Topsham Rec, Goosemoor/Bowling Green Marsh 7th August 2014 LONG, long, .... POST!

Hi, with the disappointment of the Topsham Recreation Ground yesterday with the highlight being an immature Sparrohawk hunting, I was yet again seeking retribution...

My Grandma dropped me off at around 10AM, with a scope, pair of binoculars, Collin's Bird Guide and a keen eye I was on a mission for... Well I had no idea what was in store but it sure was good!

The first birds my eyes met were Black-Tailed Godwits, a flock of around a 100 that were well distributed round the site...

1 Bar-tailed Godwit was in the flock

A quick scan through the flock revealed a Bar-Tailed Godwit, also two unusually strong coloured summer plumage Black-Tailed Godwit. Straight away I had my suspicions of the two birds being Islandicas, an Icelandic race of Black-Tailed godwit that occasionally finds itself in the British Isles. Unfortunately my camera couldn't handle the distance however, looking back I realise that I should have attached the camera onto my Grandma's tripod.

Far enough for a crisper image, Islandica pictured middle right.

Shaky Hands! Islandica pictured middle left behind "normal" Black-Tailed Godwit

After that I managed to see two separate Water Rails that were either too far away or were shadows in the reeds.  Following on from that, I went further up the Topsham Recreation ground, towards the M5 Bridge, that goes over the River Exe. A few days ago a report of a juvenile Yellow-Legged Gull surfaced, my only Yellow-Legged Gull I have seen being form the Topsham Rec! Knowing that Juvenile gulls are like finding a needle in a haystack, I thought spamming the photo trigger on juvenile Gulls then looking back at them later would be the best bet! Here is my best bet, that I believe to have some feature similar to a Yellow-Leg...

Note: White head; fairly light-coloured wings and long wing trojectary.

The only down side to this bird is the less weighty bill which is normally a characteristic i.d. to a Yellow-Legged Gull. Moving on, while walking back I noticed a few fish by the side of the river that I'd say were some Thick-Lipped Grey Mullet. they showed off their freshwater super powers by being practically in a saltwater free zone!

Correct me if wrong!

After being half an hour late, my Grandma told me, I was off on my tod at Goosemoor, a recently opened cycle/walking path that has a few scrapes by the walkways. Before reaching there my Grandma dropped me off at Darts Farm, a large field with a small pond in the middle, literaly! I was hoping to find some Green Sandpipers however I got sidetracked by a huge flock of Hirundines which included 100s of House Martins and Swallows a peppering of Swifts and a lone Sand Martin (I think!) I then focused on my main mission, Green Sands... My quest had been completed by spotting two (most likely a pair of them), being harassed by the flock of Hirundines! This disturbed them into my view which was rather kind of them! Sadly though I didn't have my camera at the ready because I left it in the car not expecting anything, lesson learnt!

Now I was relocated nearby on the tarmac track of Goosemoor, my hopes were high after my Grandma handed me a copy of the reserve from above (Google Earth), that revealed a few tasty looking scrapes! While crossing the bridge that went over the Clyst, a 50ish year old man with a very nice manor started talking to me probably because of my scope. We shared our experiences in a long chat while looking across at the estuary. He recommended sites and told me where I should look for birds, thanks if you're reading this, and remember who I am! Back to birding...

Although common now, Little Egrets are still beautiful!

The first walk round Goosemoor rewarded me with 4 Green Sandpipers and a flock of Redshank. I then carried on towards Bowling Green, a lagoon that has harboured a Ross's Gull recently as you might recall. I began touring the reserve with an annoying disadvantage... My Grandmas tripod was too small which made it difficult to birdwatch without the stability. I managed to make out through my binoculars a large flock of both Black-Tailed Godwit and Black-Headed Gulls but nothing else because of the tripod. The only birds that I was happy with were 2 Stock Doves, that were obviously feeling the effects of a dry, hot summer due to taking refuge by a small pond...

Quite a nice couple, blatantly the boy looking at me and the girl turning her back, ignorant...

After that I decided to double check Goosemoor's scrapes, by going to the first lagoon. My favourite bird I saw was a stonking Greenshank that was obviously moulting between plumages, FANTASTIC!

Range again did cause slight blur.

One solitary Whimbrel also resided with some Black-Heads...

I like this shot, enables you to see the black crown on top.

One of the Green Sandpipers sat far away from any other bird minding its own business...

One-legged wonder, the Flamingos aren't the only one ;)

There were around 20 Redshanks in this flock...

