Watching the Sea

Lots of looking at the sea these past three days, sometimes there were birds in the way.

Tuesday's sunny[ish] nor'westerlies kept me away from the Nose, instead bashing other bits of the Patch. I finally caught up with LBB - not one but two 1w birds sitting on the harbour pontoon with various dodgy-looking Herrings and Geebs. The tide was up and the Sandpipers Purple were roosting down the end of the Real Living Coast. Due to their position and not wanting to disturb them I only counted 6 - there were probably more. A somewhat choppy Tor Bay had 2 BN Grebes and singles of RT Diver, GC Grebe and what was probably a Slavonian. Late afternoon saw 138 GC Grebes with a RT Diver and 5+ Razorbill off Blackball.

The last two days I've been seawatching from the Nose in the mornings and looking off Blackball late afternoons - the same times on both days. With pretty much the same weather, including sustained WSW winds, I wondered what differences would there be?

Weds.

Hope's Nose; Auks ~210/hr__Gannets 8/hr__Kittiwakes ~13/hr__6 Fulmar

+ Yellow-legged Gull [1w] + Common Gull [ad].

1w male Eider on sea near Lead Stone. ~370 Guillemots on Ore Stone first thing.

Blackball; 63 GC Grebe__8 Razorbill___~240 Kittiwake + RN Grebe*

Thurs.

Hope's Nose; Auks ~301/hr__Gannets ~25/hr__Kittiwakes ~33/hr__8 Fulmar

+ Puffin [very distant] + 3 C Scoter + 5 GC Grebe [N] + 2 GND [subadult on sea, 1w S].

1w male Eider flew in from N, then on sea near Ore Stone. ~300 Guillemots on Ore Stone first thing, also Grey Seal hauled out on peninsula! Feeding frenzy of large gulls for about 25 minutes, close in to the Nose.

Blackball; 78 GC Grebe__5 Razorbill__~360 Kittiwake

[[On Monday, the average auk passage rate projected from timed counts was ~1230/hr]]

Interesting if not mind-blowing, it's clear that there was a lot of passage going on further offshore than the the drizzle let me see, judging by the figures [Famous Devon Birder] got from Berry Head today at a similar time. I blame the tanker! There were 4 distinct lines of auk passage noticeable; far out [not always visible due to rain / drizzle etc], outside the Ore Stone ['usual line'], around the Ore Stone [including 'to the Ore Stone' for Guilles, which I didn't count] and just outside the Lead Stone [used almost exclusively by young Razorbills]. Most of the passage was small groups, but there was the occasional rush of bigger groups, including a few of 40 and more; all of these were in the outer two lines.

*This was a bugger, as I picked it up from the Downs, feeding very close in to Babbacombe beach - around the outer buoys. You don't get them in so close often, and as it was nice and calm I went hightailing it down the cliff path to get a good look. After many a slip and skid I was 3/4 of the way down when I heard shouting and laughing... Yes, a family had decided to go onto the beach and start throwing stones into the sea. Just having fun, [[they weren't throwing stones at the grebe or anything!]] I can't blame them - just one of those annoying things. The grebe naturally skedaddled. Drat and double drat, muttered the Backward Birder as he trudged back up....

Unfortunately I have Things To Do Which Cannot Be Avoided tomorrow morning, so I can't extend my little study to a third day. Oh well.

PYL: 68

Deja-vu. Also, the Importance of Lunch.

Lunch is important, especially when you're up on't Moor. Finding the right place to have it is usually a matter of balancing competing factors. Can you sit down without getting wet / smelly / bitten / prickled / harassed? Can you all sit down? Can you see anything when you do? Are you in / out of the sun / rain and / or the wind? Can Tilbury Dog see... well, almost anything that moves? Or find something to jump into / get tangled up in? We had fun answering these questions yesterday.

The idea was to go to Princetown and follow the tramways, on account of the Moor being a trifle soggy. Unfortunately, a large sheet of black ice on the Ponsworthy road just after the bit where the Great Grey Shrike had been put paid to that. Fortunately, it was the car in front which found the ice and pirouetted back down the granite-lined lane... One careful turn later, being unwilling to risk more minor roads or make a huge detour, we bailed out at Cold East Cross and had a wander around the vicinity instead. The sun shone and though the wind was a bit cold it was very pleasant going. The very wet moor had flash-frozen, giving unusual conditions underfoot - a bit like blancmange with a crunchy crust...

