3 ducks ticked, 1 duck dipped (again)

It's happened again, I've got all behind....too busy birding & trying to get to grips with my new MacBook.

Since my last post I've been up on various bits of Woodbury Common looking for Woodcock & Jack Snipe without success, and had a second failed attempt for the Green-winged Teal at Portworthy Dam near Plymouth. We also went up to the Blackdown Hills and finished the last of the Devon Bird Atlas surveys. There were lots of birds about, although we didn't find anything unusual.

We then went up to Leicestershire to check on our canal boat Muriel, and whilst there I managed to find 2 new ducks for my Year List. The first was a Velvet Scoter at Swithland Reservoir, which is only a few miles from the boat. I was checking out little dots on the far side of the water with the scope when Simon pointed out a couple of ducks about 40 yards away, one of which was indeed one of the female Velvet Scoters that had been reported there for a few days. That was enough birding for Simon, so I dropped him off in Loughborogh & went to Rutland Water for the rest of the day. I'd never been in the actual reserve before, so I had a very pleasant afternoon exploring. I was pleased to find 4 female Smew on Lagoon 3, although they were quite a way off. 2 male & 2 female Red-crested Pochards were also a nice surprise, although I'd already seen a couple at Exminster Marsh a while back.

Lagoon 3 at Rutland Water

I stayed until the light started to go watching the gull roost (worrying!) & as I left the the hide a Barn Owl did a fly-by right in front of me. A lovely sight.

Back south, I spent a morning at Bowling Green Marsh which was heaving with birds. The Long-tailed Duck was still there, along with the usual suspects, including a beautiful flock of Avocets, hundreds of Black-tailed Godwits, a few Bar-tailed Godwits, lots of Snipe & 2 Grey Plover.

Yesterday I had my first foray into Cornwall. I went straight to Dozmary Pool on Bodmin Moor, the lake reputed to be the legendary home of the Lady of the Lake where King Arthur was given the sword Excalibur. I must admit, it was a beautiful place, but more importantly it was small, making it fairly easy to locate the adult drake Lesser Scaup. There were only a few Tufties, Pochards & a pair of Goldeneye keeping it company.

Dozmary Pool

Next stop St John's Lake, which isn't actually a lake but part of the Tamar estuary. A Green-winged Teal had been reported there, probably the same one that had given me the slip at Portworthy Dam...twice. I spent the afternoon there, along with 3 other birders, but we couldn't find it in the muddy channels. In hindsight I should have gone there first when the tide was in, but it had been reported the day before in the afternoon, so I figured it was possible to find it on a low tide. I felt a bit better when I discovered that 2 of the other birders had dipped the Portworthy Teal twice as well.

St John's Lake

It had been a long way, but I drove home fairly happy as I'd at least seen one of my target birds putting my Year List on 217.  Back in Feb I mentioned that I'm in a Year List Race with a couple of friends. Well, for various reasons, there are really only 2 of us left in the running, and when I'd set out in the morning, Dom was also on 217. However, my happiness was short-lived as I arrived home to discover that Dom had been on a trip to Suffolk & added 4 birds. So, I'm now trailing by 4 birds, a gap that I'm going to be hard pushed to close.  I'll give it a good go though!

A mixed bag

I'm playing catch up again after a week of varied birding activities.  This is also my first post on my lovely new MacBook. I've never used one before so I'm trying to figure out how to use it as I go.

I started off on Tuesday 4th with a twitch to Portworthy near Plymouth in search of a Green-winged Teal. A chap that I'd met a few days earlier at Dawlish Warren had been trying to find it for a while without success. As there was a small area of water out of view, I stayed for a couple of hours just in case it appeared, which it didn't.

Portworthy Dam, viewed from Fernhill Cross. 

I decided to explore Burrator Reservoir whilst I was in the vicinity. The scenery on approach was impressive, I loved the mossy lanes, and found a car park that was alive with birds including a pair of Nuthatches, numerous Coal Tits & Marsh Tits. Views of the reservoir itself were restricted by trees, but I did see 6 female & 2 male Goosanders.