So that was that for Goosemoor, Darts Farm and the Topsham Rec, but was I done there? Yes *Anti-Climax ALERT!* Yep that's all folks! Sorry if that's disappointing, My eyes are bloodshot from tiredness and "bruises" or blue moons are underneath them!  Also I didn't do anything more that day you'll be pleased to hear, this blog post seems to never end... Quicky, four birdwatchers were at the Topsham Rec in search of the Yellow-Legged Gull. They "found it" however, after I lined it up I think that they got over excited at a juvenile Lesser Black-Backed Gull!!! My full list of the day (ignore Nightjar top left from previous post!):

Topsham Rec, Black Hole Marsh (Seaton) and Aylesbeare Wednesday 6th August 2014 Be warned a lot to read!

Hi, what a boring start to the day... When on the train at Taunton that was already 20 minutes late we had to stop for some "technical difficulties", no surprise there then! We stopped for 1 HOUR!!! I worried about what my Granny was thinking at the station, even if she'd still wait for me. She did, and were well on our way to improving the day.

Our first visit was to Topsham Recreation Ground. It wasn't productive, to be honest, with the highlight being an immature Sparrowhawk that was hunting low by the side of the reed bed. My Granny was sat on a bench for half an hour and still didn't manage to find anything more appealing than a Cormorant, but you should always appreciate birds, they are amazing! I sat with her for a further 10 minutes and talked about where we should go next! The fantastic Black Hole Marsh Reserve near Seaton!

A few days before this my Granny had been there with the local U3A group in search of some waders. My granny had phoned me up making me jealous with great views of Wood, Green and Common Sandpipers. I had to see the Wood Sandpiper an elusive bird that always left at the wrong time. So I was a man on a mission and as soon as I stepped foot into the Island Hide my binoculars were zoned onto a summer plumage Knot! I started shouting "It's a Ruff or a  Knot I'm sure of it!" I still have no idea where Ruff came from, I was just too excited! Even though the bird kept walking out of view behind an island I managed to snap this shot...

I'm happy with this shot!

Following the Knot a large flock of Hirundines had a drink directly in front of u,s the best being a smart adult Sand Martin that proved way too difficult to picture! Shortly after another injection of adrenaline caused me to misidentify a Dunlin for a Curlew Sandpiper! What's wrong with me? Due to the excitement it did cause me to take quite a few pictures of the Dunlin...

Not happy with the post though...

No Wood Sandpipers though, where were they I wondered? A quick look round and I spotted two yellow legged waders in one corner. The first few shots I took were for identification in case they flew off in the worst case scenario! My best, but probably the worst, shots of  Wood Sandpipers ever!!!

The "pair" together.

Look at me!!!

Well how about that! All those waders in one small lagoon! Top mark. My Grandma and I admired these birds for a while, in awe of their beauty and elegance. Yet there were even more waders including some summer plumage Black-Tailed Godwits. I set my scope on them not expecting much until I set my eyes on some rings...

Any ideas, contact me if so!

I know Black-Tailed Godwits are widely surveyed at the moment so I'll report my sighting. After we had had enough we moved onto the Tower Hide that lies by the estuary. We were met straight away by some curve-billed migrant waders, Whimbrel a flock of at least 22! Here is a picture of some...

Quite a grumpy one!

Looking back from the hide towards the Island Hide that we were previously at I found a few Ringed Plover admittedly distant but still cute and lazy!

Picture shows the distance, shocking!

Now, now guess how many species we found? 45 WOW! including a Sparrowhawk that attempted to kill goldfinches! 

And if that wasn't enough my Grandma took me to Aylesbeare RSPB reserve on the Budleigh Salterton pebble heath. The habitat is a harsh gorse and heather rich habitat. Now bearing in mind it was late at night guess what bird we were in pursuit of? You're hopefully right... A Nightjar a beautifully camouflaged bird that by day sits still with not a sound but by night churring and keeping all the other birds awake!!! Due to it being dark I didn't bother bringing my camera out onto the reserve, should I have? Yes, sortt of... Well I would have liked to record their calls but trying to capture them in flight would have been practically impossible considering my experience! We heard around 4 churring, the habit in which they call before feeding, and saw around 4 sightings in flight.

