Backwater Birding - Seaton, Devon (1 Viewer)

[Gavin Haig]

The Axe playing hard-to-get eh, Andrew? A similar result for me this morning.

An evening visit to Seaton Marshes revealed a few waders escaping the rising tide, amongst the vegetation of one of the estuary islands. 36 Redshank, 3 Dunlin, 2 Common Sandpipers and a Whimbrel.

I then went to inspect the colour of the sea for a little while and was a bit miffed when 5 Common Scoter flew past, spoiling the hypnotic pattern of smooth ripples. No other birds were so inconsiderate..........

 

[James McCarthy]

4 dunlin (3 ads & a juv) and 30+ redshank on the river this early pm... Sarny Tern on the pink bouy off the beach this am.

Am trying Phil... evening walk at high tide added 5 Common Sand, 3 Whimbrel & 39 redshank, plenty of hirundines but nowt out the ordinary, its gotta be tomorrow!

 

[Phil Abbott]

I had 5 Green sands and 2 clouded yellows at colyford common last night,come on lads now the Golden childs out of the picture for a couple of days we should double the effort.

 

[Doug Rudge]

Went down to Seaton Marshes at dusk where it was high tide and very quiet on the reserve - not even a single Greenfinch on the feeders.

The estuary was a little better, but again there was nothing out of the ordinary - 3 Whimbrel, 8 Common Sandpipers perched on the branch and a brief visit from a Kingfisher being the only noteworthy sightings.

 

[Gavin Haig]

........come on lads now the Golden childs out of the picture for a couple of days we should double the effort.

Phil - I don't care how much or how little effort is involved, just as long as we give him something to sweat about!! Not that we want to grip you off Steve. No, no, perish the thought. Not with Black Kite or Laughing Gull or ANY stonking goody like that......no, definitely not

My own brief efforts today resulted in a bit of tan top-up and little else......

Mind you, whilst having a look at the estuary this afternoon I noticed a Whimbrel and a couple of Dunlin frantically trying to avoid this dodgy looking character in a kayak, sneaking along like some Hiawatha, peering up the nooks and crannies with his bins. Not you, James, by any chance? 3

Ooh! Ooh! Almost forgot! I'm all excited 'cos I've just got a digi cam. A Fuji Finepix F30 (I worked for Kodak for about a hundred years, so am struggling hugely with a stricken conscience). Straight out into the garden with it to find a victim. A hapless Gatekeeper was pounced upon! Also my very, very first digiscoped pic, which I am also going to share with all you BFers. Yes, yes, I know - massive vignetting, and yes, it is a street lamp, but imagine if there was a Rose-coloured Starling sitting on it!!! Can't wait for a proper bird to capture. Whilst the credit card is still in trauma I shall read the HUGE owmer's manual and see what's what. Watch this space.....

 

[Phil Abbott]

2 Green sands 4 lapwing at colyford common last night.The way its going at the moment gav i think your going to have a lot of birdless pictures ,your empty lampost will look good beside a picture of the empty scrapes at colyford,and seaton.

 

[Ranger James]

Bit of a heads up for all of you. Fraser is bunding the lagoon overlooked by the Colyford Common bird hide today and the next big tide which will inundate this area is set to be the 9th Aug - so watch out for action then.
More on the flooded area on Colyford Common itself. The corner of the reserve has flooded really nicely, as a site inspection yesterday morning confirmed. It is very difficult to see the standing water from the hide as the grass is still very green and has not started to die back in the water. However two green sand and four lapwing were enjoying the conditions, so keep em peeled for the first wood sand of the autumn which can't be too far away. As the rest of the estuary is so dry this oasis should attract everything in the vicinity.
I have a couple of photos of the water for those of you still yet to be convinced, as soon as I have downloaded them I will upload them here as proof.
Honestly, there were dragonflies ovipositing in the water, it wasn't all in my head!

 

[Gavin Haig]

I have a couple of photos of the water for those of you still yet to be convinced.........

I believe you, Jim!! There were a couple of Mallards afloat on it this morning! 3 Lapwing, but no Green Sands....

An hour's seawatch from 05:35 was a bit slow, but not totally fruitless. 33 Common Scoter W, 2 Sandwich Terns E, 1 very distant Manxie W, plus an even more distant shearwater W which may well have been a Balearic, but had to go down as 'hazy speck sp.'. Sometimes I do wish Seaton was on the end of a massive headland.....but then we wouldn't get the stuff that shelters in the bay. I am NOT complaining! While standing on the beach I also heard a Dunlin and had half a dozen Meadow Pipits trickle E, overhead.

Bumped into Ian McLean on the river, where we were pleased to see 2 juv Yellow-legged Gulls (sorry Andrew!) - one by the tram sheds which eventually flew off towards the sea, plus another at Coronation Corner which also flew off as the tide came up, and appeared to come down on Seaton marshes, but we couldn't find it there shortly afterwards.

 

[James McCarthy]

Could see the action Jim, great news....would hope tonight's tide should be enough
2 Green Sands came into the corner field (from the hide look to the south west & its the bright green bit in front of the hedge/ trees) this am for a short while, flew off north. Only other things of note were 3 Kestrel and 15 Canada Geese (have I always overlooked these?).
I think we should turn this 'find something while steve's away' into a positive mode - like lets give him a great coming home present - that way the man upstairs might be more cooperative with that Pratincole or whatever...

 

[Andrew]

Bumped into Ian McLean on the river, where we were pleased to see 2 juv Yellow-legged Gulls (sorry Andrew!)

Triple helping of AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGH!