Mossy lanes

An obliging Nuthatch....my digiscoping is gradually improving!

On Wednesday 5th I went along to the last DBWPS meeting of the year at Escot. We had a nice walk, although didn't find anything particularly interesting. Twenty four of us then indulged in an early Christmas dinner.

There's a Bullfinch in there somewhere...

I spent the afternoon of Thursday 6th getting very cold in Ide near Exeter trying to find a Hawfinch. I'm not sure if I was in the right place, but there were certainly lots of seed-laden trees to watch. No Hawfinch, but I did find a rather nice flock of 8 Bullfinch & a large flock of Redwing.

Friday was our penultimate trip to the Blackdown Hills for a Devon Bird Atlas survey. In the first Tetrad we had 19 species, which amazingly didn't include Wood Pigeon, but we did see 3 Nuthatches, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers & a Treecreeper.

The second Tetrad contains quite a large area of orchards, so we were inundated by Fieldfares. It was difficult to count as the flocks kept moving about. I suspect that our 105 is a gross under-estimate. We had some fantastic views of them perched in the tops of the trees in the sunlight...  even Simon was impressed!

Simon in action

We had lunch on the hoof as we headed to Steart in Somerset in search of the Temminck's Stint. I was a bit confused by the directions on Birdguides but luckily a couple of chaps turned up who knew where to go, so we followed them. We then met a couple on their way back from seeing the Stint who gave us some extra directions, including the fact that it was the only bird in the field! It was quite a long walk which was very boggy in places. As soon as we climbed up onto the sea wall the wind hit us. It was blowing a hooley. There were 2 chaps scouring the flooded field who hadn't found the bird, but with the extra directions we'd been given, we found it straight away. In fact Simon spotted it first! (I'll make a birder of him yet!). It was really quite close, but the wind made it really difficult to watch & almost impossible for me to digiscope. I managed the usual 'record shot'.

Simon stops the scope blowing over. The Stint was in the front channel

Temminck's Stint, another UK first for me (and Simon!)

I then spent Saturday (8th) afternoon up on Bicton Common unsuccessfully searching for Jack Snipe & Woodcock.  Simon joined me for another attempt on Sunday (9th) on Aylesbeare Common. The birds were very few & far between, but it's a lovely place for a walk. I'm determined to at least find a Woodcock before the end of the year.

Year List now on 214.

Devon Bird Atlas: Round 3

On Saturday & Monday we headed up to the Blackdown Hills for round 3 of our Devon Bird Atlas surveys.

On both days it was really quiet, with one tetrad only producing 10 species, although it was quite nice that the 10th was a Nuthatch, found in the last few seconds of the hour. We did have a couple of very large House Martin flocks, particularly over fields of grass that had just been cu, & 3 Buzzards on adjoining telegraph poles.

Some nice flowery lanes

some nice views

and  some Helmeted Guineafowl, a bit of a coincidence after seeing one beside the canal recently

A tree at the top of Culmstock Church

One more round to go in Nov/Dec

An Atlas Survey & an Absent Stork

Yesterday we headed back up to the Blackdown Hills to finish Round 2 of the surveys for the Devon Bird Atlas. The forecast had been for a cloudy day with 20% chance of rain. Well at least we stayed dry, but it was much colder than expected.

I was a bit of a numpty & forgot to pack the stopwatch & clipboard. Luckily Simon had taken his sketch pad along so we had some paper & we made do with my watch. We parked up for the first Tetrad and walked for an hour through fields & some lovely bluebell woods. We saw 18 species during the hour, the only ones showing any evidence of breeding being a Blue Tit with a fledgling & a possible breeding pair of Blackcaps. We then collected an extra 5 species on the way back to the van.

The woods were blue!

On to the last Tetrad where we parked up at Dunkeswell Abbey. Again we walked for the hour, through the churchyard, fields & along a tree lined lane. We saw evidence of breeding Jackdaws at the church where they’d built an impressive nest in the bell tower, actually under the bell & around the clapper! 