Running out of not-too-busy moor, and unwilling to brave the hordes further off, we moved to Venford reservoir mid-afternoon and were treated to 3 redhead Goosander swimming around on the mirror-smooth water. Bird-wise there were the usual winter moorland bits and pieces, notable was a very dark Buzzard hunting around Seven Lords' Lands and the first Fieldfare I've seen this year [which alarmed and flew off...].

Important Business this morning precluded birding and the continuing sunshine deterred me from a full-on seawatch, so I instead bashed the Patch; taking in Waxwing site [no dice] and the Downs [for sheltering seabirds in the strong wind] en route to the Nose [to see if the Eider [Devon Birder] got the day before was still around...]. There were 94 GC Grebe, 1 RT Diver, at least 15 Razorbill and 60 Kittiwake on the sea off Blackball, with a Fulmar and a dozen Gannets overhead. Getting to the Nose the wind was at an impressive level, and even with the little scope I saw a pretty impressive stream of auks passing. I went right down the The Wall and huddled in it's lee to do a timed count [the wind vying with TCCT's chainsaws as backing track!]. 305 in 10 minutes is a lot, if not apocalyptic, but about 150 of those were in the first 2 minutes and at 5 minutes the rain arrived like a frickin' express train...

Most of the auks appeared to be Razorbills, but with only the little scope and in the wind and rain I'm not going to even guess at a ratio. Kittiwake and Gannets were also passing south, as did a RT Diver, and the smart w/pl adult GND was still on the sea between the Lead and Ore Stones, seemingly unfussed by the weather. Realising I was definitely going to get soggy again, I figured I'd better check thoroughly for this Eider, and I eventually found it - a 1w male, I reckon - in the more sheltered water of Hope Cove with a score of Razorbills. Despite getting even wetter than on Friday, I was cheerful all the way home. [[Mad, mad I tell you...]]

PYL: 64

Showers and Surprises

I had Something To Do on Friday, but I couldn't resist being slightly naughty and taking a scenic route to get there. A very scenic route..

Started by pulling up at Preston sea front, to see if I could be extremely naughty and scope the Eider off Broadsands / Berry Head from there [thus making them a very bent-ruled Patch Year Tick]. I failed, but it was well worth the go, as the male Common Scoter was really close in and showing cripplingly well.. :D Two Slavonian Grebes were off Hollicombe, and a Black-necked Grebe and Mrs. Long-tailed Duck were off Paignton. A couple of Turnstones were a Patch Year Tick, and the sight of no less than 52 Oyks huddled on the cliff from the high tide was a pleasing one [the number, not so much the huddling].

Then I went on to Berry Head, where I could find no Blackstarts. I did find three rather smug-looking Eider, close in near the blockhouse. I also found [Famous Devon Birder], who had almost suffered clicker combustion due to vast numbers of auks streaming by! I caught the tail end of this monumental passage, which was still impressive, despite being a tiny fraction of what went before [about 5800 in an hour, I think it was...]. Unfortunately, I also caught a whole heap of rain. I was not prepared for this, due to the weather forecast lying through it's shiny white teeth [Grr..]. I got extremely soggy, but didn't let that stop me taking a quick half hour or so at the sea before I had to go and behave.

Later, as I was finally drying out, I saw that the male Brambling was still about. :)

This morning, with some half-decent weather [overnight, at least] I gave Hope's Nose a go. I didn't get long before the sun started shining and passage died right away, though I did see some interesting birds and it was definitely worth the trip. First thing was a passage of auks - more than 90% Razorbills and not connected to the Ore Stone colony - an early rate of about 800/hour [on timed counts] died off quite quickly though. Star bird came in from Lyme Bay, however, [a little south of east] and turned north - a Pom Skua! :D A light morph bird, by the darkness of the underwing it was probably an adult, but it was too far out for spoons to show if it had them [{Famous Devon Birder} had had two spooned w/pl adults past Berry the day before, it could be this was one of them staying in the area?]. It came in high, but eventually dropped low to the sea as it motored on up the coast out of sight. Brilliant.

