Backwater Birding - Seaton, Devon (3 Viewers)

Jos Stratford said:

Oh dear, deny as you may Steve, but you are now a twitcher, a low life of the birding world.

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I hang my head in shame..... :gn:

Hello all, is this the bruckland big-foot. What i corker!

Simon Wakely said:

Both female Widgeon, Roger. My Daughter Also likes your flying Iceland , hope to see you around, Simon and Sue.

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Thanks Simon.
The birder in the hide looked confident in his identification and I am still struggling with brown and white jobs!

Roger

Well away from the Axe - but can anyone help identify this duck I saw at Raddipole today. It was a diving duck but I cannot find any picture remotely like it in my books - hope it isn't a Ruddy x Pintail!

I also witnessed a Great Crested Grebe attempting a rather large meal!

Roger

Clouds and silver linings

EDIT - that's a female Ruddy Duck, Roger.

Joking aside, our Iceland Gull this afternoon has got to be at least the 5th on the estuary this year. Why are we getting so many gulls? A couple of things Phil said today confirmed a suspicion I've had for a while. There seem to be very good numbers of gulls hanging around offshore, so here's the theory: something tasty is leaking out of the Napoli wreck - a few containers of Tesco Finest 'Landfill Flakes' or something, well below the waterline. Instead of passing straight by, the gulls are loitering and feeding, and when they feel like a rest, or a wash and brush-up, where do they go? The Axe estuary. Anyway, it's a theory.

I expect most readers have heard about the recent launch of a new branch of the UK400 Club. Called the 'Listing Cadets', it is aimed at nurturing those fledgling twitchers whose lists have not yet reached the giddy heights of 400+, thereby encouraging them to aspire to full membership of the senior section some day. Steve has been asking me to see if I can find out how one joins. Here are the details: go to www.thetuftyclub.co.uk and click on the link that says 'So You Want to be a Big Lister?'. Then fill in the form, empty your wallet, download the preprinted sick-note template, and you're done.... |=)|

Slippery slope, Steve!!!

After the Iceland Gull (which flew the moment I got the camera out - hope this isn't going to be an ongoing issue) I went up Beer Head with Phil and Bun. Phil had a white-winged gull (probably Iceland) go over, then land down on Branscombe beach, but otherwise nowt to report apart from a couple of Stonechats, great views and glorious sunshine. I finished up at Colyford Common, where I had a go at digiscoping stuff. Decided I must make an effort with it this year, so I mucked about with different shutter speeds, ISOs etc. I don't have an adaptor, so have to just hold the camera to the scope. I've attached a couple of the best shots...

1. The gloom and misery that is birding Beer Head
2. Getting out the Yellow Wagtail bait nice and early
3. Phil giving Bun the 'Twitching ruins your life' spiel
4. Fat-billed Curlew
5. ISO 1600 at 17:40 - not too shabby (well, I'm quite pleased with it)

Hi all
Spent a few hours up over the top of Seaton Hole today, mainly trying to get some Kittiwake flight shots. This was a lot harder than it looked, those things move fast and low. I'm sure there were some really rare gulls flying past most of the time, but I didn't see them cos I wasn't looking.
this is a really great spot for close views of common birds, they just aren't scared. A couple of Long Tails were very laid back.
Then went down to Seaton Marshes, as Steve said its looking great. 3 Reed Buntings were doing there best to get to the table but the mallard sat on top had other ideas, the buntings eventually gave up after about 10 minutes, the only time any of them got to the food was when they launched a pincer movement, one distracted the mallard whilst another slipped in under the radar.
Next it ws up to Coly common stopping on route to check out the Little Egrets in the field opposite Gravel Lane, 4 there today (there were 11 on Monday) all chasing the cattle around and acting more like Cattle egrets.
Also seen today Peregrin, Raven, Sparrowhawk,Kestrel plus all the other usual suspects.
P.S. Steve was that you leaving Seaton Marshes at the same time as us in a Peugeot?

Well, Forum theres no doubt, bird pics posted recently our Wonderful. Well done keep it going. My Daughter thinks Moorhen Best, it only cost a Fiver to convince her. Terry, rang son, and yes 8 Great tits Spotted. Our son told Sue ,Dads bird watching hobby is Brilliant.

Roger Boswell said:

Well away from the Axe - but can anyone help identify this duck I saw at Raddipole today. It was a diving duck but I cannot find any picture remotely like it in my books - hope it isn't a Ruddy x Pintail!

I also witnessed a Great Crested Grebe attempting a rather large meal!

