Train it!

130 miles to Bristol the other day added a few to my greater patch while today I am going to expand the patch to all modes of transport - and that includes a trip to Manchester on the train...same rules tho, no optics but I'm hopeful for a couple of additions.

My local patch (daily commute) has kicked off well with a green woodpecker - only my second in 4 years on this trip!

Just home after the first time on anything other than South West trains...it was like another world - smooth ride, nice chairs, radio, even plugs to recharge your phone! Going to London from here is like the 70's! Beautiful snowy fields - I don't think I had appreciated how cold it is up country - very!!! Flippin freezing! Not many new birds fort patch - sparrow hawk I will get anyway but moorhen was quite a good one ( don't see many of them on the M5)...but still no waxwing this year.

Drivin' it

With the Axe birding community diversifying rapidly on the concept of patch lists (by bike, foot, camera, set the target first etc) I felt I had to join in. If I am able I will do 3 lists for the year;
1. My local patch which will be my daily commute from just north of Axminster to Honiton. This passes the delights of a small rocky stream (where I had Dipper in 2012 from the car), a crossing over the Axe, some lovely beech woods and finally great vistas across East Devon. My target for this...40? Is that possible?
2. My extended patch which is everything I see from my car as I travel the length and breadth of this country doing my job. The A303, M5 and others see too much of me and do this could make things better. Did my first 320 miles yesterday towards London & Surrey and immediately faced the dilemma - do I count birds at service stations? No even though the patch Trekkers are scoping birds miles off their walk-it patch, I will stay true to the road (and no optics!!!)
3. Last my lunchtime list - always fun and ever expanding, never wrote up the Black Grouse, Dotterel, SB Dowitcher (right before it left) in 2012 so will try and be more diligent this year.
So where are we at?
1. It's still basically dark on my daily commute so haven't started that one
2. Surrey saw me amazed at just how many jackdaws, magpie and wood pigs there are in this country. Also scored Mute Swan, Cormorant and a lucky Green Woodpecker to give me a total of 16 sp. on that trip.
3. Zip, been all work so far.
Brum Brum the new foot it!

Not my turn today

Early up this morning after hearing rain at 5:15 and after making the kids lunches I crept out. First stop was farm gate - no stilts on Colyford and then down towards the river. The only place I stopped was at the Tram shed because I live in hope of repeating the Axes only Kentish Plover that graced this piece of hard sand. A Ringo and 4 Dunlin had me actually try an visualise a KP over on the sand. I must have looked 2 or 3 times just believing it should have been there but it didn't magically appear. So off to Beer Head and to my surprise an empty parking bay - probably because it had started to rain and didn't stop for the next hour. No birds save a female Redstart right as I was getting back to the car (sorry Honiton Ian) and I turned up at work very wet and cold. And the point of the story... Having had a few texts with Steve, one telling him to go find a KP and the other to start playing Golden Oriole tapes a blessed female Kentish showed up for a few minutes...on the Axe, our patch. I knew it, but my day will come.

Drive-by shooting

Unfortunately I can't add a photo of my mates digi-ing away with frozen fingers this morning but I think the time for a scope with in-built USB port and internal camera has come.
The event? A lovely (cos it is wild) sub-adult Crane feeding in a reedy bend of the Axe. Total patch blocker (not that I really care but they are a niggle) lifted and a good way to start the week!

Been a long time a comin...

There are some birds that have a real curiosity appeal to me and some that have none. I would think of any excuse to travel via a Rough-leg or shrike but I have been within a shout of the Hampshire Junco a couple of times and it just hasn't drawn me in.
Well watching the photos of the Gwent Yellowthroat turn from a first winter almost into a spring male has been causing me to look for the chance to swing by. Throw in having to actually maybe find it and it fitting a behavioural hole between gropper and I'm not sure what & I was up for it with the right space in the diary.
So a late morning M4 meeting gave me an hour, plus the last day of the March heat wave gave me the hurry-up. I was planning. My only failing was try as I might I couldn't sway Steve (although we had a agreed this was worth an off-patch trip) so it was print out the very helpful directions and off I went (this was on the way back...).