The church beside the ruin of Dunkeswell Abbey

A Jackdaw nest, I hope no one rings the bell!

The only other evidence of breeding were again Blue Tits, who were nesting in the hole in a tree branch. We had 21 species during the hour & 4 extra on the way back to the van. One of those was definitely the ‘Bird of the Day’, a lovely Spotted Flycatcher in a garden.

As Simon was recording the bird list in his sketch book.......

That's me as we walked through the woods!

Simon had a nice bonus when we got to the van. There was a chap there with a very rare old BSA Hurricane which was produced for the American market in the 70's & this one had been re-imported. 

Simon in his element talking old bikes.

It was still early so I talked Simon into a going a bit further North on a White Stork hunt. It was on Birdguides having been seen from the A 361 at West Lyng late morning, so we started there. There was an enormous amount of flood water still in the valley, even though it had been receding. There wasn't much of a view from the road, so whoever found it did well. We went down a side road to get closer and ended up chatting to Bill & Con, 2 very nice North Devon birders. There was another chap there as well & they all decided to follow us as I had the best map & details from the web! 

We found lots of very smelly water, loads of Little Egrets & herons, & an Egyptian Goose, but no Stork. 

The River Tone & what should be fields beyond.

We then went round to Charlton where it's been most often, but again, no sign. We waited until about 5.30 in case it came in to roost, but it didn't. We heard third hand that it was apparently there during the afternoon, but if it was it must have been using a Clingon cloaking device.

Simon at home on a canal bridge overlooking the flooded fields

Not a Stork to be seen.....

At least I got a Life Tick today.......

We took our Triumph Rocket 3 for a ride to Barnstaple & saw.....

....the Olympic Torch!

Devon Bird Atlas Survey: Round 2

We made the most of the nice weather yesterday & headed off to the Blackdown Hills to start the second round of Tetrad surveys for the Devon Bird Atlas. Round one was in mid Feb (http://exmouthbirder.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/devon-bird-atlas-survey.html & http://exmouthbirder.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/isnt-that-heron.html). The first of the day's Tetrads was quite straight forward. We parked up & walked for an hour, going through quite a few different habitats including  orchards, fields & coniferous woodland. We had 28 species, 24 within the hour, including a Cuckoo & 4 on the walk back to the van. We had 7 species with evidence of breeding: Dunnock, Blue Tit, House Martin, Chaffinch, Crow, Great Tit & House Sparrow.

Dunnocks & Blue Tits breeding here

The second Tetrad was more difficult with very few footpaths or places to park. We had a short stint in some deciduous woods, then gave up on the only other path after wading through very tall grass & being unable to figure out where it went. We then drove to a few other places & just looked over gates & hedges. Not very satisfactory but the best we could do. We still found 25 species during the hour including Sparrowhawk, Raven & Buzzard and a Blackcap after the clock had stopped. We only had evidence of breeding for Blue Tits & possible for Robin.

Only one assistant this time.....

The 'path' with no obvious route after the initial sign

We made a short diversion on the way home to visit the old Smeatharpe airfield. There was still no sign of the Little Owl that's supposed to hang out in the old airfield buildings, but there were at least 12 Wheatears, probably more, as they popped up everywhere I looked! There was also a Common Whitethroat singing in the bushes along the track.

Weedy owl-less Smeatharpe

"Isn't that a Heron?"

My able assistants......

Yesterday we did our second 2 Tetrads for the Devon Bird Atlas survey. The first was a couple of kms South of Culmstock. We parked up near to Leigh Hill Farm & saw a Nuthatch before we’d started the clock. We took Vera for a nice wander across the fields but didn’t see anything too exciting, just a few Jackdaws & Rooks, some tits & Chaffinches & 3 Buzzards circling overhead. 

We didn’t want to walk V too far, so headed back to the van to change locations. Simon spotted a bird, which I identified as a Goldcrest, in a tree by the van. It’s definitely handy having an extra pair of eyes.

