Red-crested Pochard Still Here

Our plastic friend remains, but I have to say, looked a lot less plastic today! She was a bit of a loner really, feeding in the middle of the Estuary all on her own.

I haven't seen either legs yet, so still don't now whether she's sporting any silverware?!

Pity about the dull light

Earlier this morning, Blackhole Marsh showed the Wood Sand still, with a juvenile Little Ringed Plover and a small flock of Ringos and Dunlin.

An Hour At Dawn

Only had an hour out this morning, before spending the rest of the day in Exeter.

I spent that hour at Blackhole Marsh, where the Wood Sand continued to prove elusive and mobile. I did manage to get one pici today, though my attempt could be best described as being a photo of grass with a teeny bit of bird behind...

Smart bird nevertheless!

There was nothing else different to yesterday on the marsh, just a couple more Teal (now three).

Far From Wet On The Birding Front

Yes, althought the rain has been falling virtually all morning - or maybe BECAUSE the rain has been falling all morning - the birding has been good, with a (plastic) patch rarity, and some variety in the wader camp.

Some time this morning Ian M texted saying he'd seen a prob Red-crested Pochard in flight on the river but it had landed out of view. A couple of hours later, a quick scan through some Mallards from Coronation Corner in the rain did indeed show a female Red-crested Pochard.

I was soaked through, as were the ducks, my optics were steamed up and covered in rain-drops, so over all - it wasn't a 'rarity' I was overjoyed with, and it won't be stuck in my memory for long! It was nowhere near as exciting as the pair last May, which were a patch tick for all who saw them (see HERE). Anyway, despite the dampness, here's my best and only effort...

How exciting!

Rewind the day, and at 06:30 I found myself scoping over Blackhole Marsh, which has stacks more water in it than when I last saw it!

The highlight was without doubt a flighty Wood Sandpiper - our first of the autumn, and somewhat overdue. It wouldn't perform at all really, the only time it did settle was just as I was leaving, but it was very distant. I did take a couple of videos, in which you can hear it calling, but aside a blurry blob, can't see it. I won't bother uploading them.

The rest of the collection on Blackhole Marsh (and other waders I've seen today) include: 1 Lapwing, 16 Ringed Plovers, 1 Little Ringed Plover (juv), 28+ Dunlin, 1 Greenshank, 3 Whimbrel, 6 Blackwits, 4 Green Sands and 7 Common Sands. Also at Blackhole Marsh it was nice to see a Water Rail feeding along the back edge, a Teal, and overhead my first Swift for about a week. Some of the Ringos at Blackhole were quite approachable...

adult

juvenile; a rather pale looking one too! Pity it doesn't have black legs :-)

Later on a look along the Estuary showed yet another juvenile Yellow-legged Gull. A nice classic-looking individual, but when I got the camera out he/she just wouldn't stop preening...

Another shy one!

Slightly better....only VERY slightly!

Although you can't see it in these photos (maybe just about in the lower photo?) this bird had started moulting into first-winter plumage. I guess most will look like this from now on.

Won't have much time for birding tomorrow, but am hoping for another early morning look over Blackhole Marsh. An American peep please :-)

Water Vole Exclusive

I popped down Seaton Marshes late morning... yes I didn't go out until late morning, I had a VERY busy and tiring weekend!

On the Borrow Pit was this drake Tufted Duck, which was nice...

The Coots didn't like him!

I also just had to take this rather amusing looking photo...

Feeding must be good here!

A real treat came my way when this van pulled up...

It was a van-full of Water Voles!

Today the introduced population of Water Voles on Seaton Marshes got a bit of a top-up! And I was invited to watch/help... Here's roughly how it went...

In here are four Water Voles...


Which were then transferred from their cage into this pop-up laundry basket type thing...


And this is what it looked like inside the laundry basket...



Then one at a time they were put into Pringle pots, at first like this...


But if they resisted, like this...


Then the Pringle pots were passed to the 'in ditch team'...


Where they carefully enticed the Water Voles into ready made burrows. As soon as one went in, the Pringle pot was passed back to be re-loaded, "another one please...."


I shall end this post with the best shot of a Water Vole I got. Thankyou so much guys for letting me join in, I hope all your efforts prove worthwhile.

Bleak Birding But More Mothing

Beer Head this morning was very unbirdable! It was wet, windy and very dull and gloomy - I don't actually know why I bothered going up there!? A single Wheatear was the only migrant noted.