Other notable birds included a Redshank and a Knot past south [the latter with a small group of Razorbills?!?], 3 Red-throated and a Great Northern Diver [the GND on the sea, the RTs past south] and two dark-bellied Brent Geese which flew south 5 minutes before the Pom arrived. Less good was a Hughes helicopter, which flushed the 260+ Guillemot colony on the Ore Stone by flying incredibly low - less than 50' - seemingly filming the inshore lifeboat. Nice place to do it, chaps....

In the afternoon it was a stroll around Yarner with the folks. As I've burbled on before, I really like Yarner. As we arrived we passed [Devon Birder], who was leaving to look for the SEOs reported at Warren Point [ouch]. He said it was pretty quiet and he hadn't seen a single woodpecker... At that point I was quite glad I'm only after Patch Year Ticks this year, I have to say.

We headed for the hide first, stopping a little short to watch a big tit band [including Marsh Tits and a Nuthatch, with a quickly-vanishing GSW {you know it had to happen - Irishman's law}]. Just as we were moving on I noticed a group of small finches hanging onto catkins in a smallish Birch on the down-slope side of the track... Siskin! I called my parents [towed on by the ever-eager Tilly] back, then looked more closely at the Siskin and realised to my delight that some of them were Redpoll! :D They were very cool, happy to feed away while we watched them, I tried to explain the differences between Lesser, Mealy, Coue's and Hornemann's [these were all Lesser, of course], and Tilly tried to wrap her extendo-lead around as many bits of Holly as she could find... We eventually left the 5 Siskin and 4 Redpoll still happily shredding catkins and went on.

The rest of the afternoon was mostly wandering around the tracks, extracting Tilbury from various bits of greenery [I think there were a few deer around, as she was even more nutty than usual], and seeing a few more tit bands, plus Woodpigs and so on. Near where we saw the Bullfinches last time I heard a few calling, but we didn't get another show. A short while later we did get a flyover, though; one I really wasn't expecting. Flying straight towards us, just over the canopy, was a falcon shaped like a Peregrine but much too small and the wrong colours - a frickin' male Merlin!! Right over us and on towards Haytor Vale it went - wow! Last thing to report was another visit to the hide on the way back - lots of activity, with Blue, Great, Coal, Marsh and Long-tailed Tits in that order of numbers [interesting, as usually Coal are the most numerous]. No Nuthatches, let alone GSWs, but the tits put on quite a show by themselves.

Brambling continues on the shed roof with his Chaffinch friends, but two more days without a single winter thrush.

I'm still grinning about those Redpoll. [And the Merlin, and the Pom, and the drake Scoter.. But I've not seen Redpoll that well for years, especially not so close and so relaxed.]

PYL: 63

Rain

Enough of that posting every day nonsense, it just spoils you.. ;)

These last two days I've been birding in the rain. What? You think I'd cower inside 'til it goes away? Fah! Fah, I say.

Ahem.

I've also had diligent jobseeking to perform, which does tend to get in the way of the birding [with or without rain]. Though not as much as jobhaving, of course. Tuesday morning I had to be in town, so took the chance to give the Harbour and Bay bits of the Patch a good going-over. The tide being well out meant that there were gulls aplenty, quaking in fear of the bashing they would get... I didn't even find a frickin' LBB. Drat. I did find 2 Little Egrets and 3 Grey Herons on the rocks around Corbyn's Head - a very nice tally indeed. Even more surprising was a Raven, picking at something amidst the weed; we get them overhead a lot, but rarely see them land [except on Hope's Nose, but that's another story..]. The afternoon was spent on the phone, so neatly scuppering my plan to re-find the Waxwings. Double drat.

Wednesday saw Patch-bashing around more Things To Be Done. In the morning the overdue Waxwing check drew the expected blank, though a male and female Blackcap were a nice find. Off Blackball, 54 GC Grebe, at least 6 RT Diver and a probable BT Diver, plus 8 Razorbill and 2 Kittiwake made getting rather soggy worth it. In the afternoon I gave the Harbour yet another go, still no gull joy, but I did at last find some Purple Sands! :D With a good swell sending spray flying, at least 11 of the little darlings were looking gorgeous as the sun came out.. ::Sigh::

Today I left the Patch for the first time this year and had a meander around the Exe. Bowling Green had the female Smew, plus Snipe, Avocets, Pintail, Shoveler, Pochard, Lapwing, plenty of Wigeon etc. A Brambling was with the Chaffs and Dunnocks in the lane. It was pretty good, but I didn't tarry too long, as I had other fish to fry.