A brilliant day out in sunny Devon with three new birds to add towards my list: Wood Sandpiper; Knot and Nightjar. My full list from Black Hole Marsh (sorry if some of the birds at the top or bottom have been cut out!):

SSTW CES 10, 3rd August 2014

Hi,
knowing that I'm not going to be doing ringing for a month or so I realised that coming back late on the Saturday night from Cornwall it had to be worth it!

I woke up at 4:40 AM then left at 5 to reach the Sewerage Treatment Works at 5:30. As soon as I got into the car I new he was excited about something and that something was nets set around one of the treatment tanks with the aim of catching Sandpipers and Gulls! As soon as we got there we found "the" Common Sandpiper that Matt was specifically targeting, a peppering of Black-Headed Gulls and another Green Sandpiper, the bird I've always wanted to ring! While extracting the birds yet another Green Sandpiper launched itself into one of the nets to our delight.

Matt was kind enough to let met extract one of the Green Sandpipers from the wader nets. A new tick for me. BINGO, when arriving back to the ringing station Matt made me scribe later to ring one of the these Green beauties! Furthermore I could get my new camera out and show you what we had rung in a few shots!

Common Sandpiper, showing wingbar!

Both the Common (left) and Green (right) Sandpiper

We also managed to re-encounter a kingfisher!

Quite chirpy this one!

Another brilliant bird was a "new" Lesser Whitethroat", this makes it clear how well the year has been for them, the best year ever for this site.

Pristine plumage.

Sadly I wasn't able to take a picture of me holding "my" Green Sandpiper. But hey ho, ringing one made my day and experiencing their beauty up close.

My totals for today are as followed: Green Sandpiper 1, Black-headed Gull 1, Blackbird 2, Reed Warbler 3, Garden Warbler 1, Long-Tailed Tit 2, Blackcap 3, Robin 1, Sedge Warbler 1, Magpie 1, Wren 3, Chiffchaff 2, Song thrush 2.

As well as extracting both the Black-Headed Gull and Green Sandpiper.

Another thing about the site is after the ringing session my trainer Matt managed to get up once more and spent three hours cutting back the reeds for waders on passage. Fingers crossed a Greenshank, Dunlin, more Green and Common sands, Redshank, Little Ringed Plover, Godwit will pop in ;)

Pink Grasshopper surprise!

Hi,
carrying on from yesterdays post I forgot to include a unique Grasshopper that caught my eye when finishing up seawatching...
There were many grasshoppers springing up from my feet, some brown, some green and some mixed, but another with a very interesting colouration!

PINK!!! Would you believe it! Of course this grasshopper wasn't photographed in its natural habitat but gives more contrast and lets me have time to think of the possibilities. Before reaching the true identity of this discoloured Meadow Grasshopper, I had walked for 30 minutes with this little fidget in my left hand! Anyway... After research and searching through the back of my mind I managed to find or remember that this is an early nymph stage of the female Meadow Grasshopper. They rarely are found and if found are normally picked up by the predators! But not every early nymph female grasshopper has this colour the main factor is breeding with similar genes, understandably living by the sea on the south-west coast on a small patch of grass does have the possibility of interbreeding and gene matches, which leads to this (mess)!

Hope you enjoyed this little lecture on Pink Grasshoppers, and as you'll soon find out, very important information through life!

Cot Valley 31st July 2014, 2 New Birds...

Hi guys, PPPPIIICCCTTTUURRREESSSS!!!

The blog is up and running now that I have finally got my hands on a new bridge camera, the Canon SX50 HS! I first used it while in Bois De Bologne, Paris. It instantly proved successful with pictures from far a field (100M) of a Common Sandpiper, a beautiful bird!

Anyway, back to Cot Valley. I had been in the car for around 3 and a half hours and needed to do something that would brighten me up a bit so I decided that going down to the Cot would be a good idea. My main ambition was to see Manx Shearwaters that had been eluding me due to the short space of time that they have during migration...

The first bird while walking up to my post was a Peregrine that flew across the valley from right to left in a gliding action with one thing on its mind, food! Unfortunately the peregrine started hunting distantly and after a few seconds had managed to become completely out of view, typical! 2 Choughs though had caught my attention, with their Characteristic call and flared "fingertips" they approached me from behind going directly towards the Peregrine...

A quick action and I had managed to fumble my camera out and was on it for the perfect shot

Disaster, where's the Peregrine well in fact it was my own fault, my amatureish photographic skills had shone! Well you win some and you lose some as in time I was going to find out. Now I had climbed up the steep side of the valley with my scope, camera and pair of binoculars, I was tired and hungry for Shears...

