Meteorlogical Autumn has arrived and the weather on Monday 1st September was definitely feeling autumnal, all cool and breezy with sunny spells and occassional spits of rain, and with a Rose-coloured Starling having been found at Wembury over the weekend I caught the 7am bus out there to go and have a look for it.
The Rose-coloured Starling had been hanging out with a mobile flock of Starlings and was regularly being seen in a dead tree at the junction of Brownhill Lane and Mewstone Avenue, right opposite a bus stop, but on arriving off the bus there the tree was birdless. I walked to the other end of the lane and met local birder Paul checking out a flock of Starlings perched up on the telegraph wires but the Rose-coloured version was nowhere to be seen amongst them. The flock was very mobile and regularly flew back and forth along the lane but after an hour and a half of a no show I decided to go for a walk around the nearby streets for a look about. There was still no sign of it but on arriving back at the bus stop I suddenly saw it fly in with a few Starlings and land in the dead tree - result!
It showed very well but was quite mobile at times, flying off and out of view before eventually returning to the dead tree and I enjoyed some good views of what is only my 5th sighting of one and my 2nd at Wembury, the others being seen at Exminster, Penzance and Paignton.
I then headed out to The Point for a look about, there was a big feeding flock of Gulls close to shore in the choppy seas but I could only find Black-headed, Mediterranean, Herring, Great Black-backed and 2 Lesser Black-backed present. Gannets and Kittiwakes were more distant offshore and a single Auk species was seen heading west.
A Clouded Yellow, a Comma, a Common Blue, a Painted Lady, Meadow Brown and Large and Small Whites were seen despite the windy conditions and the only other sighting of note was a poorly looking juvenile Mediterranean Gull along the footpath which seemed unable to fly despite vigorously flapping its wings.
We had a walk around Saltram on Tuesday 2nd September, it was warm and humid with occassional mizzle spells in cloudy skies and the neap tide was heading in but with no water coming through the sluice gates into Blaxton Meadow. The usual birds were seen on our walk with the highlights being 9 Greenshank on the Meadow, a Common Sandpiper and a Kingfisher from the railway bridge, 4 Mute Swan along the river and the female Wood Duck on the duck pond.
It was forecasted to be wet and windy overnight and so I decided to try a seawatch on Wednesday 3rd September. I did think of going to Berry Head but couldn't be arsed with all the faffing about to get there and I also considered trying Penlee for the first time but again the faff of getting there put me off and so I headed out to good old Wembury instead, that well known mecca for seawatching (not!).
I had heard heavy rain falling at times during the night but there seemed to be very little wind and when the alarm clock went off at 5:30am the rain was beginning to ease off and it was all very quiet. I caught the 6:30am bus out to Wembury and the rain had stopped by the time I arrived, the wind wasn't very strong either as I headed out to The Point to meet local birder Jenny. We began to scan about, the seas weren't as choppy as I was expecting but there was quite a swell and frequent heavy showers rattled through in the grey skies. We easily found Gannets moving about offshore as well as Kittiwakes, Mediterranean Gulls, at least 2 Fulmars and "Commic" Terns along with the usual Shags and Gulls but otherwise it seemed very quiet.
I did pick up a small Shearwater feeding closer in to shore, it flew short distances away from me before ditching down on the water and I eventually caught a glimpse of its dusky underparts indicating it was indeed a Balearic (or Mediterranean) Shearwater. A group of 3 Balearic Shearwaters were then seen feeding together in the same style and then later another single bird was seen a bit further out. There were also 5 Manx Shearwaters seen flying west, a pair and 3 singles and showing off their white underparts as they sheared over the waves.
I also picked up a pale phase Arctic Skua moving west but quickly lost sight of it, shortly after I picked up another pale phase bird harassing a Kittiwake, this one was darker looking than the first one I saw but I eventually lost sight of it as well.
The birds offshore started to fizzle out and Jenny headed home as I started the walk back towards the bus stop. Along the way I saw the usual birds with a Sanderling, 6 Sandwich Tern (3 adults, 3 juveniles), at least 120 Mediterranean Gulls and 5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls of note before another hefty shower arrived and I sheltered in the lee of a hedge to avoid the worst of it. After it cleared through I had another scan offshore and picked up a feeding group of Gannet and Kittiwake and flying past behind them was an immature Great Skua which was a nice but sadly all too brief surprise.
I decided to go and have another look for the Rose-coloured Starling before catching the bus home, it was still being reported as present in the same area as on Monday and on arriving I quickly found it perched up on telegraph wires with the Starling flock and flying down into nearby gardens to feed on Elderberries. Suddenly everything took to the air and the flock flew off high to the south, probably due to the overhead prescence of 2 soaring Sparrowhawks, and the flock hadn't returned by the time my bus back to Plymouth arrived but at least I'd had another view of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment