Deja-vu All Over Again

For the second Saturday in a row, I found myself by the Otter today - this time out for a gentle stroll with the folks and Tillbury Dog. The possibility of a Glossy Ibis or two was raised, but they'd evidently decided to move downstream again [or just hide behind the rushes very cleverly] as we didn't see them. The folks didn't mind too much - not being deranged birders, the whole Lifer thing is more vague interest than burning urgent hunger - and we did see something we all enjoyed;

As we rolled up, we saw lots of ducks in the air, and corvids, and pigeons, and gulls.. What dunnit? Osprey!!

With the close attention of assorted corvids and Herring Gulls, it fairly quickly buggered off east [most likely back to the Backwater], evidently deciding the grief it was getting outweighed the great big Mullet swanning around in the shallow river...

It was bright and still pretty hot in the sun, with Migrant and Southern Hawkers well in evidence, but no super exciting sightings followed on the bird front. [Not that I'm complaining - Ospreys always rock! ;) ] After a rather tiring week for all of us, one way or another, it was a nice relaxing day. Well, when not hauling the dog out of the Otter [she really likes water - more even than barking at coobeasties!]

Tomorrow may be slightly different....

Gull News

Received a reply from the Danish organiser of the BHG study today.

My gull is a male, which was ringed as a 3yo+ in Copenhagen in April 1996. This means he's older than Joe "Juvenile Plumage" Ray! ;D

He's spent most of the intervening time in Denmark, but made a trip to Gloucestershire in early 2004, and was seen at Goodrington in January of 2009. I'm really pleased!

Also, my 42nd bird on my Work List - a lovely pair of Grey Wagtails this morning. :)

Sorry About the Delay..

It's been one of those weeks...

Right then, updates on news!

Sunday saw a long lie-in followed by as close to a leisurely stroll around Trenchford and Tottiford Reservoirs as Tilly would allow... [[Rant about thoughtless dog-owners deleted]]

Anyway, it wasn't a bad afternoon [most of the time..], with tit and 'crest bands around and some very nice odonata - first a kissing gate with no less than 8 Common Darter perched on it [2 ad. males, and 3 of each immature] who allowed very close approach - if I'd had my camera with me, even I'd have gotten some crippling shots... ah well. Then a very late and unsurprisingly over-mature female Black-tailed Skimmer by Tottiford [which was almost empty, it seemed]

In other news, today at work there was a Darvic-ringed BHG. It came to look at the ducks getting their early morning feed, allowing me to read 5Y8 [black on white] on it's right leg, and get a partial on the metal ring on its left '...2029..'. Having looked it up, I think its part of a Danish study - I've emailed the organiser, and we shall see.....

Oh, and Work List is now 40, thanks to birds that include such stars as Great Tit! ;)

I Didn't Mean to Go to Gosport...

It was all Joe "If you're going to give me a stupid middle name, call me '333 BOU', ok?" Ray's fault....

Really, it was.

The day started fairly innocuously, with me failing to get out of bed early enough to try a seawatch, and instead staggering over to Bowling Green [arriving within an hour of the Great Big High Tide. Yes, that's after it.... Ahem.]. Plenty of birders present, and even more birds, though I was vexed to hear I'd missed a Marsh Harrier putting the fear of big scary talons into the masses...

Beyond the inevitable Canada Horde, a sizable wader roost included an impressive 63 Greenshank, a Spotshank [eventually!] and at least 6 Curlew Sands - though no Little Stints that I could find. A Peregrine, flying over, amazingly didn't even prompt a second glance from the waders, and a Kingfisher showed well on a post [that's 3 in 4 days for me now - hadn't seen a single one before all year!**]. No Osprey on show, but I didn't hang around that long, as I had other fish to fry that morning..

So, on to the Otter - the chance to see a Great Big Humungous Flock of Glossy Ibis was not one to pass up - they so generously hanging about for me. :) The Ibis were present and showed very well, even stretching their wings and flying about a bit :D A vocal Cetti's providing a nice accompaniment.