Sun in Devon turned to low cloud at Bristol... Might it be too cold before I had to leave by 10? But things quickly turned for the good, easy parking, close to the motorway (if I was late) and a couple walking down the hill who told me there was a young lad watching it. Thank goodness as I hadn't fancied searching a fair swathe of bracken all alone.
Up the hill and all too easy there it was, a beautiful little bird- bright as anything and making me realise how amazing a Point Pelee fall must be. I had seen a few North American warblers in California many many years ago and it make me realise however pretty Sedge and Whitethroat are, they really do play a poor second fiddle. What was more amazing was its behaviour, it would just vanish into thin air and the reappear in exactly the same place 5 minutes later. I'm reasonable at being quiet and following skulkers but I can only think this this bird must have just sat and had a kip because it just stopped, vanished and then started off again.
Good also to see its plumage developing, this bird is going to be gorgeous in about 10 days,you can see the pin feathers round it's mask- its gonna be a stunner.
So that was my first yank passerine and a twitch shot ( ala Karen) of this :-)

After that just lots of plastic Red Kites and a lot of miles but what a lovely drive-by bird.

Various observations

It's been a while an not for the lack of trying, so where do I start?
Let's begin with a techno bit (!) not a common topic on Devon bird blogs I know but it's worth saying...I couldt care less about the apple-Microsoft argument because I use both a lot but I have to tell you that htc is a way better phone than this I-whatever it is that I have just moved to. Sorry had to get that off my chest - but it is and that's from someone who wishes smart phones hadn't been invented. My old phone could be dropped in a bucket of water and survive but then I had to get a htc then now I have this thing a year later. Hands down winner there & that's not just about how hard it is to update my blog from it.

Second comment, that crane project is such a waste of money it's not true. I passed by on the way back from Bristol and looked an looked across flooded meadows through wonderful flocks of wigeon, teal and shovelers but no sign of any stately cranes amongst them. Giving up I was bailing out when I had a last look over a bund to see a glorified flock of turkeys standing round next to a feeder. Pathetic, so much so I couldn't even be bothered to check which was the wild one or take a photo. That bad. Where are they gonna nest? Why? As I said to Steve I'd rather fund ruddy duck eradication than that project!

Goodness, any good news James? Well I have been all over in the past month and managed a couple of ticks - a trip to London where I didn't see a parakeet and a trip to Belfast where our franchisee has a pair of bins and about 20 black guillemots across the road. LOVE this bird. Last observation... How much bigger the silver winter plum birds look vs the black summer ones. Optical illusions n all that.

I promise...there are about half a dozen Black Guillis in this picture & they aint that far away either!

Purple Sand and nice Eiders were work ticks though trying to beat my 'Sand Martin on the way to work' record right now :-)


Anyway now I've figured this phone-thing out I might be back soon...

It would have been rude not too

20 min drive, 20 mins there and then 20 mins back made it a perfect lunch twitch to visit one of my all time favorites, a Yellow-browed Warbler that's currently in residence near Chard.
Nearly didn't find the place....used my nouse "where would a really posh Somerset village stick its sewage works?" I thought....no one round the village green or shop knew so I took the road heading down the stream valley far away from all the lovely Taunton lawyer abodes. Just about giving up I was saved by that welcome sight, a birder seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Happy days.
I stop look at what he was watching, a small green double wingbarred bird and walk over to say hi..."that's not it" he shared carefully referring to the Goldcrest, oh lord do I look like a dude birder I thought! And then he kindly showed me the sewage beds and an exquisite well marked YBW. Don't u just love them? If they replaced chiffs I still wouldnt get sick of them, bit like autumn willow warblers - cute as can be.
Saw one clear cold tristis type & another that could have easily been but also had lovely views of Grey Wags, Goldcrest and even the Robins and Wrens looked bright and beatiful in the sunshine. Huh...yes I was there yesterday, not today in the gloom!
If you are local, go see this gem...not often you get to enjoy open views looking down on one hopping about on concrete rather than upwards against the sky, I know I'm going back!

