Backwater Birding - Seaton, Devon (1 Viewer)

[Simon and Sue Wakely]

Evening all,

Whitford update:
- A male black cap was a nice sight. We repotred some posts ago they seem scarce this winter.
- Female brambling with Chaffinches, hoping it will continue to tag along, but when we heard its call, Mexican Parrot srung to mind.
- Sue and I were up the garden late this evening and we heard a Lesser-Spotted Woodpecker calling in the back of the apple trees. Unfortunatly not sighted due to the lack of light.

- The picture below was one I took a long time ago but it has been stored away on my son's computer and I was unable to get to it. However, last week he was able to send it to me and I was over the moon with what i saw. I took it when we went to Cumbria, hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Happy Birding
Simon and Sue

 

[Roger Boswell]

Lyme Update

Pair of Dippers on the leat section of the Lim this morning, and a Grey Wagtail.

Eight Purple Sandpipers in the wall of the Cobb - the harbour being alive with Pied Wagtails and Rock Pipits. An Oystercatcher flew past - really eye-catching in the bright sun.

 

[Steve Waite]

Last week we dismantled our small greenhouse in the back garden, I finished the job of yesterday, taking a few nails out and sawing the odd bit of wood. At the moment it looks like a bit of a building site, only a very small one though, the greenhouse was only about 4 X 2 metres in size! This morning I looked out into the backgarden to see a nice covering of frost - and a female-type Black Redstart! On our little 'building site'!!!!! Madness! What on earth is is doing in our back garden??!! It sat on our water butt, the shed roof, on our back driveway, pecked at the compost heap - and even perched on one of our apple trees!!!! Crazy - a garden tick and a half! Also 7 Blackcaps in one tree - 3 males and 4 females, a very good count.

Turns out I should have stayed here all morning really because the rewards for the good couple of hours I spent in the field were next nothing.....in fact I can't think of anything I saw which is worth writing about! But hey - I'm too happy with the garden tick to care!

 

[Roger Boswell]

Not much to see at Colyton today - scrapes frozen over.

Well worth the visit to sunny Seaton Seafront where the Black Redstart was giving an animated viewing.

 

[KarenWoolley]

Nice photos of the AYC Black Redstart Roger, love the 'dive-bomber' one!

Congrats on the surprise garden tick Steve! I'm hoping that the AYC bird hangs around long enough to be right at the top of my new garden list when I move in to my new house on Christmas Eve. Moving in will be a long drawn out affair if I can't stop looking out of the windows!!!

As it's all a bit quiet at the moment, I thought it would be a good idea to look back over the year and choose a stand out birdy highlight, and 'lowlight' too. I've had no less than 28 lifers this year, so plenty to choose from. Undoubted nadir for me was the second Black Stork which I missed by a couple of minutes, after having been out all morning waiting for it to arrive on patch, an event I had correctly predicted the night before!!! || OK that's enough of that!

Now what about the highlight? Well my bird of the year was without question the incredibly close, pale morph FULLY SPOONED Pomarine Skua (May 12th 12:42), what a bird!! Sometimes I can still 'see it' in my scope, as it were, the memory is so, so clear still. What made it all the sweeter was that my expectation was so low after having been convinced that IF I saw a Pom at all from Seaton it would most likely be the customary distant speck kind!

Anyone else like to share their birdy high/low points of the year so far?? You must have some!? I can think of an obvious contender....

Ah g-wan g-wan g-wan g-wan ... |=)|

 

[Steve Waite]

Anyone else like to share their birdy high/low points of the year so far?? You must have some!? I can think of an obvious contender....

Don't get me started Karen!!!! Lots of highlights! For me, Audouin's aside, the sheer shock value of clapping eyes onto a Stone Curlew sat amongst a flock of sheep on Seaton Marshes tops the table for me I think! Though everythings been great really, the Gulls brilliant, everything brilliant!!!! (Oh - and seeing a Black Stork at a range of about 8 metres wasn't bad either...sorry Karen!) Yes I made that smaller on purpose!!!!

EDIT: Just read the Dawlish site....darn! 09:10 I reckon, mind you....can't we still add them on the yearlist? They must have flown past here, just that no one saw them!

 

[Andrew]

Steve, go through the BT phone book for each Seaton resident and I am sure you will get someone who 'saw' them fly past!

Make it official, innit.

 

[KarenWoolley]

I was down at the Yacht Club from around 9.00 'til 9.30 and I didn't see them, I did pay a brief visit to the loo mind!!! Typical excellent timing no doubt?!

 

[Ranger James]

I was down on the seafront at about that time, but all I saw were two egrets carrying wooden spoons in thier beaks.
Interesting, but hardly worth commneting on I thought...

Any more nice photos out there?? I'm putting together the front cover designs at the moement and want to make sure all the good pics get considered.

James

 

[KarenWoolley]

I didn't do any birding today but while on the beach with the dog I saw the Black Redstart again this time on the edge of the harbour by the boat trailer park, right outside the car window.

I took a couple of snaps, which incidentally bring Black Redstart into the heady heights of the illustrious 'Backwater Birding Top Ten Most Photographed Birds' (7th place with 21 pics) but miles behind (with only half as many as) Osprey and Iceland Gull.

I will go out and get that life soon, honestly.....

 

[Steve Waite]

Late update for yesterday. Had cracking views of the Black Red on roofs and front gardens adjacent to the Yacht Club, and two adult Med Gulls were on the estuary early afternoon.

This morning, not seen much at all, just Mr McCarthy birding - which is a real rarity! Soon to get even rarer!

 

[KarenWoolley]

I will go out and get that life soon, honestly.....

Feeling a bit under the weather today so I haven't been down the shops yet!

I was a bit bored earlier so I compiled a nice easy quiz for anyone who wants to have a crack at it. It's called 'spot the legs'. The owners of all these legs can/have been seen on patch this year, can you name them from the legs alone?? I'll give you one little clue, a couple of them may not even belong to birds!!!

 

[KarenWoolley]

here are the rest:

 

[Silvio Davison]

1- Carrion Crow
3- Cormorant
4- Starling
6- Wren
8- Yellow-legged Gull
9- Steve
10- Gavin and Ian (background)

Still thinking about the other ones....

 

[bun]

This morning at first light there was a Woodcock at the bottom of Bunts lane on the grass verge at couch hill, it then flew towards couchill woods.

On Beer Beach this morning the male Black Redstart was showing but being very elusive.

 

[Steve Waite]

Great quiz Karen! All I can say is that number nine looks in fine form, a cracking pair of legs - great fashion sense too!

 

[Gavin Haig]

9- Steve

Good try Silvio, but I don't think so. Pale pink and stumpy - obviously a Bonaparte's Gull (easy mistake to make!)......|=)|

I'll try BHG for #2 and Ruff for #7. Got a mental block going on with #5.....:brains:

 

[KarenWoolley]

Told you it was easy!! All answers are correct, I'll even allow both answers for number 9 as these two are sometimes considered conspecific!! Legs very similar yes, but perhaps Larus philadelphia, just nudges ahead on fashion sense though?? :-O

As for number 5, this will give it away.

 

[Silvio Davison]

Good try Silvio, but I don't think so. Pale pink and stumpy - obviously a Bonaparte's Gull:

How could I possibly make such a mistake??? 8-P
Thanks Gavin!

Silv

 

[Hotspur]

Great Blue heron?