Exminster was the main aim. I arrived and climbed the bridge for a viewpoint to look for the group of White-fronts [it's been an age since I last saw them in Devon]. They were way off the the north near the Exminster footbridge, with [Devon Birder] looking at them. The rain fell, it was a bit nippy, we had a chat about Smew and the Dark Art of seawatching, while the White-fronts resolutely stayed with the Canadas [[including one with a white head, btw]] far, far away. Then [Devon Birder] arrived and asked if we'd seen the Hen Harrier and wasn't it amazing. [[Yeah, another of those long pauses over with very quickly..]] Triple drat! Apparently said ringtail had been harried by corvids from near the lagoon up to near the M5 bridge; he'd been looking for a reported possible Scaup on the lagoon when it flew through his scope field! Jammy bugger. We went different ways - me in the direction of the canal. Well, you never know, right?

Failing to find the harrier, I had lunch by the Topsham Lock, which gave me a nice view of the south end of the Retreat [albeit into the wind..]. Although there were Avocets feeding, other waders to look at, and a Grey Heron having a spat with a couple of Mute Swans [Mr. Swan took objection to the heron and got pecked for his trouble] I ended up going through the gulls... I found a Common Gull. Woo. On a brighter note, the Spotshank the Terrible Two found the other day put in an appearance; it was lurking in the channel west of the Retreat, where it couldn't be seen from the Topsham side [sneaky thing]. Star bird was a Little Grebe that came right up to and into the lock entrance - so close I was looking right down on it. :)

Then I went down the canal to the lagoon, looking for the other Smew [yes, both still present, as while I was watching the female at Bowling Green, the one I think might be a 1w male was being watched by [Devon Birder] on the canal!] and this possible Scaup. No sign of Smew, but a sleeping duck with a very Scaup-y head shape was on the lagoon.. Hmm, thought I, looking at it. It doesn't look beamy enough for a Scaup, and is very brown on the flanks [wouldn't a 1w female be at least a little mottled by now?], but that head shape is nice. So I wait. And wait. Eventually it moves and is indeed a female Tufty. [[How many drats is that now?]] Time marches on, and I haven't even mentioned all the Wigeon and Lapwing and Blackwits, the Pochard on the lagoon and the Pintail and Shoveler on the marsh.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I've not seen a single winter thrush on my Patch since Tuesday, and no Bramblings either. Not to say they've all gone, of course..

PYL: 55

Waxwings on My Patch! Again!

It was a very odd kind of day today. Continuing with my diligent Patch-bashing, I tracked down the Goldfinches I'd seen in December, failed as usual to see Waxwings tucking into the tasty berries I'd earmarked, and was about to have a look at the sea when I got a shout [literally] from [Famous Devon Birder], who asked me if I'd seen the Waxwings at Homelands.

Sometimes a very long pause can pass by in a very short time.

After offering the due profuse thanks, I responsibly carried on and checked the sea diligently before walking over to have a look. No, really, I did. Ok, that might be a teeny bit inaccurate. I did go on to the first viewpoint and scan the sea. There was bugger all about. I took the time to go 'WTF..' to myself. After three slightly amazed sweeps I got 2 divers; a Red-throat and what looked like a Black-throat. No grebes. For some strange reason I decided against yomping down the cliff to pin the possible BT down. Instead I walked over to look for the Waxwings. I didn't run. I did walk quickly, mind.

There were no Waxwings in any of the trees on Westhill Road, nor St. Margaret's Avenue. This was because they were sitting on the fence by the school playing field! Three little Waxwings all in a row... :D My parents have never seen Waxwings, so after a quick call and a trip to grab my Big Scope, the four of us arrived back on site less than half an hour later. No Waxwings. They waited a lot longer than I expected [[especially with Tilly, who though she stands very nicely, doesn't approve of standing around when she can be charging around..]], but nope, the garrulous ones had buggered off. Rats.

Later I went back and had another look, but still no sign. I tried the other site, but nothing there either, then back to the Downs, and now there were 22 GC Grebe, 2 RT Divers [neither of which looked remotely like a BT] and a Razorbill - all well out. Hmm. On getting home from this trip, I discovered a 1w Rook, of all things, perched on my neighbour's chimney and making an awful attempt at cawing. It flew off over the Garden, and is the first one we've had here for several years. All in all, a very interesting day, notable also for the first sunshine we've had in aaaaaages.

