Some April Stunners

 

Redstart - that's two years on the trot that Nick has discovered Exmouth's 'first' Redstart. It's a gift!

The first good day for migrants in Exmouth. I've been off work, on the doctor's advice, the last two days following my first (and hopefully last) ever bout of vertigo. This means I've had the chance to look at the river from the back garden (doctor's advice was to try and stay upright and active). Every cloud.....

Today I got my first 4 Little Tern of the spring, c40+ Sandwich Tern, c10+ Common Tern, 2 Pale-bellied Brent Goose, 3 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 38 Dunlin, 10+ Turnstone and a trickle of Swallows heading north upriver.

Yesterday I recorded 3 Pale-bellied Brent Goose, c60+ Sandwich Tern, a flock of 40 Black-headed Gull upriver, 1 First-summer Little Gull upriver, 2 Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Whimbrel, 3 Dunlin, 15 Turnstone and 5 Rook east.

Nick found a male Redstart on Orcombe this afternoon, so once Lu got back with the car I nipped up there and found the bird along with a nice little selection of other migrants concentrated around the dung field - 6+ Wheatear, 2 Whitethroat, 2 Meadow Pipit, 1 Yellow Wagtail and 2 Grey Wagtail. Great to see Derek and Terry up there too.

Yellow Wagtail - my first this year.

 

Grey  Wagtail - unusual to see on Orcombe at this time of year. One of a pair.

 

Raven over the back garden yesterday.

 

Siskin - one of a pair feeding in sallows on Woodbury Common earlier in the week - photographed whilst on a dog walk.

 

It has been a good week for sunsets. This was taken from Joel's bedroom window, looking across to Haldon Belvedere.

Kentish Plover

I did a sea-watch from about 0625 this morning. Conditions were pretty good but sitting in a bitterly cold south-easterly couldn't be described as a comfortable experience. The raised beach huts offered some shelter but after about an hour I'd had enough! A few birds were noted. I picked up a 'horizon-hugging' Great Skua heading south, and whilst watching it a much closer individual lumbered in to my scope view. These were the first I've seen this year. About 20 minutes later I picked up another skua. It was getting whisked into the bay by the wind, with high towering shears. Initially I assumed it was going to be an Arctic but its more Bonxie-like structure pointed to it being a Pomarine Skua. I struggled to get plumage features on it but its biscuit-brown underparts and lack of spoons pointed to it being an immature bird - undoubtedly the same bird seen by Lee at the Warren a short while later. Also noted, before I started to feel hypothermic, were 3 Diver sp, 4 Fulmar, 4 Manx Shearwater, 2+ Common Scoter, c10+ Sandwich Tern, several Kittiwake and 3 Auk sp.
Around lunch time, a text from Kev had me scooting down to the Docks to see the male Kentish Plover that Lee had found earlier on. I had tried to see it earlier but it was chaos down at Exmouth seafront. The wind was causing serious 'scope shake' and part of the Esplanade had been closed off, with massive waves crashing over the sea wall on an exceptionally high tide. Anyway, with some kind help from Kev, I was able to scope the Kentish Plover from the docks. Many thanks for all your help Kev and thanks too, of course, to Lee. Kentish Plover now sits neatly on my Exmouth list. The rules for me are simple - if my feet are firmly planted on Exmouth soil I can count it! Let's face it, Warren Point is a hell of a lot closer to Exmouth than Dawlish!

Odds and Ends

Mute Swans heading towards the river.

Derek and I did Orcombe first thing this morning and I nipped up to the top fields briefly mid-afternoon. Apart from a few 'phylloscs' there was little to report but it was a beautiful morning. The highlight was a lone Lapwing - unusual on Orcombe, especially in spring. Otherwise totals included 2 Shelduck, 9+ Chiffchaff, 7+ Willow Warbler, 2 Turnstone, 1 Little Egret, 4 Mute Swan, 1 Meadow Pipit and 4 Canada Goose.

There are 3 Buzzards on Orcombe at the moment. They have been very conspicuous of late but I haven't sussed out if or where they might be breeding.

This morning's star bird - Lapwing.

Chiffchaff - one of three feeding with a single Willow Warbler by the dung heap this afternoon, between hail showers.

Another Iceland Gull

Wheatear - Orcombe Point - 1 of at least 5 seen yesterday.