The terraced fish farm 

We drove through a ford to a road opposite a fish farm. I couldn’t actually see much water surface & everything was netted, but I was disappointed at seeing no birds at all. After about 10 minutes I decided to relocate & commented to Simon that I was surprised we hadn’t even seen an optimistic Heron.  “Isn’t that a Heron” he said, as one flew behind my head & landed in a tree overlooking the fish ponds!

Great views..... 

We then drove through an area of woodland to a footpath for the remainder of the hour. There were fantastic views as we were right on the edge of the Blackdown Hills. The footpath passed behind a house with feeders & as is usually the case, the birds were congregating in the vicinity, so notched up a few more Blue Tits & Chaffinches along with a single House Sparrow & at least one Goldfinch which I could hear but not see.

As we walked back to the van a farmer came over to see what we were up to as we’d parked near his house. We explained & he was quite interested, telling us about the birds that regularly visit his garden & feeders.

We’d seen 18 species in the hour, plus the Nuthatch & a Song Thrush that we’d seen before & after. By now it was almost time for lunch, so we relocated to a lay-by next to the first footpath we were planning to try in the adjoining Tetrad.

A controversial lunch spot

We had our butties & a mug of tea whilst watching the birds flitting about in the hedge along the road up ahead. Directly ahead was a tall hedge so we couldn’t see into the garden of the house there, but judging by the amount of activity, there must have been a few feeders. Top of the visitors list was a Siskin, only the second time I’ve seen one this year, and a White Wagtail, the Continental version of the Pied Wagtail.

We’d been there about 20 minutes & were just waiting for a sleet shower to stop when a red faced chap stormed across the road from a house to our left. It was an immaculate house behind an immaculate wall, all a bit ‘biscuit-tin’; he probably moved there after watching ‘A home in the Country’ or one of the other property shows. He demanded to know what we were doing, sitting there with binoculars.  Apparently, we were making him feel uncomfortable. I explained about the Bird Survey, at which he blustered and said once more that we were making him uncomfortable & demanded that we leave forthwith. I said that we were actually about to walk down the Public Footpath to conduct our survey. He was literally trembling and looked as if he might burst into tears at any moment. Simon suggested he may have been a Vauxhall enthusiast and the fact we hadn`t washed, hoovered or changed the pollen filter in the van for four years was too much to bear.  But we just smiled and I told him we would be off soon enough. I could have mentioned that we were on a Public Highway, about to walk down a Public Footpath, and that he was a knob; oh, and the fact that we would be back 3 more times this year, but I didn’t. Any extra twisting of his knickers could have resulted in permanent damage.

OK, fair enough to come and enquire what we were doing, but something of an over-reaction to a couple of people eating sandwiches in a lay-by in broad daylight. I hope he never meets a villain. 

We went off for a walk as planned & there was a nice mix of woodland & open fields, a nice view & quite a few birds, including a flock of 25 Stock Dove, 6 Redwing & 2 Bullfinch.

Back to the van & off to another footpath. This one was a bit difficult for Vera as the first half was a bog, the second half was rocky, then the way was blocked by an electric fence. Just scanned for a while before going off to find our last footpath. This one went through a sheep field so we left V in the van as we had to cross another electric fence. We’d parked in the entrance to the field, and as we came back the farmers arrived and parked beside us to check the sheep. They were friendly, interested in what we’d seen & told us that they quite often get Lapwings in the cold weather.

A rocky path

and a sheep field

We’d seen 24 species, 22 during the hour.

Headed for home having seen a variety of birds & met a variety of ‘locals’......

Devon Bird Atlas survey

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) are producing a new UK Bird Atlas. Volunteers have surveyed 2 km squares (called Tetrads) between 2007 & 2011 to count birds & check for evidence of breeding. These are known as TTVs (Timed Tetrad Visits).

A few counties, including Devon, are continuing to collect data until 2013. For the Devon Atlas, 4 visits are required, in Jan/Feb, April/May, June/July & Nov/Dec. As some Tetrads in Devon hadn’t been allocated, I volunteered to survey 4, in an area about 6 miles North of Honiton in the Black Down Hills. I’ve never done anything like this before, so it’s new territory in more ways than one.

