OSPREY!

The blog title reflects the highlight of the day for me but it was a pretty good day here anyway! It was only in my post last night that I said "Osprey next" so this proved to be well timed. Just like with the Red Kite yesterday, it was the gulls that gave away the bird of prey; I spotted it flying over Seaton (was watching from near BHM) and it soon drifted directly over me. The bird wasn't particularly low so the pics aren't great but it could certainly have been a much worse view! If only it had all happened 15 minutes before as I would have had a view of it fishing right in front of Tower Hide in perfect light... I'm not too gutted; it was nice to just see one after having a lot of bad luck with them last year. After catching a fish it headed East and over the trees on the horizon. I was expecting it to perhaps sit up in the trees there, eat its meal and head off in the morning but an Osprey was seen in Lyme and Charmouth within the next hour. It's possible this was a second bird but it seems likely that this was all the same Osprey. Little did this bird know how much joy it had given to a few patch birders!

VERY heavy crop here. Being mobbed and carrying a fish!

More waders have been arriving here and others have remained so there were totals of 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, 2 Ringed Plover, 2 Little Ringed Plover and singles of Knot, Whimbrel & Greenshank in the valley here. I've been making more of an effort looking away from the normal areas over the last week or so in the hope of finding something different but this has been pretty unsuccessful thus far. Looking over Seaton Marshes, Coly Common and parts of Colyton & Musbury most days has yielded nothing new but a few hirundines, Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers. Black Hole Marsh certainly seems to be the hotspot for new arrivals at the moment. Hopefully the forecasted cloud for next week will help drop some passerines in; the hedges have been disappointingly quiet so far in terms of uncommon species.

Here's a few more photos from today:

Awful light but I quite like the way the birds are positioned. 3 Heron species!

All 6 Cattle Egrets

Peregrine over the house

Summer plumage Black-tailed Godwit

(Nearly) summer plumage Bar-tailed Godwit

Excellent day!!!