Short-eared Owl and Redstart

A Redpoll over the garden whilst I opened the moth trap this morning hinted at it being a good day, so I spent eight hours at work wondering what I was missing. I could even hear Skylarks going over as I was supervising miscreants in the 'Time Out' room, which didn't help! Texts from Lee and Keith confirmed there was lots turning up locally so I shot up to Orcombe as soon as work finished.

Best bird was a beautiful Short-eared Owl that was hunting the top fields for at least two hours until dusk. Also recorded was 1 Redstart, 1 Wheatear, a high count of 11+ Stonechat, 1 Siskin, 70+ Woodpigeon, c20+ Skylark, c50+ Meadow Pipit, 15 Starling, 1 Grey Wagtail and 6+ Chiffchaff.

Off Mudbank - 67+ Black-tailed Godwit, 57+ Redshank, 4 Dunlin and c80+ Turnstone with high and uncounted numbers of wildfowl. Yesterday there were 4 Greylag Geese off there.

An early morning pre-work spell on Orcombe on the 16th produced 2 Goldcrest, 6+ Song Thrush, 1 Lapwing, 1 Snipe and 3 Wheatear amongst a few other bits and pieces.

Presumed first-winter male Redstart - my first on Orcombe this autumn and a bit of a late one.

Meadow Pipit

Wheatear

Green-brindled Crescent

Large Wainscot

Vestal - other immigrant species were 1 Rush Veneer, 2 Rusty Dot Pearl, 2 Silver Y and a Dark Sword-grass.

Pine Carpet

 

Chestnut - other species trapped last night included L-album Wainscot, Black Rustic, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Angle Shades, Red-line Quaker, Barred Sallow, Feathered Ranunculus, Lunar Underwing, Double-striped Pug, Common Marbled Carpet, Large Yellow Underwing, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Light Brown Apple Moth and a very late Apple Leaf Skeletoniser.

Song Thrush - part of a small arrival on Orcombe on Tuesday morning.

Plenty of stuff to see off Mudbank at the moment....

 

 

The Short-eared Owl was still hunting the top fields at dusk.

Sinensis Cormorant

 

A 'sinensis' Cormorant off Mudbank today, but little else noted other than the now regular flock of Black-tailed Godwits, which numbered 32.

A quick look at Orcombe late afternoon produced 5+ Chiffchaff, 3 Blackcap, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker and c30+ Meadow Pipit. The Linnet flock has increased in size to 340+.

 

 

 

 

340+ Linnet on Orcombe today.

 

This Week

A very quick look at the sea 'pre-football' revealed the two Eider, 6 Sandwich Tern, 1 Common Scoter and a south-bound Great Northern Diver, but otherwise it was very poor.

Orcombe was blown out in the gale-force southerlies this afternoon, but I still managed to log 2 Stonechat, 2 Snipe, c100+ Linnet, 1 Blackcap and c50+ Meadow Pipit.

Off Mudbank there was a first-winter Yellow-legged Gull, 2 Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, c25+ Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Greenshank, 5+ Redshank, c10+ Great Crested Grebe and c450+ Dark-bellied Brent Goose.

Late yesterday afternoon a 'commic' tern was battling against the wind off Starcross and on the 11th - 52 Black-tailed Godwit, an adult Mediterranean Gull and a Sandwich Tern were off Mudbank, with 2 Mediterranean Gulls (adult and first-winter) on Warren View playing fields.

On the 10th two Pale-bellied Brent Geese were in with the dark-bellied birds off Mudbank, and 3 Song Thrushes dropped from high in the sky as I walked to work in the morning. 

At the start of the week my morning walk to work produced my first Redwing of the autumn.

First-winter Yellow-legged Gull - Mudbank

 Kingfisher - Mudbank

Orcombe 'Overheads' and 180 Pintail

I spent the first couple of hours of daylight (0705 - 0905) on Orcombe. Overhead stuff was tricky to count with birds flying east, against the majority heading west, and many flocks too high up to identify. I ended up with the following totals: c110+ Meadow Pipit, c100+ 'alba' Wagtail, 1 Redpoll, 2 Song Thrush, 3 Grey Wagtail, 9+ Chiffchaff, 1 Kestrel, 58+ Linnet, c35+ Chaffinch, 7 Reed Bunting, c40+ Skylark, 3 Greenfinch, 6 Swallow, 2 Raven, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker and 3+ Blackcap.

A high count of 180 Pintail was made off Mudbank, along with 52+ Black-tailed Godwit, 160+ Dark-bellied Brent Goose, 130+ Curlew, 1 Snipe, 5 Redshank, 92 Shelduck, 2 Greenshank, 1 Kingfisher and 1 Bar-tailed Godwit.

