating Siskins. I noted the first 'vis mig' Siskins in late August, which is early, and ever since numbers have been on the up. I am not exaggerating when I say every time I've gone outside in the last couple of weeks - whether it's been birding, dog walking, going to work - I have heard Siskin.  Even had some over Watford and Egham last Saturday when Jess and I spent the day further east than usual.  I've not actually seen all that many as they have mostly been passing over high, but numbers like this so early in the season may be a good sign for the remainder of the autumn. Hopefully other irruptive Scandinavian species won't be far behind them...

Still No Laptop

Well I'm stuck in no mans land here, am waiting to find out if anything has been salvaged from my dead hard drive and am still waiting for a new laptop...

You'd think this would have meant I'd have had plenty of time to go out and about but I've been suffering from a heavy dose of man flu over the last ten days and just haven't had the energy.  Before that I had seen and ringed a few bits and pieces, and when I do get a new laptop one of my many jobs will be to do a summary blog post.  

If it wasn't for the impending mountain load of work I know I have to do as soon as I do get a new machine, a few weeks without a computer would have actually been quite refreshing... 

Disaster

Well this isn't exactly how my laptop looks, but it may as well. It had been in Computer A&E all of last week, but it was on Friday I got the sickening news...

It was dead, and not just any old dead, it was hard drive dead - the worst dead possible. So not only do I now not own a laptop, but it took all the data down with it. The only slight positive about all this is the computer geeks didn't charge for any of the work they did, no fix no fee. I still have to pay for a new machine though!

So all in all last week was not a good week.

Can't See The Trees For The Woods!!!

Just occasionally a birding event occurs that is quite simply mind blowing. However much your mind goes over it, you just can't get over it. And today that happened...

There's been three Wood Sandpipers on Black Hole Marsh for a few days now (there were five).  Sometime last night/this morning another 31 dropped in!!!!!  34 Wood Sands is just completely nuts, and not a number anyone would ever dream about seeing, certainly not in Devon, and probably not anywhere in the UK.  Wood Sands only ever come in ones, twos or threes, sometimes if your lucky six and once before in Devon ten (six was my previous highest here).

They were all juvs, and although spread out across the whole marsh (making counting very hard!), many were showing at point blank range from the Island Hide...

Check the other local blogs, sure to be some cracking shots

What I found even more nuts about this influx was that no other species were involved.  There were plenty of other birds on Black Hole Marsh (one Little Stint, two Green Sands, eight Ruff, lots of Dunlin and Ringed Plover) but all have been present for a day or so already.  

This Wood Sand influx has been witnessed right across the UK, although no other site has had more than 20 birds. I've read about 19 somewhere, along with a few other double figure counts, and smaller numbers dotted about all over.

Wow. Just wow.

Some Nice Butts

Butterflies are the last thing on my mind at the moment as I sit in my house with rain beating down on the windows and neighbouring trees swaying in the wind.  But there has been some sunshine over the last week and I've not just been looking up...

I wanted to see if there were any Chalkhill Blues hanging on in the corner of the patch, but sadly I couldn't find any so I think the answer is no.  There were lots of Common Blue, one Holly Blue, and highlights in the form of three Wood White and several Dingy Skipper...

Wood White - they look so much better in flight!

Dingy Skipper with Honey in the background!!

I've also been trying to locate Brown Hairstreak at a local site where one was reportedly photographed last year.  Nothing yet, but it is still early days!

Could Have Been Bad But It Was Baird's

Saturday I took Jess out for the day, a delayed birthday present (only three months late!). But right at the start of the day Phil phoned with news of a long-winged wader on Black Hole Marsh, either Baird's or White-rumped.  I don't need White-rumped for the patch so spent the next few hours hoping it was going to be another of these, but the bad news came early afternoon just as I was munching on a pork and apple pasty (which in my opinion was over seasoned, good meat should be left alone).

Thankfully though it did the decent thing, and when I returned home late afternoon a quick run to Black Hole (where for the first time I could really appreciate the recently tarmacked track to the Island Hide!) showed it was still present, and one of the closest waders to the hide.  Many thanks to Kev and Debs for letting me use their scope. Although there are heaps of staggering photos out there of it, I still had to get my own record shots...