Back on the road again

A 600 mile circuit held great prospects for a few good birds. Had felt confident to find a couple of slots within the two days but, as all too often, work got in the way and my bins didnt even emerge till the second day.
A night trip across from Devon to Essex was beautiful with a rising moon but was spoilt by a lack of Barn Owls on Salisbury Plain (i have seen up to 5 some nights) and by spurs winning on the radio.
Nothing in Essex nor Suffolk even though i must have been within spitting distance of the Waxwings in Ipswich - doubt they will make them onto my work list this winter then having been there the past 2 years.
Sleeping in Cambridge I had been wishing for a swing north towards Rough-leg territory but not to be. All i had to console was a flock of grey geese which had my hopes up, but as i went 360 round the next roundabout to have a quick look and i knew what they would be - next to Huntingdon race course? Yup Greylags. 2012 wasnt looking good but a bit further - less than 2 miles from my destination and with 20 minutes to spare i came across this place?

..Stanwick lakes. Ever heard of them? Nope neither had I but it was a string of gravel pits and as with all of these places anywhere in the country outside of Devon, they were packed with duck! Teal, Wigeon, Gadwall and a bunch of lovely Goldeneye...what a bird - i can never make up my mind if I prefer the male or the duck...both super cool.
Work then and driving again but with a choice...I had an hour of daylight so where to spend it....3 choices of about the same drive time - Oxford to Newbury then try and find the Short eared owls on Salisbury Plain (gona be tough but nice birds, winter evening etc.). Second would be to go straight thru Newbury and twitch this Junco and come home throgh Dorset but to be honest who really wants to travel 2 hours to a stake out. Then tick an ,albeit quite cute, finch that would probably hop up on a log and hop back down again. Not my scene, dont think there are even any Brambling to make it tempting. So my final choice...even though it hadnt been seen for 2 days, it was going to to drive towards Bristol and try for the Yellowlegs that was 5 minutes off the M5 near Taunton...risky, tide dependent etc...
Onto the Avon bridge & i tell myself, low tide & i dont go. Bugger i dont think i have ever seen the tide that low!!! But of course the temptation was too great, Birdguides still didnt have it reports but i had to have a go, so off i turn and figure out where to go.
Got lucky and found a road exactly to the creek, was my luck swinging - but which bank? I chose south and promptly saw the only birders on the other side looking away from me. Hmmm...
Anyway, lovely saltmarsh, beautiful winter evening and not a soul, my type of place and potential twitch.

But no bird!!! I walk out to the pond, look at the silhouettes of Redshank out in the Severn and realise i wasnt gonna be lucky. I did doubt it had gone, why should it so on the way back i check the last bend i hadnt been able to view and there with a few Redshank was what i was sure would turn out to the Lesser Yellowlegs. A bit a fieldcraft (hard when Redshank are involved) and i eventually get reasonable views of this very nice bird, a Wood Sandpiper crossed with a shank & easy to pick out. Cool, quite fancy going back for another look with a scope though.

So first trip of the year and off we go again!

Just me & Mr(s) Humes

Certainly have got a thing going on for little sibe leaf warblers...aren't they just the best - can't imagine how exciting it must have been to find this one cos its lovely!
Up early and my trip to Hampshire had a 30 minute bit of travel fat so a very short divert past Wyke Regis and (as per Birdguides) a 0.75 mile trot across a few fields with a fab view down the Fleet towards home. Now if anywhere in the country is due a Desert Wheatear it has to be in the army bridging camp here, just made for them & probably got some Afghani dust in the treads of the vehicles too.
Which way to go...think like a bird and head down into the bushes and just as the sun came up over Portland Harbour I was in place. Thanks for the placing of 'Post 12' and about 5 yards away '13' because the second I found the post, I turned to the willows let out probably 3 gentle 'pishes' and immediately out pops a the Hume's Leaf Warbler calling. But what a bird, pale to the point of silver with a wacking eyestripe and big broad wing bar just total class. Throw in eye-level views against a dark background at about 8-10 feet...heaven. Sorry Steve, your's was lovely (back in 2007) but it was always against the sky..this was awesome! Less than 60 seconds and it slunk back into the bush and that was pretty much that. Wow.
And then I turn around and see the Fleet, a million Brent Geese and probably more Red Breasted Mergs than I have seen in my combined life (62 in just one area plus a ton elsewhere)...all displaying and flying around and stuff. Wonderful.
Back to the car - 28 mins - and off to work.

