Avocets Galore!

After having a decent afternoon down the marshes yesterday I headed out at 9am this morning in the hope that some of the goodies would still be here. Most of them were plus a few new birds too. My totals of the most interesting birds of the day are as follows:

11 Avocet
8 Pintail
4 Gadwall
2 Bar-tailed Godwit
1 Grey Plover

When I arrived at Black Hole Marsh there were only 2 Avocet but before long I spotted another 9 flying in at 09:35 bringing the total up to 11. As far as I'm aware that's a record for the patch here (will no doubt be corrected if need be). All 11 looked settled and were still there when I left, with some on the estuary and some remaining on BHM. Next locally decent bird was a Bar-tailed Godwit which I saw in flight only, heading North of Tower Hide and at a similar time the lingering Grey Plover flew downstream over the other side of the estuary. With Colyford Marshes still quite flooded I stayed in Tower Hide for a while and got some great views of some of the Avocets:

The group of 9 which landed slightly too far away from the initial 2 to squeeze all 11 into one shot

Once the water levels had dropped a bit I headed to Colyford Marshes hoping for some of yesterdays ducks to still be there. 8 Pintail and 4 Gadwall were on the main pool of water and the males of both species were displaying; great to see. I really like Pintails, such stunning birds (well, mainly the males).

I had one more scan of the estuary at dusk and was rewarded with another Barwit with 2 from Coronation Corner. Like yesterday I was heading home from the gym so I phone-binned an awful photo of the Barwits. Phone-binning in moderate wind and rain was an interesting exercise; the result of which can be seen somewhere near the top of my Twitter feed on the side of this blog...

I forgot to include this in the post yesterday but there were still lots of Hawfinches around St Andrew's Church in Colyton. They've frequently been feeding on the ground over the last couple of weeks, both in the church grounds and nearby gardens. Great stuff! Must get down and have another count up soon; it'd be nice to hit the 20s.

Excellent afternoon on patch!

A check of Colyford Common early afternoon yielded the goods with 4 Gadwall and a Grey Plover when I arrived. Seeing as birds were still flying in I waited a couple of hours and was rewarded with another 2 Gadwall bringing the total to 6. Then a Ruff flew in. And then another! They soon flew to fields on the other side of the estuary but there was one up on Bridge Marsh shortly afterwards which was probably a 3rd bird based on plumage, although it was hard to tell due to scoping from a distance. Next bird to fly in was a stunning drake Pintail! It was great to see so many (locally) decent birds at once on Colyford Common. The long-staying Greenshank and Marsh Harrier were still about too.

I checked the area again at dusk on my way back from the gym and ended up getting soaked; the only additional birds of note were 2 Peregrines on separate kills.

As is usual with Colyford Common the pics are all very distant so please forgive the limited number of pixels here:

Birds in the Snow

Colyton has been looking absolutely spectacular with the recent snow and ice. Not the most snow I've seen here; we've just had 6-7 inches compared with 8-10 inches at the end of 2010. Despite the stunning scenery bringing joy and entertainment to many of the people it was a much more sombre situation for the wildlife. Like on 1st March, there were still many hundreds of Redwings and low thousands of Fieldfares here on the 2nd and they were clearly struggling. There was also a steady passage of Lapwings over West throughout both days, as well as a few Snipes and Golden Plovers.

After being armed with only a wide angle lens when I had 18+ Hawfinches in Yews by St Andrew's Church on 1st March, I made sure I had a long lens with me for the next trip down! The aim was to get pics of Hawfinches on snow and I came away with very cold hands and a few shots:

Thrushes were posing well too:

And here are a few pics of the town, most of which were taken on my phone:

Looks a bit better in black & white

Snow and birds

A late morning message from Steve had me heading down to the Axe just as the snow started to fall properly (hasn't stopped in the 8 hours since at the time of writing). He'd found a Spoonbill at the lower end of the estuary and when I parked up there were 2 Avocets present as well. There was plenty of movement due to the cold weather and in the short time I was by the estuary triple figure counts of Lapwings of Golden Plovers flew over, a few of which landed by the river. Here are a few dodgy pics taken through the snow:

When driving home to Colyton there were lots of thrushes on the sides of roads with both Redwings and Fieldfares foraging around, as well as hundreds flying overhead in small groups. A couple of walks around Colyton showed a huge increase in Fieldfares around the housing areas, again with triple figure counts showing.