Straight away after lining my scope up behind the Brisons (Two rocky out crops a mile out at sea) I hooked onto the Manxies. The range proved a bit annoying let alone the lighting never the less I carried on with my search. Out of the blue a large Manx Shearwater came into view with a darkish colour and graceful flying action I narrowed it down to a Great Shearwater another tick :)! I wasn't able to snap a photo of it though because of range and simply because I wanted to enjoy the bird for as long as I could.

All 10 minutes of sea watching was enough and I obviously was very pleased with my finds. Afterwards I turned round and spotted a lovely Kestrel was hawking the skies above where I was looking...

It managed to sit down again far away but still worthy of a scrappy photo! The excitement continued however because while I was walking back on the left hand side of the valley if looking towards the sea I encountered some small brown passerines that have come from Africa can you guess what it is yet?

Spotted Flycatchers, in this photo an Adult (closest) and Juvenile. I watched around 4 of them whizzing around this tree in the background. A fantastic sight of a bird (closest) that I may have seen in one of my earlier trips with my Granddad, The choughs' 29th 28th May 2014  ! Furthermore a few Willow Warblers were about including 5 that were in the same tree the Spotted Flycatchers had been in! 

The walk back didn't have anything else that was key, but one of the best days out birdwatching in a while with two new birds to show for it!

Ringing: Marlborough Downs 21st June 2014

Hi, yet another early morning but worth it....

Matt, both the Paul's, and I went To the Marlborough downs carrying on the Tree Sparrow project.
We First ringed a few TS pulli then went on to a fantastic equestrian farm that had an amazing population of Swallow. We ringed a few pulli that were amazing.

Another surprise was in store though we went up to a large metal barn that had two horses in training. All looked normal until further inspection revealed 3 kestrels sat on the supports. Matt swiftly used his ladder and climbed to collect them. While he was getting all of them the woman told us that the pair of kestrels had been nesting their for 3-4 years, which proves their reluctance to stay here. Matt had come down by now and surprised us with 5 beautiful chicks that did have an attraction to his hand! I wasn't able to ring these because of their vicious beak and talons and lack of experience.

Brilliant day out that really built my confidence in holding the TS pulli.

Swindon STW & Marlborough Downs 14th June 2014

Hi, I went bird ringing expecting a marathon, I was right...

I arrived at Swindon STW at 6 O'clock in the morning then finished at 19:30! I was with Welsh Paul, matt and Simon. The morning started off already at a fast pace, catching a few juveniles. Such as the Dunnock; Robin and Blue Tit. Reed Warblers were out and about, with some sedge warblers and whitethoats. I found a cukoo that flew once again just over the top of net 1.

More and more birds started to appear including re-encounters such as a 5 year old Blue Tit and a Bullfinch. On our second to last round Matt and I came across a family of Lesser Whitethroates, 4 juveniles and two adults. next we went to net 1 that went across the water. A pair of Bullfinches had managed to get stuck also a small dazzling bird flew directly into the middle of the net, a magnifacent Kingfisher! Yet another fantastic bird that has a fascinating defence. I ringed one Lesser Whitethroat but wasn't able to ring the Kingfisher because of its unique ring. After watching it wiggle its head there was another surprise in store...

After taking down all of the nets down Simon the nest finder had a surprise in store for us.  So all four of us started walking through the nettles and tall grass until we stopped for this "special" nest! Simon the warden of this reserve started to peel away some of the grass to reveal this little ball, obviously I had no idea what it was! However, after a few minutes of serious ringing from Simon and Mattthey told me it was a Gropper nest, apparantely only 8 are found in the UK each year, what a "special" find!

After the excitement of the morning we had even more jobs, ringing Barn Owls and Tree Saprrows on the Marlborough Downs. I ringed 10 Tree Sparrow pulli and saw 16 different Barn Owls in total, Amazing! I also saw four new birds, the Grey Partridge, Red-Legged Partridge, Yellow Wagtail and Corn Bunting!

Again another surprise a Buzzard nest high up a Pine tree. Matt climbe it with seemingly no trouble at all, he didn't tell me what was up there but after him reaching the top with a large satchel and a few short screams it was clear what he was looking for. After coming back down he revealed the mystery bird to us and showed us a photo of the m on top of the nest. The most amazing thing about it though was that underneath the nest a Tree Sparrow had grooved a little nest! Welsh Paul and Matt ringed these because of their sharp talons and speciality.

Thanks to Matt for another brilliant day out.