The instructions include:

•          Visit as many different habitats as possible within a Tetrad
•          Count species during 1 or 2 hours. If counting for 2, keep separate lists for each hour.
•          You can ‘stop the clock’ e.g. to count large flocks or check for signs of breeding.
•         If you see any species in the Tetrad outside of the hour, they can be recorded separately (to confirm their presence)

Today was due to be a bit milder than it has been, so I decided to make a start. Simon & Vera volunteered to come and assist, so we packed lunch & headed off mid morning, making our way to the first area centred on Culm Davy. There are quite a few different habitats in the Tetrad, i.e. orchard, deciduous woodland, coniferous woodland, open ground, a stream & small pond. The footpaths were limited & we didn’t want to over-walk Vera anyway, so I decided to drive between different habitats & make use of the few available footpaths, stopping the clock for the drives between sites. The instructions didn’t say we could do this, but they didn’t say we couldn’t either!

We started on a path that crossed the orchards & open fields, passing a small stream & pond.  I was pleased to see 3 really bright Yellowhammers, a new species for the Year List. Other sightings included 4 Bullfinch, 3 Buzzards, a Raven, a Jay, 4 Fieldfare & a Mistle Thrush.  There were no birds that I could see on the pond, which was mostly hidden by trees.

My 2 assistants in the field!

..and between 2 orchards (V supervising from her basket in the van!)

We then moved to coniferous woodland, which was a pain in the neck, literally. The trees were so tall that it was virtually impossible to see anything in the canopy without incurring an injury. There were lots of birds making high pitched peeps, but I’m not confident enough with sounds to identify them from that alone.

They're up there somewhere.....

On to our last stop, a footpath on the top of a ridge looking down over deciduous woodland. A large flock of birds flew into a tree & I’d just counted the 30 Redwing when Simon called Time. We’d seen 20 species in total, 18 during the hour plus Pheasant & Goldfinch during travel between sites.

A bygone era.....

Lunch break was taken at the end of a footpath in the second Tetrad, which centred on Madford. We parked next to an old lean-to beside a barn & inside was an old cart with spoked wooden wheels. Considering that we appeared to be at a dead-end in the middle of nowhere, it was pretty busy with passing traffic.







We then climbed a really steep set of steps (Vera didn’t like them much) to get to the start of the footpath, only to find that it was completely impassable with a herd of cows, electric fence & quagmire. The Vera Stair-lift (Simon) was called into action & we returned to the van & drove to another path. It was really picturesque, starting beside an old ruined abbey, but after 50 yards we were stopped by a very dog-unfriendly style which even Simon couldn't lift Vera over.

Dunkeswell Abbey

Counting from the curchyard

We watched the fields for a while from the graveyard, then moved on to watch some woods from the road before going to our final site, open fields looking down on a valley & some woods. A great view & quite a few birds, including a large mixed flock of Jackdaws (62), Rooks(28) & Crows (2). One of the Jackdaws had striking white primaries i.e. white patches on its wings. I googled it when we got home & someone had seen & photographed a similar bird in Wokingham in December 2011. I wonder if it was the same bird!

A good spot to scan the fields

In this Tetrad we saw 18 species, 16 during the hour & 2 when the clock was stopped. They included a Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2 Ravens, 21 Fieldfare & 2 Bullfinch. As we walked back to the van Simon commented that it was odd that we hadn’t seen a Buzzard in this Tetrad. As if by magic, a Buzzard landed on the track about 25 yards ahead of us, before flying up when a car came along.

Although we’d actually only counted birds for 2 hours, it had taken so long to find footpaths we could actually park near & walk up that it was gone 3pm. We headed home for Vera’s tea. It had been a fun day exploring an area we wouldn’t have visited otherwise. Simon had aired his binoculars & even admitted to enjoying himself!

Only another 14 TTVs to go!