 

 

Possible Box Bug? Edit - Coreus marginatus or Dock Bug - thanks to Tim for the id.

It's an absolute joy to be able to watch Black-tailed Godwits off Mudbank at the moment. They are normally only occasional visitors to this end of the river but the feeding seems to be to their liking at the moment, and numbers have built to at least 52 birds this afternoon.

Red-crested Pochard

Red-crested Pochard (third from right) with Pintail and Wigeon. It looks essentially like a female with a darker crown and paler cheeks, but the black breast and under-tail coverts make it a male. Not quite sure if its an immature bird or a bird coming out of eclipse.

 

I picked this Red-crested Pochard up in with the Wigeon this evening. Unfortunately the bird was always in silhouette so I haven't got any decent photos, and I haven't quite sussed its age. An unseen shooter forced every duck and goose in to the air with a single shot, and I was unable to re-find it. Half the flock had headed towards the Warren and indeed it was picked up there this evening by Kev. Otherwise c40+ roosting Black-tailed Godwit and 7+ Redshank were the only birds of note, though I had my first Redpoll of the autumn fly over as I walked to school this morning.

Red-crested Pochard - top right. The bird appears to show black breast and grey bill so presumably a

first-winter male?

 

 

This is my third record in Exmouth following an eclipse male on 20/9/97 and a first-winter male on 9/1/10

 

Pink-barred Sallow - a nice variety of moths trapped last night included Cypress Carpet, Cypress Pug, Double-striped Pug, Common Marbled Carpet, Willow Beauty, Rusty Dot Pearl (3+), Large Yellow Underwing, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Silver Y (2), Coastal Pearl, Feathered Ranunculus, Barred Sallow, Sallow, Pink-barred Sallow, Lunar Underwing, Beaded Chestnut, Red-line Quaker, Vine's Rustic, Black Rustic, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Treble Brown-spot, Pale Pinion, L-album Wainscot, Long-horned Flat-body, Blood Vein, Light Brown Apple Moth, Southern Bell, Square-spot Rustic and Angle Shades.

Sallow

Pale Pinion

Red-line Quaker

Barred Sallow

L-album Wainscot

Feathered Ranunculus

Black Rustic

Satellite

Satellite - a long overdue tick for me and a really beautiful autumnal moth, courtesy of Martin. Thanks again Martin. The moth gets its name from the small white 'satellites' either side of the stigma.

 

Very little to report on the bird front - wildfowl numbers are looking much more healthy off Mudbank (Wigeon numbers must be approaching the thousand mark) but the most notable record was of 28 Black-tailed Godwit off there yesterday, along with three Redshank.

Early Tuesday morning on Orcombe - 32+ 'alba' wagtail, 2 Goldcrest, 1 Stonechat, 3+ Chiffchaff and 1+ Blackcap. Off Mudbank - 122+ Dark-bellied Brent Goose, 70+ Pintail, 13 Black-tailed Godwit and 1 Teal.

On Monday evening - 3 Yellow Wagtails in with cattle on Orcombe Point and a 'helice' Clouded Yellow.

Feathered Ranunculus and Siskins

Feathered Ranunculus - a gorgeous moth - greens golds and purple.

 

I did Orcombe from first light (0700) until 0915. It was cool and overcast but there was a fair bit of movement overhead, with the headline act being Siskin - I counted 108 but this was a bare minimum, with several single calls going into the notebook as 1 bird when there were almost certainly more. Also recorded - 4+ Chaffinch, 164+ Meadow Pipit (with another c50+ grounded), 113+ 'alba' wagtail, 2 Grey Wagtail, 17+ Linnet (with another c20+ grounded), 17+ Goldfinch, 1 Golden Plover, 2 Snipe, 1 Little Egret, 8 Swallow, 2 Mediterranean Gull, 10+ Skylark, 2 Kestrel, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 12+ Chiffchaff, 1 Stonechat, 2 Goldcrest and 5+ Blackcap.

Siskins were still going over as I was doing a spot of gardening later in the morning and several were heard whilst Joel and I walked the dog on Woodbury Common. Five Crossbills up there were the first I've had since the winter.

Only a quick look off Mudbank but 86 Dark-bellied Brent Goose, c3/400+ Wigeon, c12+ Sandwich Tern and 5 Black-tailed Godwit were noted.

 

 

At least a dozen Chiffies on Orcombe this morning but I would imagine I missed a fair few.