I also bumped into Joe "Pretty Fly For A White Guy" Ray, who shamelessly ditched poor [Name Withheld For Legal Reasons] after I very very kindly agreed that, yes as I wasn't planning anything else today I would drive him to frickin' Gosport to see the Daurian / Isabelline / definitely-not-a-Red-backed-we-hoped Shrike. [It being a Lifer for me {regardless of any splitting} had, of course, no effect at all on my charitable decision... ;) ]

One very long and only slightly frustrated-by-grockles drive later, we were again struck by 'navigational issues' and ended up in a place other than intended.. Fortunately, with the aid of a Birder Who Shall Remain Nameless and a Friendly Local With a Huge Mastiff/Bulldog Cross, we found the twitch, and the Shrike! She was sitting in a Hawthorn, not doing much, while being abused by assorted passerines - including a smart male Blackcap. We got a good look at her, and she definitely fit the Daurian criteria - quite a pretty bird, in a subtle way. We stayed there for an hour, getting nigh on 30 mins of prolonged view, then a couple more glimpses as she became more active and elusive. The waterside location also gave views of a wreck covered in roosting Redshank, and many of Her Majesty's finest vessels.

It was a long day, and I'm pretty knackered now I have to say, but a very nice bird is on the list - and I saw HMS Victory again! :) [Ok, only her mast tops, but still!]*

*If you ever have the chance, go and see Victory [and the Mary Rose, and Warrior] - such a piece of living history, the air aboard her hums with it.

**EDIT: I've just noticed that. What a fool I am - not my first of the year, as not that long previously I'd seen one at work [albeit distantly flying across the river..]. Perhaps 'my first decent view of the year' would be better..

A Day of Surprises

In reverse chronological order....

Looking at a Nameless Internet Bird Related Forum; "Western Bonelli's in Devon... !!!!!!! Wait a minute... Yeah, bladdy Lundy. Little git flies all the way over Devon again..."

[Ok, maybe that's not much of a surprise]

Looking at the Devon Bird News blog; "I am not going to Budleigh, I am not going to Budleigh, I am not going to Budleigh...."

[[Chorus: "'Cos you're not Yearlisting!"]]

[Ahem]

Finally, the proper newsworthy bit....

An adult sinensis Cormorant fishing on the Dart at Totnes today. Now that's what I call a nice lunch break bird! :D

I know according to BOU it doesn't count, but its so great to not only see one, but one so unequivocal as this one was and showing so well. It was fishing it's way upstream on the rising tide and the river was so calm I could follow its bubbles! Result.

Late news from yesterday; a Ruff was feeding on the riverside mud downstream of Totnes, [west bank], before I started work. [[Only took a month of checking before I got something..!]] Work List total now 34.

Proper Birding

Saturday saw me doing some proper birding!

I didn't even look to see if anything was about, I tooled up and went over to Dawlish Warren for a day of looking for my own birds [ahem..].

The sea was, er, quiet. There were a couple of Gannets.

I bashed all the bushes and trees, hoping for some migrants - not something I've done a huge amount of in the past [until last winter I had bins whose 'close' focus was not much under 20', so close encounters with things that go 'tac' didn't end well...]. There were a couple of Blackcaps, some Willow Warblers, a few Chiffs, lots of ickle baby Blue Tits [awww...] but nothing spectacular. I did see a nice odonate - a male Migrant hawker, no less - so definitely a successful exercise! :)

Another look at the sea gave some distant tern spp in the murk...

The estuary was another matter. It seems these low high tides [while rubbish for Bowling Green] are pretty good at the Warren [if you have a Big Scope, at least]. The big roosts of Oiks and Geebs were nearly matched by Dunlin and Ringos in their hundreds [[see the DW website for official scores]] with a fair few Sanderling mixed in, plus Curlew, Red and Greenshanks, at least 4 Whimbrel, and a dozen godwits [mostly Bar]. Star turn came from a Little Stint, which showed extremely well, out in the open being Stint-y [instead of scurrying behind everything at Bowling Green] and beating up Sanderlings!

