Spoonbills by Moonlight

Well that was an interesting evening! Black Hole Marsh has been good in the evenings lately with some decent birds dropping in shortly before dusk so that seemed the logical place to have a look around in the hope of finding something new. As soon as I sat down in Island Hide I noticed two large white birds at the back of the marsh with their bills in the water; I put the binoculars to my face and BLIMEY, SPOONBILLS!

I've personally had a lousy few weeks in terms of finding anything decent or getting much reward for time invested but the last week has certainly had some better luck flying my way. Hopefully Spring brings many more goodies here, maybe even something properly rare...

The pics were quite distant as they mainly fed towards the back of BHM, but the light was fantastic and the birds are big so the photos came out quite nicely anyway. There are more pics and also some video footage so I'll post that tomorrow!

Steve Waite is doing the Patchwork Challenge with part of our Axe patch this year so Spoonbill is a good one to get on the list. Although having said that we'll probably get a few this year now! I initially stayed with the birds until just after 21:00 to see if they were going to roost on BHM but they just kept feeding. At this point the view over the estuary looked like this:

They were still visible from Tower Hide although it was difficult with the dull light shortly after Moonrise. Steve and I exchanged a few messages through the evening trying to work out if it'd be possible to see them when he finished work... at 22:00...

We met at BHM shortly after 22:00 and things were looking good as the high Moon was now throwing a decent amount of light in a good direction for us to view from Tower Hide. At about 22:20 we were watching Spoonbills by Moonlight with surprising ease. Some of you may think this was a bit (or a lot) mad but it was a heck of a lot of fun! Spoonbills aren't rare but they are good on patch. Stuff like this is what makes patch birding so, SO good.

Wheatear - about time too

After missing quite a few Wheatears on patch so far this year (some by literally minutes) it was nice to finally catch up with some today. There were at least 6 on Colyford Common early afternoon although getting pics of them proved difficult as some noisy children scared them over to the other side of the tramlines. After a bit of a wait they did come back onto the West side of the tramlines and showed well although quite distantly. It was nice to meet some more blog followers whilst I was there; they said they made the trip because of my recent posts about the birds seen here! Always satisfying when that happens, so many thanks folks!

After Colyford Common I went for a quick check of Seaton Marshes in case anything else had fallen there during the course of the morning. There was one Wheatear there but nothing else of interest.

Goosander mid-poop

As the Cattle Egrets have been on BHM in recent mornings I thought an early visit there would be worthwhile. It was pretty disappointing when I arrived shortly after 07:00; the two Barwits were still present along with the Knot but there were no other small waders of interest and the Cattle Egrets weren't there either. They did however fly in just after 07:30 from Seaton Marshes and sat on the same corner of the same island as yesterday morning! They stayed on BHM until 08:50 when they flew North, one on its own initially and then the other 5 shortly afterwards.

An evening visit proved slightly more successful. Upon arrival it was just the same waders of interest but a single Cattle Egret landed on BHM briefly before flying South to the roost site. As it was starting to get dark 2 Goosander flew in! I'd never seen a Goosander on BHM but they only stayed for approx 2 minutes before flying out over the estuary.

I don't mean to make excuses for lousy photos here, but the morning light angle was awful (severely backlit) and the evening shots were all at high ISO due to it getting dark. Still, it's worth posting the pics especially as one of the Goosanders decided to poop for the camera before flying off from BHM!

All 6 Cattle Egrets

The single Cattle Egret briefly on BHM in the evening

Mid-poop

The Sunset was also quite vibrant this evening, this being a mobile phone pic:

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!!!

Red Kite from the front door!

I've been expecting to see a Red Kite with this recent warm weather and see a Red Kite I did! After dropping an order off I parked up at home and got to the front door when the Primrose Way Herring Gulls started making a fuss. Sure enough a quick look up and there was a Red Kite flying high heading East. I didn't have a camera on me so it was a case of quickly dashing upstairs in the hope that it hadn't gone out of sight by the time I could get the kit ready. It headed towards the estuary so hopefully some other patch birders got the message in time and connected; I see perhaps 3 or 4 Red Kites a year here but they're usually just passing over rather than lingering. Osprey next hopefully...
The first two images here are archive pics from 2013 (too many posts with only distant record shots on here lately!). The latter two Red Kite pics are of the bird from today.

Yesterday afternoon I spotted a Little Ringed Plover new-in and the Greenshank and Knot were still present on patch.

Swallows are picking up in number here now and I'm seeing them in most places I go looking; there have been a few over Seaton, Musbury and Colyton for the last few days. Aside from birds, it was nice to see an Orange-tip butterfly today at Lower Bruckland Ponds, my first of 2017.

Waders at Black Hole Marsh

It felt very warm under the Sun at times today, almost t-shirt and shorts temperature! Ian Mc found a Greenshank on BHM in the afternoon and it was still present at dusk. I took a few snaps but as with all of the 'better' birds on BHM lately, it was showing distantly. Only other birds of note whilst I was there was 2 Swallows and the Knot which has now been here for a few days.

For those of you that come here primarily for the photos, I'm hoping to get back to posting half-decent pics soon; the last few posts have been distant subjects only. Unfortunately the only birds I got close views of today were ducks and geese and I did resort to taking pics of Teal. Some of the Black-tailed Godwits are looking stunning in their summer plumage now but I'm still waiting for one to pose close to Island Hide...

Moorhen & Greenshank

Mallard & Knot

Another Avocet!

Black Hole Marsh is attracting (and also holding onto) a few birds despite being early days of Spring. BHM is always fantastic in Autumn but the last couple of Spring seasons have been a bit quiet. Hopefully this will be a good one for the patch here. A Black-winged Stilt in the next few days would be perfect...

Ian Mc found an Avocet on BHM this afternoon, the 2nd one of March. The last one was showing well but distantly and this one was further away still! Nice to see and grab a few pics none-the-less:

Not nailed the focus here but I like the pose!

2 of the 4 lingering Pintails