Skive tick

5 minutes on the way to a pool session in Newton Abbot gave me a chance to finally have a look at Stover CP, somewhere I've wanted to check out as they get Goosander once in a while.

Small lake but a handful of Tufties n a skive tick - a female Pochard - was nice. Don't see many of them in East Devon. Kingfisher was only other thing, tho good to hear a bunch of Coal Tit...haven't seen one for ages round our way since last winter.

It didnt move for me...

Had long been trying to wangle a lunch meeting at Darts Farm to see the Red Breasted Goose and finally managed all of 14 mins before casually walking into the cafe right behind the people I was seeing.

Darts is easy for a quick walk but as I was in a hurry I drove down, amazed at the finch flocks coming off the seeds. Looking to the fields, the Brents were clearly in & its so like a zoo I didn't even bother looking till I got to the blind from where the whole flock wad visible. First quick scan and it wasn't obvious so I had to work marginally harder & half way across I found it, dozing. The only thing I can say was I found it a nice brick orange which wasn't what I had expected. I must have looked at it for all of 20 seconds before the Teal n Wigeon proved far more interesting but nothing among them. Another glance & the goose was walking, couldnt make the patterns of that bird up, should be renamed Picasso's Goose.

So a minute on te RBG, a couple on the Teal, same for the Wigeon and also on the lovely Brents which were real close. So if you do the math that left me with about 5 mins after the driving etc...what did I do with that? It was lovingly spent on the Chaffinch and Greenfinch flock but to no avail...

So why didn't a beautiful bird do anything for me? A zoo like environment? A park n tick? A ungulate of a bird? Dunno, I guess its just this gorgeous bird has been forever spoilt by crappy duck ponds for me & unfortunately it would have to be a family group in the taiga that'd change that....but do I tick it? To be honest, I'm really not bothered.

Wake up - its winter

Various family stuff left me with a whole 2 hours early afternoon birding - that's quite a treat for me. Unfortunately its late November but my birding brain hasn't figured that with the warm weather and after the wonderful autumn we have had.
What do I do with my time? Seaton Hole doesn't yield the Desert Wheatear tho a Black Red was probably a 'skive' tick....nor was there a Humes in the Holm Oak on the road.
The dunlin flock hasn't anything with them and the Axemouth church and then valley is devoid of birds save a single chiff. Refusing to give in, its Bruckland ponds where, after tracking them down, the tit flock contains....just tits.
And so the title....its regrettably all over, a few wandering winter waifs we get here and wait patiently for the spring again. What a year though we've had on the Axe, must be the best since 2007 by a mile.

Pass

A Temminck's Stint at Colyford scrape was just out of lunch range...20 min drive both ways and the hide is a good 8 min run downhill & way more than that back up (plus I really am not into running too birds).
It's funny the local reaction to this East Devon mega - so much almost disappointment for what we all appreciate is quite a cool bird. Such are local hopes for a true mega after such a fantastic autumn. It really has been a treat this year, every morning we have thousands of wood pigeons, good numbers of thrushes, geese, goldcrests n allsorts and there is a real feeling that next movement could be the one.
All that said I am tempted for a dawn raid tomorrow.....though figuring out how to get 90 minutes to see the Red breasted Goose on the Exeter all my mates have succumed too also draws me.
Did I see anything today? Just a Sparrowhawk over the carpark at work...first for a few weeks that.