Roger

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Roger,

I thought you would like to know that the Ruddy Duck that you photographed is a member of a group of ducks collectively known as 'Stiff-tails'! They can have quite pronounced tails when sitting high on the water. Another member of this family also found in Europe is the White-headed Duck. :scribe:

Terry

Terry Smith said:

Roger,

I thought you would like to know that the Ruddy Duck that you photographed is a member of a group of ducks collectively known as 'Stiff-tails'! They can have quite pronounced tails when sitting high on the water. Another member of this family also found in Europe is the White-headed Duck. :scribe:

Terry

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Thanks. There were quite a few male Ruddy Ducks there - bright blue bills, but there were no other ducks with such a pointed tail.

bob hastie said:

P.S. Steve was that you leaving Seaton Marshes at the same time as us in a Peugeot?

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Hi Bob, yep that was me! I also drove past you watching the Egrets.

Nice start to the day today, thanks to a phonecall from my Dad (his first point-scorers!) I went down to the seafront and found myself looking at 5 really smart pale-bellied Brent Geese, along with 1 dark-bellied sat on the sea. Wow did they look sexy!!! They drifted west close in. Proper passage!

Several looks at the Gulls today revealed nothing much, although a decent count of 28 Lesser Black-backs included three very obvious intermedius, as black as you can get!

Just been out this evening, great views of the two Little Owls, Mr and Mrs Eye-Eye.

Gavin Haig said:

Surely overdue a points update, Stevie?? Don't want you walking off with the 'Bonanza' badge without at least a token challenge. Need to know how much work we need to do!

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Perhaps you missed this last Thursday, Steve? A fair few points scored in the last 3 weeks I think - but how many? and by whom? and for what? Don't be shy - we don't mind you streaking away (at the moment )

Yours sincerely,

Player in the Dark

Hi All, We have to mention Rogers Great crested grebe pic, (FANTASTIC). Bobs Fulmar also, well done. We have mentioned about our patch before, its great so please spread out, an investigate more of it, the rewards are there. My Daughter on third thoughs puts our effort of bruckland big foot in last place, but not willing to return our fiver. But best mornings birding ever on our patch.

Oh yeah, sorry, forgot!

Here we have the latest update....it is really really really good to see virtually everyones name on the board, its nice to see we all help in making this place as good as it is!

Everyone don't forget, this first of every spring migrant is worth 5 points! I'd say up for grabs over the next week will be Sandwich Tern (Bun has to be a favourite for this one), Manx Shearwater and Swallow.... then come April, the list is almost endless!

Copy and paste it Steve, attached file won't open at this end ...and your worldwide fans surely want to see how far ahead you already are, dirty twitches aside

Jos Stratford said:

Copy and paste it Steve, attached file won't open at this end ...and your worldwide fans surely want to see how far ahead you already are, dirty twitches aside

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Ok, just for you Jos!!! It's the lists of birds found that REALLY impresses me, can't believe all of it has been found on our patch this year!! Well done everyone!

Steve Waite 241
Gavin Haig 175
Ian McLean 109
Simon & Sue Wakely 60
Karen Woolley 24
Frazer Rush 20
‘Daddy’ Waite 20
Clive (from Sidmouth!) 12
James McCarthy 8
‘Bun’ 5

Hope others can open the file alright,

Regards,

The dirty low-life twitcher

Hello everyone!!!

Well, not much to report at all! Didn't see anything before work, and saw next to nothing after it! Though it was a very beautiful evening, 145 Wigeon were on the estuary at dusk, and 26 Little Egrets came in to roost.

Have a bit of time in the morning, hopefully will see something!!!!

Just out of interest, the first spring migrants have arrived early for us this year! The years first Wheatear came 7 days before last years, and the first Sand Martin was 10 whole days before the first bird last year!!! Wonder if everything else will be this early....

Evening all, had a day off today and slipped off patch again! (but not as far as cornwall this time) went to fernworthy res, on dartmoor looking for crossbills and was rewarded with 3 fly overs, then a cracking male feeding on the pine cones (another lifer for me) also saw 3 redpolls and 15 siskins and a male wheatear, so all in all not a bad day ( will now promise to remain loyal to the patch for the rest of the year!!)

Hi All, Son rang he lives in Plymouth, Bird watching Amazing, Great tits everywhere mainly in the high street,We think this is a odd place to see them.

Simon Wakely said:

Hi All, Son rang he lives in Plymouth, Bird watching Amazing, Great tits everywhere mainly in the high street,We think this is a odd place to see them.

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Are you sure about that Simon?

From what I've been told you're more likely to see Bearded Tits down in those parts............... :-O

A little seawatch this morning was fairly quiet, but nice sea though. Always nice sea....

Driving along the river at midday was quite difficult, but that was eased by stopping, and looking at gulls. Not many but, lo and behold, one was an Iceland Gull. This time it flew before I even got the scope out - it must have known the camera would follow. Downriver and over the town. From what I saw it was probably the blotchy 'white' one. Also nice.