 

Orcombe Point was practically birdless this morning so I ended up staring at the sea for a while. This proved to be a good move as at about 0715 I picked up an Iceland Gull offshore from Maer Rocks. It would have probably hung around had the tide been out but it headed sluggishly south, circling high off Dawlish seafront for a while, then drifting back out to sea before heading high in a line that put it on course for Berry Head. I kept watching it until it was a minute speck in the sky. It was an immature bird, probably a juvenile, and from what I could see, very like the last bird, only perhaps a bit more slim-line. Also off there - 2 Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Common Scoter, 3 Great Crested Grebe and c15+ Sandwich Tern.

No Redstarts on Orcombe yesterday but an obvious arrival of migrants that included 8+ Willow Warbler, 12+ Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap, 5+ Wheatear, 2 Swallow and 2 Goldcrest. Also seen - 4 Dark-bellied Brent Goose, c20+ Linnet, 2 Collared Dove and 2 Shelduck.

SEO

 

Short-eared Owls are really hard to catch up with in Exmouth so today's bird was thoroughly appreciated. It was gulls that drew my attention to it as it circled high over Warren Point at around 315pm. It soon moved off south with its posse of gulls in tow. I was stood watching terns off Shelly Beach at the time. The Sandwich Terns were all sat on the buoys in the estuary. I counted c50+ along with 1 Common Tern that showed reasonably well and produced none of the ID headaches that I experienced yesterday! Otherwise it was pretty quiet with just 7 Red-breasted Mergansers and 4 Dark-bellied Brent Geese making the notebook.

 

 

Short-eared Owl. The last SEO I saw in Exmouth was on November 6th 2011.

Male Tufted Duck - Bystock Pond - just within the Exmouth parish boundary. A tricky species to catch up with in Exmouth though I have recorded a few on the river over the years. They have bred on nearby Blackhill Quarry.

Osprey

 

In the absence of an Osprey photo here's a 'silvery' Pheasant on Orcombe Point. There are very few Pheasants on Orcombe but I bump into them from time to time.

 

Thanks to a text from Lee I was able to watch an Osprey, fishing just north of Mudbank this morning. I watched it from the back garden for a good 20 minutes, during which time it made several spectacular attempts to catch a fish. I never actually saw it catch one though. Perhaps it had something to do with the constant attention it was receiving from gulls and angry Oystercatchers! This evening, off the Imperial, there were at least 52 Sandwich Tern and 2 'Commic' Terns. They were almost certainly the 2 Common Terns that Kev had seen off the Warren earlier though I have to admit my initial reaction was that they were 'Arctics'. On the deck they looked short-billed and very short-legged. They looked less convincing in flight however, so best left as 'Commics'. I always struggle with terns at this time of year. Come to think of it , I struggle with terns at all times of year!

Also off the Imperial this evening - 40 Shelduck, 6 Dark-bellied Brent Goose and my first Whimbrel of the spring.

Orcombe was disappointing this morning. Conditions felt good but I managed just 13+ Chiffchaff, c15+ Meadow Pipit, 2+ Willow Warbler and c20+ Linnet. Offshore there was a flock of 14 Common Scoter and 20 Dark-bellied Brent Geese were on Maer Rocks.

Willow Warbler and more Pale-bellied Brents.

 

Willow Warbler - one of 2 on Orcombe today. Another moved through our garden this afternoon.

 

It looks like the anticipated Pale-bellied Brent Goose movement has started already. There were 4 on Maer Rocks first thing this morning (including yesterday's bird) and 11 in the estuary, off the Imperial, this afternoon. Also on Orcombe today - 18 Dark-bellied Brent Goose, 8+ Sandwich Tern, 2 Red-breasted Merganser, 4 Manx Shearwater, 1 Fulmar, 1 Diver sp, 2 Auk sp, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 2 Great Northern Diver, 1 fw/s Mediterranean Gull, 5 Common Scoter, 4+ Chiffchaff, 2 Willow Warbler, 1 Blackcap, 7 Meadow Pipit, 9 Linnet, 1 Goldcrest and 1 Swallow.

Off the Imperial, in addition to the aforementioned Pale-bellied Brents, there were 3 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 34 Sandwich Tern and a (white?) ringed first-summer Mediterranean Gull.

 

The Pale-bellied Brents - looking from the Imperial towards Mudbank.

This Comma was in the garden this afternoon. Several Peacocks and a couple Green-veined Whites were also seen today.