Blackhole Marsh showed seven Ringed Plovers and 17 Dunlin, and a sweep of the Estuary mid morning revealed a....surprise surprise...juvenile Yellow-legged Gull! Cue crap photo...

I'll get a decent photo of one eventually!!

Last night I ran one trap in the back garden, and this morning had 82 moths of 32 species. This included a first for the garden...

Least Yellow Underwing

The rest of the catch looked like this (with new for the year species in red as ever): 9 Shuttle-shaped Dart, 7 Willow Beauty, 5 Setaceous Hebrew Character, 5 Common Rustic, 4 Small Fan-footed Wave, 4 Riband Wave, 4 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, 4 Dark Arches, 4 Uncertain, 3 V-Pug, 2 Scorched Carpet, 2 Magpie, 2 Bright-line Brown-eye, 2 Large Yellow Underwing, 2 Dunbar, 2 Straw Dot, 2 Spectacle and singles of: Buff Arches, Single-dotted Wave, Shaded Broad-bar, Satin Beauty, Peppered Moth, Scalloped Oak, Jersey Tiger, Rosy Footman, Buff Footman, Common Footman, Four-spotted Footman (my first ever female), Rosy Minor and Lesser Yellow Underwing.

I forget to mention that at Chew Valley Lake, during the first night the course leader ran a moth trap. The following day I saw three new moths, Twin-spotted and Brown-veined Wainscots and a Grass Emerald (a county rarity). It was nice to see a couple of stonking male Oak Eggers too, a species I've only previously seen flying about in the day.

A Quick Wader Update

Blackhole Marsh at high tide today (although a very low one) gave a juvenile Little Ringed Plover, eight Ringed Plovers, 17 Dunlin, five Blackwits, seven Common Sands and two Green Sands.

I said it would only be a quick one...

CVL Ringing Course And My First Day Back Home

I'm back from a VERY enjoyable ringing course at Chew Valley Lake. What a fantastic site they have up there, lots of private lake side areas to ring in, with a very VERY well equiped ringing hut...

It includes a fully fitted kitchen, bathroom, two toilets...I'd be more than happy to live there!

And here's a few more photos from the weekend...

What a fantastic place!

Not only did we catch large numbers of birds to process and ring, but the team (both the fellow course particpants and the trainers) were such good company. It was also fantastic to meet and spend a few days with Jez Blackburn, one of the BTO's main ringers.

I came home yesterday afternoon, and enojoyed a few hours of football. I am pretty sure an Osprey was around during afternoon, as twice all the Gulls went up from the Estuary and over the town. Quite different to the usual canoe, dog walker or fisherman flush. I got to the Estuary ten minutes after the second flush - but there was nothing.

This morning, I gave Beer Head my first visit of the 'autumn'. It was queit, but that was probably mostly because I didn't get up here until gone 10am. The three Willow Warblers and an over-flying Grey Heron were probably the only birds that could be described as being 'migrants'...

One of the Willys and the Grey Heron

There was other migrants up there though....

One of the few Silver Y's

Mid afternoon I had a sweep of the Estuary, and it proved worthwile as amongst the MASS of gulls off Coronation Corner was a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull. As to be expected now on this blog, along with a sighting of Yellow-legged Gull comes a very crappy record shot...

The least crappy of all though me thinks!

Also saw the colour-ringed Herring Gull I saw last week, Orange MG6T...

...yes I think it's red too, but apparently it IS orange!!

A Few Last Minute Lines

I really am about to go, but thought I should just mention the two Crossbills that flew east over my back garden earlier this morning. Always nice to see (and hear!).

An omission from yesterday's post...because they are trash....was the flock of 32 Canada Geese on Colyford Marsh. 27 of them flew off SW, but I'm sad to say, an hour later they came back!!!

A Quick One Before I Go...

Tomorrow morning I will be leaving the patch for a few days, so you won't find any updates on this blog until Monday at the earliest.

Before I go though, I have some birdie and mothing news to tell.

This morning Blackhole Marsh proved worthy of a look as this fine Ruff was feeding in the middle of the marsh...

The first of the 'autumn'

Also here were two juv Little Ringed Plovers, nine Common Sandpipers and singles of Dunlin and Black-tailed Godwit. There were four Green Sandpipers on Colyford Common.

The only other notable bird sighting I have to mention since my last post is of a juvenile Med Gull on the Estuary a couple of days ago.