There were also no less than 7 Curlew Sands [and another Little Stint], but these were only visible if you left the hide and wandered back to the Bight Edge [[this is not due to an utter lack of ability, I'll have you know, as a Certain Devon Birder Who Shall Remain Nameless also suffered the same phenomenon... ;) ]].

A Wryneck Hunt was undertaken by 4 brave souls, and while no Wryneck was forthcoming it was a lot of fun!

My total of 56 species is not very impressive, but I had a very enjoyable day.

Sunday saw me up and out in the rain, giving Joe "The name's Hungover, Oh Shite I'm Hungover" Ray a lift down to darkest cornwall. A lot of birds had turned up - Ortolan Buntings, Citrine Wagtail, Wrynecks, Barred Warbler, Icterine Warbler and so on... between us that was a lot of Life / Year ticks.

I don't know what you saw on the weather, but ye gods it rained - all the way there, all the time there, and a lot of the way back. Sometimes hard, some times light, but ever present. Despite this, after finding somewhere to put the car we found the site of the group of Ortolans and the Citrine Wag. Expecting hours of staring at a big field, waiting for a bird to land on a wire, we were very happy to behold Ortolans which hadn't read the script. There were lots of them and they kept sitting on the roof of some rich git's holiday home! Those sub-moustachial stripes really showed up when the birds were head-on, especially on the more strongly streaked juveniles, as did the edging to the tertials from behind. Gorgeous!

A bit of patience and persistence then led to cripplingly close views of the 1w Citrine at the nearby ex-farm - well worth the soggification we underwent. I have previously said that I'd be happy never to see another of those little gits, after the run-around I got last year, but I think I've changed my mind now.

Also Wheatears, Tripits, a Whitethroat, and White, Yellow and Pied Wags present, plus the interesting sight of an Ortolan, a White Wag, and a Chiff side by side on a roof. There's one I didn't see coming...

With the weather clearly set for the day down there, plans for Icterine, Wryneck, possible Barred and the [as it turns out totally] elusive Short-toed Lark were scrapped, [as the birds were likely cowering under the biggest bushes they could find] in favour of a long burn all the way to the Axe so that Joe "School Tomorrow, so no Brown Fly for me... :'(" Ray could try to de-tart his list and actually see a Dotterel! Would only be a yeartick [[Chorus: "Not that you're yearlisting!"]] for me, but they're lovely birds and it's always nice to go to the Backwater.

After some very poor directions [exacerbated by scrambled pager messages] led to yomping all the way up past the golf club to Axe Cliff and back down again [feel free to try it with full kit some time - if you get to the top your heart is very healthy indeed!] we eventually [thanks to Bun and his Super Scooter] found the bird, and had all of 5 minutes enjoying it getting ever closer and closer, before it was flushed by a dog walker......

A detour to The Black Hole on the way home gave 2 Little Stint, a Curlew Sand, a Common Sand, a Greenshank, and a few Dunlin and Ringos. Construction of the Mighty Hide of Seeing All Round [we hope] continues apace - I look forward to it's completion!

So, after a long but successful day, we both had very nice Lifers, Joe had lots of yearticks, and I'd made peace with Citrine Wags [we'd fallen out over the despicable behaviour of the Marazion bird - tarting for all and sundry, then making me dip twice before only giving me a fly-over, the little bounder! ;) ].

Brief Brief

'Scuse the pun....

A new site record of 7 Buzzards over work today - all together and all definitely Common. A couple of Crows had a look, but decided that no, maybe they weren't really in the mood after all.... :)

Work List is now 33 and.. er.... well..... that's it, really!

In non-birding news, tonight's the night - it's Orpheus time.....

:D

Oh, and I fully intend to do some Proper Birding tomorrow.

If I can get up.