10 minutes at best...

A quick trip over to Seaton to see a new franchisee gave me a couple of minutes to bomb round the area. Cool and grey I didn't manage to see some newly arrived Greylags, though the 12 Brents were on colyford marsh. While talking on the phone I used the time to look at Brucklands where I am convinced a leaf warbler is hiding....found the Long tailed Tits and the tristis chiff but nothing new. Finally on the rush back to the office, the 'normal' field at the Honiton junction had 6 Golden Plover with 80 Lapwing...why this field always holds these spp I will never understand.

Dorset wash-out

A 'short' planning meeting had given me high hopes for a trip back past Ferrybridge this afternoon, but that was blown out by rain and a finish that went well beyond my hoped-for 1:30 mental schedule.
3:05 & saying goodbye was just too late so no chance to visit the Brents or find a Phalarope off the Fleet. Not lucky with that office - this summer I found they were only 15 mins from where a bunch of Quail had been singing...I go up there after the work & the field had just been cut! Next year :-)

My first lunchtime twitch

Every blog's first page seems to have to say where the idea came from...well this one is about 4 years old and stems from picking up a ringing mobile as I walked out of a meeting...it was Steve (Axe Valle Birding)...  "Get in your car now...". The emphasis was on the now and after quickly saying to my boss "Umm just got to pop out to Tesco" I was on the 12 mile trek to my patch - the Axe Estuary in East Devon.
The drive was quick - following a brisk walk, not a run as some fellow locals sometimes do - & I was in a busy (10 people) Seaton hide where Karen (Wild Wild & Wandering) said "look down my scope" and there sat the UK' 4th Auduoins Gull.
I stayed for about 5 minutes ran back to the car and was back at the office within my hour break - luckily no-one noticed the lack of shopping bag - and that was the start of my lunchtime jaunts.

That makes me sound like a twitcher...not at all, a patch lister at times but genuinely a lover of cool birds and Audoins are certainly cool birds with sleepy eyes and sharp colours. To further defend that statement, take last Tuesday's pre-work rush...I hadn't been able to get to Seaton for our first White-rumped Sand on the Monday so I got clearance for an early Tuesday pass-by. Leaving my 14 year old to walk to the bus, I had 40 mins of light before having to set-off to work...would I be able to find it & not be late??
Walking out to the Tower Hide, it was worse than gloomy. Mist, light rain and a flat grey light didn't get my hopes up, and arriving at the hide to see the tide only just clearing mud really depressed me. Not a chance I thought. However a bit of luck and I found our minute Dunlin flock (normally  <20 through the winter) in the distance, one of them looked dark chest and headed but was constantly walking away. A text from Steve (who was across the river) didn't raise my confidence '8 Dunlin' but I wasnt convinced.
Having wasted 20 minutes, I felt I had to go round to the other side (5 mins drive) and still had time. So a run back to the car (notice the running away from birds theme) and as heading round when a text from Steve '2 Snow bunts at Sailing Club'... aagh, a real local scarcity - only 3 records and I had missed 2 of them due to children. Not a moments hesitation it was Snow Bunting over W-R Sandpiper anyday and I was soon heading across the shingle to enjoy 2 stunning birds...love 'em! Still think I'm a true twitcher?
A proper full-blown run back to the car (now down to between 5-8 minutes before I needed to leave Seaton) and up along the other side of the river. I was telling myself, unless I could see any small waders right close by, it was straight to work.
Stop, jump out & 2 small waders just where I had last seen them from the hide. Scope from car, run across grass and lovely views of my only White-rumped Sandpiper since I found one as a 14 year old in the days they were a real rare. Amazing - wings sticking out the back like a swift. Tell Bun & Steve & straight off to work arriving cooly at 8:29. Out of wellies & into the office.
Great 40 mins birding - and luckily for me I had no knowledge all day that I was suffering slanderous comments untill 3pm as the Sandpiper had duly vanished...but luckily back it came & my name remained untarnished, for now...