I've never seen an adult Baird's before, but several juvs/1st winters. Whatever the age though that shape never changes, the long tapered wing tip of this species and White-rumped Sand is classic.  I thought it was actually a very pretty bird, very gingery overall with a gorgeous almost juv Curlew Sand-like peachy wash to the breast, and a very striking head pattern. I've always likened Baird's Sandpipers to weetabix, I hope Tim White doesn't mind me nicking one of his awesome photos from his website (http://timwhitewildlife.blogspot.co.uk/)...

Black Hole Marsh Baird's Sandpiper (c) Tim White

And...

Don't tell me you can't see it!? I will admit it is more obvious with the juvs.

A cracking bird for the marsh, and a great patch tick too.  I appreciated this one more than most because I (along with three others) have seen Baird's Sand on patch before, many many years ago though. I must have been about 14 and it was settled north of Coronation Corner late evening, but soon took off and flew out to sea. Oddly I have never forgotten the late Alan Bundy describing its call as "more like a fart than a bird call".  Sadly enough wasn't seen for the record to be accepted by BBRC, and I play by the books so it wasn't on my patch list. Well, it is now :-).

Black Hole has been superb during the last week, just this morning there were four Wood Sands on it, and last night Tim White had nine Ruff. On top of that there's been up to 50 Dunlin, 30 Ringed Plover, small numbers of Greenshank, Green Sands, a few more Common Sands, singles of Turnstone and Sanderling along with a few hundred Black-headed Gulls and double figures of Teal. What a place!

Puzzling Garden Warbler

Enjoyed a superb ringing session yesterday morning with 43 birds trapped at Lower Bruckland Ponds.  I never knew this place was such a fuel station for migrating passerines, but clearly it is.  As ever with ringing I wouldn't have had a clue half these birds were there without the nets. The more ringing I do the more I realise field counts are way off the mark, especially when it comes to migration.

It was mostly Warblers; 11 Chiffchaff, six Willow Warbler, one Blackcap, one Whitethroat, one Sedge Warbler and best of all a Garden Warbler.  Garden Warblers are scarce around here, so it was a complete surprise!

What a beaut!

This is only the second Garden Warbler I've ever handled (the other a spring bird) so am not experienced in ageing them. In fact I thought it was a 3 (this years young) at first, until I looked closer at its eyes...

The reddish tones to the iris makes this an adult (age code 4), would be more grey-brown if it was a 3.

Another look at the tail showed that although the feathers were quite pointy tipped, they're broad and abraded...

Not too sure what's going on with the tail though to be honest...

The main reason why I thought it was an young bird was because of that darker and obviously fresher central tail feather.  Many first-year passerines moult the odd or a few tail feathers during their post juvenile moult, which is what I thought had happened here - but other features make this an adult bird so that can't be the case!?  Also look at the middle tertial at the top of the photo, that's another darker and newer feather.  I keep looking at the other central tail feather too because to me that looks almost like a juvenile feather, much browner and narrower than the rest of the tail. Could this be a '5' (born last year) that failed to moult its two central tail feathers in Africa during the winter, but has since replaced one of them!?  

I really hope someone experienced with the moult cycle of Garden Warblers reads this and gives me their thoughts. I am probably way of the mark but surely it can't be a younger bird with an iris that colour and so much wear on the feathers??

Thankfully having handled many ten's of Sedge Warblers it was easy to age this bird as an adult (age code 4)...

Sedge Warblers didn't breed at the Ponds this year so it's definitely a migrant.

Looks like we are in for a few wet days now....

Autumn Passerines

Friday of last week was a lovely day, with plenty of sunshine and not a breath of wind.  And it was nice to finally see some autumn passerine migration...

Over Lower Bruckland Ponds several large flocks of hirundines flew west, along with a few Swifts and my first Tree Pipit of the autumn.  In the bushes were several Willow Warblers, Reed Warblers, a Whitethroat and a Marsh Tit - the latter being my first for the Ponds. 

Chiffchaff (rear) and Willow Warbler - both young birds. There was an 11mm difference in wing length!

I was really pleased to finally catch Kingfisher here too, two of them in fact...

Thanks for the extra pair of hands, James.

Seeing as this whole post has been about Lower Bruckland Ponds, I must just point you towards the Lower Bruckland Ponds website.  You'll see my monthly updates here that summarise how the wildlife of the ponds changes as the year progresses: http://www.natureindevon.co.uk/