Seaton quieter than Colyton!

An early afternoon visit to BHM produced some ringed GBBGs on the estuary but just Barwits, Common Sand. etc. waderwise. I might give Colyton cemetery a go! A Whinchat was on posts along Cownhayne this lunchtime...

Barwits Revisited

Referring back to my March 2015 post - 'Which One's the Barwit?' - I thought that the current Autumnal prescence of up to 20 Barwits on the Axe estuary might be the right time to answer the questions which people have since posited regarding this 'issue'! As I said at the time, that blog post was simply to do with one Barwit in particular - the overwintering individual of Winter 2014-15. Thus, I didn't complicate that post by talking about Summer or Juvenile plumages. Today, I thought I'd deal with the Juvenile Blackwit scenario, as this seems to be the greatest cause of consternation and confusion; mainly because, in March 2015, there obviously weren't any juvenile birds about. The main difficulty seems to be that Black-tailed Godwits of juvenile age can often show a streaky mantle, as do all Bar-taileds. This, however, should not be a problem as juvenile Blackwits can easily be separated by their rusty-red neck and breast Autumn colouration which only occurs on Barwits in Spring females, and is lost by July.Even the male Barwit's extensive Spring red is lost by the time of its Southward migration, so it's extremely unlikely we'll get a reddish male on the Axe in the Autumn with anything like the strong red colour of a juvenile Blackwit. Also, the streaking on Barwits continues across the mantle, scapulars, wing-coverts and tertials which never happens in Blackwits. Even juvenile Blackwits have a very different pattern of spotting, not streaking, on the wing-coverts especially; I liken the patterning of Juv. Blackwit's wing-coverts to a 'Bar-of-Chocolate' as the spots often look like squares of chocolate arranged in a grid pattern, separated by pale criss-crossing lines. At various stages of immaturity a Blackwit's wing-coverts can also look quite plain or very finely spotted but never streaked like a Barwit's. Add to all of this the differences already discussed in March 2015, and you can't go wrong! Happy Birding, y'all!

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

Patch tick! I finally saw my first ever Colyton Hummingbird Hawkmoth today at approximately 14:15 GMT. It was briefly on Honeysuckle but didn't linger long enough for a photograph which is a shame. I'll be checking that honeysuckle again though...

Calandra Larks

Calandra Lark, Extremadura, May '16 ( Copyright T D Wright )

Compared to anywhere else that I've visited, Extremadura was easily the best for Calandras. Short-toed, Thekla and Crested were also about in similar areas but Calandras were most co-operative when the camera was out...

Quiet Weekend 24th -25th Sept.

Three Grey Plovers were still visible from Tower Hide Sunday evening, as was a Peregrine hunting repeatedly. It failed to catch a Woodpigeon with an impressive burst of acceleration but later caught a Redshank which it was forced to drop by mobbing crows. What a waste of effort! Oh by the way at least 4 Wheatears were at Seaton Marshes on Saturday (new ones I reckon as different plumages to last week's birds).

Grey Plovers

I'd just decided not to return to BHM on Thursday when I had my mind changed by a message from Phil-a-roony-oony-o that he'd got 9 Grey Plover from Tower hide. I cycled hard and managed to get this phonescoped vid at dusk. Poor quality but only 3 could still be seen Friday evening which is a more usual count for us. Nine is/was unprecedented! Well done Mr. Abbot...

Southern Hawker

Southern Hawker,Branscombe,21/09/16 ( Copyright T D Wright )

Southern Hawker, Branscombe, 21/09/16 ( Copyright T D Wright )

Having not been to Branscombe for a while due to my lack of a car, the kind offer from Kris Gray of a lift down was too much to refuse. With Yellow-browed Warbler being reported from Charmouth, I wondered if our local Phyllosc. sites might have something of interest too. Unfortunately, Branscombe sewage works seemed completely devoid of anything even Chiffy or Cresty! Still, this Southern Hawker dragonfly was some compensation. To jump back to Tuesday evening, no less than 3 Goosander were upriver from Tower Hide at dusk, as was a Pintail which hopped across to BHM with the Mallards. Otherwise, Wednesday was disappointing with just Barwits and other 'old news' to enjoy. But the Yellow-broweds are coming...