Most of the afternoon was spent taking landscape shots but I wish I'd had a different lens when I walked by St Andrew's Church in Colyton and had 18+ Hawfinches in the Yews. I suspect the actual number was more than this as I saw 18 in the air at once when some moved from one tree to another. They usually use more than one tree so I suspect my count was short of the real number, perhaps even by a lot...

Although the cold weather movement of birds is exciting for birders and the snow is beautiful, it's sad to see so many birds struggling with the temperatures and lack of food. Of course it's just nature, but hopefully not too many things die.

I took loads of landscape pics but will leave you with just one of St Andrew's church with precisely zero Hawfinches visible:

Ross's Gull and Caspian Gull

What an excellent afternoon (Sunday 25th)! After a 3+ hour wait the Ross's finally gave itself up at Radipole shortly before 16:00. Unfortunately by this time the light direction was bad for the island it favours, plus it hid around the rear of the island making pics difficult. We also got a bonus 2nd-winter Caspian Gull which Luke Phillips found mid-afternoon. It lingered for 10 minutes or so and although it was challenging light for pics (backlit) it showed superbly well. Thanks Luke!

Here are a few pics:

The below pic is the original; it was a few hundred feet away at this point. Not many pixels left when cropped but I quite like the pose.

Now for this brute of a Caspian Gull. Our recent 1w Axe bird is of similar size to most of the Herring Gulls but this 2w at Radipole is significantly bigger.

Consolation Glaucous

February 23rd was one of those days that I don't know quite how to feel about. Since its arrival, the Ross's Gull had visited Lodmoor at least once a day and given excellent views. That is apart from the day I went. There was a fair crowd waiting along the path overlooking West scrape with 40+ birders and togs present for most of the day. Dorset Bird Club kindly tweeted me at 15:42 saying that the Ross's was in Bowleaze Cove so I quickly spread the news amongst the crowd and headed there. Unfortunately it had flown just as I was putting the parking ticket in the car. DAMN. I have seen Ross's before (Bowling Green Marsh bird) but this Dorset adult is an absolute stunner and has posed brilliantly for heaps of birders/photographers so I had to give it a go.

Some consolation came in the form of a 2nd Winter Glaucous Gull which I tracked after picking it out flying in from a distance. It soon landed fairly close on West scrape and what a brute it was! Other birds of note were 2 Spoonbills (1 of which was ringed in Netherlands), 5 Ruff and an Avocet.

So we went home happy with the Glauc but disappointed to have missed the Ross's, like the vast majority of other birders that day. What made the dip slightly more frustrating is that it was again showing very close today but this time at Radipole. I almost laughed when I got the news because I said to Dad on the way home yesterday that the island on Radipole near the car park looked good and the Ross's could show up there at some point. A few of the people who were on scene phoned me up to say I should get my butt down there right away so I packed my bags, got to the door and received another message saying it had flown out to sea. DAMN AGAIN. I will try again if I get time. It's such a stunning bird and I really want to see it...

Posing Hawfinch

There are still 10+ Hawfinches in Colyton spending most of their time in Yews at St Andrew's Church but occasionally feeding on the ground too. Although their calls can be heard almost constantly during daytime, they are rather difficult to see well when perched as they usually fly deep into the Yews. I wrote 'posing' in the blog post title but it only posed for perhaps 2 seconds in 2 hours... Still, I tried to make the most of that!

Mostly in the shade but it poked its head out just far enough to catch some sunlight