PYL: 43

The Price of Yearlisting

Is chasing around after stuff. So it was that I was back bothering the grebes again this morning...

This time I lugged the Big Scope down the cliff to Blackball Rocks themselves - well, to a bit above them, as it was pretty choppy. It was also raining, the wind was onshore, and it was markedly colder than yesterday. Happy happy joy joy.

Naturally I got into my seawatching groove and an hour and a half of scanning and rescanning the spread of grebes and divers passed very quickly indeed. I would have stayed longer, but I had neglected to bring serious handwear and once the rain got through my gloves my fingers started to suffer. [[Whine whine, bleat bleat...]] As I'd given it a good look, I decided to head back.

To the birds; the grebes were in their usual formation of groups of 5 to 40 in an arc at roughly Petitor range, with odds and sods scattered around. I got to 139 GC Grebes, plus the RN Grebe [which was, as expected, a right little git; being finally nailed on wing pattern when it wingflapped while hiding among GCs!] and a Slavonian, which looked really odd with it's neck stretched up so it could see over the swell [all the grebes were like this - looking into the wind, naturally...]. Once I was sure it was a Slav and not a BN, I was suitably chuffed - like CScoter they're getting really scarce on my Patch, having until recently regularly wintered off Meadfoot.

I got even more chuffed soon after that, when I picked up a 2cy Black-throat hiding among the RT Divers :D [[And no, to those who may be wondering, this was not 'ID'd on flank patch alone' but on the full range]]. Trivia time; you might be vaguely interested to know that Black-throated Diver is actually more common on my Patch than Red-necked Grebe - though most of the former have been off Hope's Nose. At Blackball, RN is level-pegging at 3 each. There were at least 24 Red-throats, one of which seemed to be moulting into s/pl already, and a couple of which came in fairly close. 7 Razorbills, a Cormorant and assorted Shags made up the numbers on the sea, with 18 Gannet and a Fulmar overhead.

After lunch I headed back out to do the Waxwing check, found my first female Blackcap on Patch this winter, then gave the grebe-count another go. With better visibility [and a better angle] [plus possibly more birds present] the number was pushed up to 180. This is a site and Patch Record for me, beating the long-standing record of 157. Which is nice. Also nice were the 2 Brambling out the back, and the single Redwing still hanging on despite the Blackbirds' best efforts.

My Patch Yearlist now stands at 38.

New Year. New Plan.

2009 saw me chasing a Devon Yearlist, with all the associated stress. 2010 saw me resolutely not chasing a Devon Yearlist.. until halfway through December when I realised how far I'd got without trying and so thought 'Oh what the hell..'. 2011 will see me again not chasing a Devon Yearlist, but this time distracting myself with another. [[No Joe, not a British List, that'd be daft.]] This year I shall mostly be chasing a Patch Yearlist.

Why? It's something doable, and with the way tax and profiteering is hitting petrol prices, it's something much much more affordable.Walking around my Patch is also much healthier, of course, than driving here there and everywhere, but we all have to make sacrifices, don't we? ;) I'm not saying I'm abandoning other birding - Lifer Twitchy tart I remain [Within reason.. Ahem.] - and I will be going afield just because, but I'm intending to scale it back. [[Note that 'i' word there and keep it in a drawer for future reference..]]. Whether this will extend to giving up Berry Head for the Nose is something still under debate...

To that end I spent today wandering the Patch, though due to some very distracting gulls in the harbour I didn't get to the Nose. 29 might not seem much, but as my Patch is mostly made up of one of the most densely populated areas in Europe, it's not too bad. Though I managed to miss the RN Grebe [Famous Devon Birder] got off Babbacombe [[Ouch]], I did get the LT Duck and Common Scoter [The former always difficult and the latter are much less reliable in the northern half of the Bay than they were even 2 years ago - I blame SWW]. Only one Brambling on offer in the Garden, despite sustained Chaffinch numbers, with the single Redwing still avoiding the Blackbirds [Redwing numbers over all are continuing to fall slowly] and the two male Blackcaps carefully avoiding each other.