birdingexmouth: Pied Fly

Thursday 30 August 2018

Pied Fly

One of c50+ Yellow Wagtails in with cattle below Maer Farm this afternoon. All 'flava' flocks are entertaining and this one was no different, with a huge amount of variation in plumage shown within just one small group, comprising both adults and juveniles. The above bird was white-naped and stood out like a sore thumb. They were really hard to photograph but I've posted a few more below. Calls were also very varied with several really rasping calls emanating from the flock, as well as the more standard calls.

Good by Orcombe standards today - 5 Little Egret, 1 Pied Flycatcher, 3 Wheatear, 20+ Yellow Wagtail, 11 Tree Pipit, 1 Whinchat, 1 Coal Tit, 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 3 Sparrowhawk, 1 Kestrel, 5 'alba' wagtail, 1+ Meadow Pipit, 3 Grey Wagtail, 3+ Willow Warbler, 1+ Chiffchaff, 3+ Whitethroat, c25+ House Martin, c20+ Swallow and 1 Blackcap.

Nearby, in Maer Valley, 1 Ring-necked Parakeet, c50+ Yellow Wagtail and 1 Willow Warbler.

Exmouth beach was way better than usual with 114+ Ringed Plover, 118+ Dunlin and 2 White Wagtail.

Mudbank was the poor relation today with just 3 Whimbrel, 1 Turnstone, 40+ Sandwich Tern, 1 Common Tern, 4 Great Crested Grebe, 1+ Yellow Wagtail and c80+ Mallard.

I was particularly pleased with the Pied Flycatcher today. It's always a tough bird to get in Exmouth and I kind of thought I'd missed the boat with earlier south coast influxes. It was hyper-active around the triangular copse in the corner of the field above the orchid field, and just wouldn't settle. I think it moved through pretty quickly as there was no sign after my initial sighting and it wasn't there when I checked again this afternoon. As well as the Pied Fly, both Meadow Pipit and Whinchat were autumn 'firsts' today.
An early evening trip over to Budleigh, to meet up with Chris, was rewarded with great views of the Spotted Crake feeding brazenly out in the open with two juvenile Water Rails.