The last time I had my moth trap out was Monday night, it was the best catch I've had for a few weeks with 117 moths of 38 species captured.

This included one first for the garden, a Satin Beauty...

A female - note how wings are held unlike any other 'Beauty'

The rest of the catch looked like this: 12 Riband Wave, 10 Bright-line Brown-eye, 8 Rosy Footman, 7 Willow Beauty, 7 Common Footman, 7 Large Yellow Underwing, 6 Common Rustic, 5 Lesser Yellow Underwing, 5 Dark Arches, 4 Shuttle-shaped Dart, 4 Nut-tree Tussock, 3 minor sp., 3 Pug sp., 3 Buff Ermine, 3 Dingy Footman, 3 Heart and Dart, 3 Flame Shoulder, 3 Double Square-spot, 2 Early Thorn, 2 V-Pug, 2 Uncertain, 2 Beautiful Hook-tip and singles of: Buff Arches, Yellow-tail, Single-dotted Wave, Common Carpet, Garden Carpet, Brussels Lace, Common Pug, Wormwood Pug, Elephant Hawkmoth, Pale Prominent, Magpie, Grey Dagger, Clay, Snout and Spectacle. There were also two moths too worn and battered to even hazard a guess at identifying!

So, I'll just get tonights work shift out the way, and then I'm off for a weekend of bird ringing....

The Vapourer

I was hoping a morning tour of the local patch would show lots of waders as it is full moon time...but no! A Whimbrel and a few Common Sandpipers being all I could muster. There had been a small arrival of duck though, with nine Shoveler and a Teal on the river north of Coronation Corner with the flock of moulting Mallards.

Mothing last night got me a vey attractive first for the garden...

The Vapourer

In the trap were 68 moths of 33 species. Although not a good count, there was a nice selection; 10 Bright-line Brown-eye, 6 Dark Arches, 4 Ruby Tiger, 3 Common Footman, 3 Heart and Dart, 3 Cabbage Moth, 3 Large Yellow Underwing, 3 Silver Y, 2 Small Fan-footed Wave, 2 Red Twin-spot Carpet, 2 Early Thorn, 2 Poplar Hawkmoth, 2 Elephant Hawkmoth, 2 Dingy Footman, 2 Uncertain and singles of: Buff Arches, Common Emerald, Riband Wave, Wormwood Pug, V-Pug, Willow Beauty, Buff Ermine, Four-spotted Footman (male), Rosy Footman, Shuttle-shaped Dart, Double Square-spot, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Common Rustic, Grey Dagger, Coronet and Snout.

Will have the trap out again tonight, but that will probably be it for a week as I have a few days and nights of camping ahead of me....

Big And Small

Thursday night gave me an over-due first for the garden, with my sixth species of Hawkmoth here...

Privet Hawkmoth - the largest resident moth in the UK

And 'The Small', was this tiny immigrant micro moth that I caught last night...

Diamond-backed Moth

I'll bore you all with the full lists for both these catches, but don't worry they aint that big at all! And there's bird news afterwards...

Thursday night I caught 59 moths of 31 species; 10 Common Footman, 7 Bright-line Brown-eye, 3 Single-dotted Wave, 3 Buff Ermine, 3 Clay, 3 Uncertain, 2 Buff Arches, 2 Riband Wave, 2 Dingy Footman, 2 Grey Dagger, 2 Spectacle and singles of: Lackey, Small Blood-vein, Sandy Carpet, Small Rivulet, Brussels Lace, Willow Beauty, Brimstone, Peppered Moth, Poplar Hawkmoth, Privet Hawkmoth, Pebble Prominent, Rosy Footman, Heart and Dart, Crescent Dart (pictured below), Flame Shoulder, Flame, Large Yellow Underwing, Poplar Grey, Common Rustic and Silver Y.

My third of the year

Friday night I caught 63 moths of 30 species; 8 Riband Wave, 7 Bright-line Brown-eye, 6 Common Footman, 5 Dark Arches, 4 Common Rustic, 3 Flame, 2 Early Thorn, 2 Buff Ermine, 2 Shuttle-shaped Dart, 2 Uncertain and singles of: Pebble Hook-tip, Lackey, V-Pug, Brussels Lace, Scalloped Oak, Pebble Prominent, Buff Footman, Dingy Footman, Large Yellow Underwing, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Double Square-spot, Smoky Wainscot, Nut-tree Tussock, Silver Y, Spectacle, Beautiful Hook-tip and Fanfoot. Also five Rush Veener and the Diamond-backed Moth pictured above.