 

[Ranger James]

I think we should turn this 'find something while steve's away' into a positive mode - like lets give him a great coming home present - that way the man upstairs might be more cooperative with that Pratincole or whatever...

I bet he would be thrilled for us if we'd had nice cream-coloured courser while he'd been away. What a highlight for us all.

James - tonight's tide is only charted as 3.7 metres, so it will not theoretically get high enough to inundate the lagoon. There's three 4.2 metre tides on 10th, 11th and 12th next month which should, especially if there's a lovely low pressure system and we've had bags of rain and its blowing a hoolie due north, which considering the schools have broken up and its the summer hols, is highly likely!

Keep it up chaps, that mega is surely only a few days away now!

James

 

[Phil Abbott]

only 1 lapwing and a snipe at colyford tonight, its nice to see some work going ahead on the scrape i hope it works,now perhaps frazer will do somthing about that awful hide,perhaps maybe face it to wards the scrape! i agree with you james(ranger) that corner at colyford is where its all going to happen.

 

[KarenWoolley]

Out on the river at 5.30 this morning, highlight being the Egyptian geese back at Coronation Corner, hadn't seen them for a while now. I didn't see anything else of note, that doesn't mean there were no juv. yl gulls because I wouldn't recognise one if I fell over it!!

At Colyford Common 2 green sandpipers were on the wet corner, before flying off north, (first time I've seen these) also a juv kestrel and a lovely flock of around 30 goldfinches which are always nice to see and alone were worth the visit!

 

[Steve Waite]

Well, I'm home! Had a wonderful break, and pleased to see you chaps failed miserable in finding something. Good to see you had no intent and would have had no pleasure at all in gripping me off...!?!?!? The joys of working a patch with a team!?!?!?!

Nice pic of a lampost Gav, but you would only have captured the feet of the White Stork standing on it.

Had a nice and relaxing break in south Devon, super view of a Stone Curlew and brief views of a few Chough were the highlight, a pair of Great Grey Owls were rather unexpected, not to mention the Lions, Baboons, Apes, Elephants, etc....

Good to be back...

 

[Ranger James]

I hope you had your innoculations before venturing over the river. Good to have you back ready and waiting for the first mega of autumn.
James

 

[Ranger James]

Here you go, as promised two photos for you all.
"Fondling a banded demoiselle"
And
"Fraser admires his large wet patch"

James

 

[Steve Waite]

i agree with you james(ranger) that corner at colyford is where its all going to happen.

What about Seaton Marshes? Three Green Sands looking more than happy on a very yummy-looking scrape there this evening.

Only birds of note on river this afternoon were 2 Dunlin and 6 Common Sands. I spent an hour and a quarter looking out to sea, and saw zilch! 2 stupedously distant Common Scoter-shaped blobs flew west, that was it!!!

Pretty much all day out and about tomorrow, should be able to grind something out in that time.....

 

[Gavin Haig]

Backwater Blues

2 stupendously distant Common Scoter-shaped blobs flew west.....

In my email inbox this evening were some tremendous shots of Balearic Shearwaters taken at Berry Head by Mark Darlaston (if you read this, thanks very much for allowing the distribution of your pics - they are SUPERB!). So Berry Head is getting them. Portland is getting them. Look at a map and see where Seaton lies in relation to those two locations, then guess why you're not reading that Seaton is getting them. NO WIND!! They must be passing, but a very, very long way out. Seawatching just now is excrutiatingly frustrating. You know it's out there, but simply too far out there....... I'm thinking of writing a short, very specialised field guide: 'The Non-Headland Seawatcher's Guide to the Field Identification of Shimmering Specks'. Still, the forecasters are predicting a moderate southerly on Saturday - at last!

Not much to add to the other posters' assortment, except 3 Common Scoter flying past first thing, just off the French coast. The Egyptian Geese toured the area - early morning at Coronation Corner, as Karen said, then up to the fields at Colyford, and down by the tram sheds this afternoon. No YL Gulls, Andrew (that would have been cruel!!).

The autumn passage floodgates will be opening soon, then we won't know where to look first, so I may take the opportunity (if I can get up) to do a dawn raid on a probably bird-free Beer Head tomorrow. My first (and maybe last) ever July visit there, I think.......

 

[Gavin Haig]

.......I may take the opportunity (if I can get up) to do a dawn raid on a probably bird-free Beer Head tomorrow. My first (and maybe last) ever July visit there, I think.......

What a miserable pessimist this bloke is! Ignoring his gloomy predictions I enjoyed a lovely early morning stroll over Beer Head. The sun was just coming up, the view was terrific, no people, and there were birds everywhere. GORGEOUS!! Spent far longer there than intended, but couldn't resist - it was just such an inspirational place to be on a beautiful morning. Although lots of local birds, also plenty of migrants, including the vast majority of the following: 30 Willow Warblers, 4 Chiffs, 3 Whitethroats, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 4 Blackcaps, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 juv Stonechat, 1 Grey Wagtail and a Sandwich Tern. Also enjoying the sunshine were 4 Painted Ladies, a Marbled White and my first Small Copper this year. A brilliant way to work up an appetite for breakfast!

Went home via the Farm Gate viewpoint. The tide had covered all the mud, but in the distance I could see 2 Green Sandpipers messing around on Fraser's Wet Patch!

 

[Ranger James]

Went home via the Farm Gate viewpoint. The tide had covered all the mud, but in the distance I could see 2 Green Sandpipers messing around on Fraser's Wet Patch!

I'll pass it on - he'll be thrilled.
James