Ok, it is bird time now...

I have to say, I'm highly gripped by the juvenile Caspian Gull just west of us. The number of Gulling-hours I've put in during the last few weeks, and haven't had anything to show for it! Oh well, I'll keep trying....

The only Gull worth mentioning was a colour-ringed Herring Gull a couple of days ago; orange M6GT.

This bird was ringed by the North Thames Gull Group on 9th Jan 2009 at a landfil site in Pitsea, Essex. This is the third sighting of the bird since it was ringed, and guess where the other two were!? HERE! Gav saw it on the Axe in March and April 2009, see HERE and HERE.

On Tuesday, 14 Common Sandpipers on the lower Estuary was a good count, and I'm sure there were more on Blackhole Marsh and further up river. Today nine Dunlin, two Whimbrel and two Blackwits were on the Esturay, then a look at Blackhole Marsh showed seven Common Sands and this juvenile Little Ringed Plover...

I was going to snap it with my Nikon, but it flew and landed much further away as I was attaching camera to scope! Bugger!

Have done a bit of ringing during the last few days, with sessions in Shute and near Waggs Plot. By the end of the second session my hands were in agony, as I rung eight of these...

All but one were juvs

Whilst netting in Kilmington, a Hobby and a couple of Siskins flew over.

LATE AFTERNOON UPDATE:

Someone somewhere read my moanings further up this post and gave me a nice reward during another scan of the Estuary late afternoon. North of Coronation Corner an adult Yellow-legged Gull looked very smart amongst the local riff raff. It was distant though so any photo was always going to be a rubbish one, see....

You can make out its yellow legs if you enlarge the photo

A Quiet Few Days

Everything has seemed to have eased back a couple of gears in the bird and moth world over the past few days here.

Blackhole Marsh is looking superb for waders at the moment, but yesterday there were only seven Dunlin and four Common Sandpipers here.

A (early returning!?) White Wagtail was a bit of a surprise, and a Hobby - a species that has been very scarce on patch this summer - was fantastic to watch hunting hirundines overhead. Talking of hirundines, it was nice to see at least 60 Sand Martins, with smaller numbers of House Martins and Swallows feeding over the marsh.

White Wag

On Monday morning, a twenty minute sea watch mid morning revealed a surprisingly good passage of Common Scoters, with 70 past in three flocks. Four more were sat on the sea.

I've had had the moth trap out on only two nights recently, pimarily because of the rain threat. Saturday night offered 53 moths of 27 species and Sunday night gave me 58 moths of 37 species. Two very poor catches for this time of year really.

There were no new species for the garden in the two catches, but new moths for the year included: Small Blood-vein, Wormwood Pug, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Common Rustic, Brown-tail, Smoky Wainscot and Dingy Footman. Singles of Cresent Dart and L-abum Wainscot were also notable, as were single Rush Veeners on each night.

I'll finish with a couple of miscellaneous photos...

Fraser having a go on something he doesn't normally drive!

Mum and one of the young of the Little Grebe family at Lower Bruckland Ponds, there are three chicks in all

All About Gulls

All I had time for today was an evening sweep of the Estuary. As I love Gulls it was well worth it.... for the non Gull-lover it would have been a disappointment!

Brown is beautiful, it is official...

What a cutey!

Yes my first juvenile Med Gull of the year greeted me half way up, I just love them!

At Coronation Corner, I was very surprised to see 'The White One' again, it hasn't been seen for months! It looks much the same though, but only offered very distant views...

...in crap light too!

Mind you, it behaved better than the juvenile Yellow-legged Gull I plucked out of the flock. At first it just slept in the open, and on awaking immediately flew and landed in the middle of a mass of Gulls. I did see its head, several times, but my camera didn't...

It's the one bowing!

This one was another 'classic' individual, but it was larger than the 'classic' one I saw on Wednesday.

I found a second bird, which I just couldn't make my mind up on! It wasn't that big at all, and I never saw its tail or open wing. I took some photos, looked away, looked back and it had gone!! Anyway, this is what it looked like at rest...

!???

Away from Gulls, I saw eight Dunlin, four Common Sandpipers, a Whimbrel and a juvi Redshank.

The moth trap is out tonight, it feels like an age since my last good catch! I look forward to the morning...