Misty and Windy Autumn Birding

October 19th saw us heading off to the Avon Dam for a walk before the forecasted rain was due to arrive later in the afternoon. On arriving at Shipley Bridge for the start of the walk everything was shrouded in mist and I wasn't expecting to see anything but eventually the mist cleared and I managed to see a few birds.

Highlights were a female type black redstart feeding on the waterless dam overflow with meadow pipits and pied wagtails, a firecrest feeding in willows by the river with a goldcrest, a male kestrel over mobbed by meadow pipits, a treecreeper in trees near the car park and 2 female/juvenile reed buntings. No ring ousels were seen but there were no berries on the rowan trees for them to feed on although a few blackbirds were seen skulking in the berry laden hawthorn bushes along with 6 redwings which were very skittish and eventually flew off south.

October 21st and with Storm Brian arriving overnight I decided to head off to Dawlish Warren for a look around, arriving later than planned due to fannying around at home after getting out of bed that morning. I had a quick look off the sea wall on arriving at around 11am and picked up a few gannets and 12 common scoters flying south in very windy and rough and showery conditions before I headed off to The Bight where the tide was dropping. It was good to see the brent geese back for the winter feeding out along the water line and flying off upriver as the tide dropped further, their gentle honking calls familiar and reassuring, while amongst the roosting curlew and oystercatcher were 2 ringed plover, 2 grey plover, a few turnstones and a bar tailed godwit. A 1st winter Mediterranean gull and 2 adult lesser black backed gulls were amongst the herring gull and great black back gull roost and wigeon, shelduck, mute swan and a little egret were also noted.

A large peregrine flew over putting everything up and so I headed back towards Greenland Lake for a look around the more sheltered woodland area where I found a chiffchaff and 2 goldcrests in a mixed flock of blue, great and long tailed tits. 2 female type bullfinches were calling in the tree tops before flying off and a water rail briefly squealed in the reeds by the main pond.

Onwards to the lifeguard hut on the sea wall where 4 birders were busily scanning the sea sheltered from the wind. It had been a productive watch for them with Leachs petrel, long tailed duck, Arctic skua, long tailed skua and great northern diver all being seen but all I managed to find were lots of gannets moving south offshore, 5 common scoter flying south with 2 more on the sea close to shore, a red throated diver briefly close to shore flapping its wings before diving and never to be seen again and a grey seal poking its head out of the water close to the beach.

The wind showed no sign of easing and so I walked on to Dawlish along the sea wall, getting absolutely soaked in a heavy wind blown shower and then enjoying a portion of chips while scanning the sea from the railway platform in the shelter of the buildings. More gannets were moving south and I eventually picked up a pale phase adult Arctic skua heading south quite close in and keeping close to a group of 2 juvenile and 3 adult  kittiwakes also heading south, a very nice end to the day.

Sea Watching (Light) and a New Butterfly

With the remnants of Hurricane Bertha set to hit the UK today I decided I might have a go at sea watching, something I have not done before. The thought of sea watching seems a little daunting to me, conditions and location need to be just right, and I have always baulked at potentially spending time getting cold and wet and not seeing very much. I have only seen Manx- and Balearic shearwater from land in the UK but have had excellent views of Corys, great, sooty, Manx, Balearic and little shearwaters from the ferry to Spain as it crossed the Bay of Biscay. I thought about visiting either Berry Head or Rame Head but public transport is not at its most frequent on Sundays so I was a bit hesitant. And so on checking the bird sightings on the inty-web thing early Sunday morning and seeing reports of great shearwater at Dawlish Warren I decided I would head there instead.

It was sunny and very windy and there was a great swirling mass of gulls off Langstone Rock as the train arrived in to Dawlish Warren station at 10:30am (the earliest I could get there) and so I headed off straight away to the sea wall for a quick scan across the sea. There were plenty of gulls around, mostly herring gulls but with a few great black backed- and black headed gulls amongst them, and I also picked out a few common scoters, 2 great crested grebes and a grey seal. Scanning through the gulls I picked out a dark phase Arctic skua flying West before it disappeared behind Langstone Rock and so I headed off along the seawall path but by the time I had got there it had moved on. Scanning again through the swirling gulls I found a nice juvenile Mediterranean gull and another great crested grebe along with 4 male and 7 female common scoter close in to the shore. Heading up to the top of the Rock I met a birder on holiday from Hull who had earlier seen 3 Arctic skuas and then a single one (presumably the one I saw) but no sign of any shearwaters. I spent some time scanning and apart from a swift heading West and a few gannets I saw nothing else new and so decided to end my seawatching light session and head off to Greenland Lake on the Warren for a look around.

Greenland Lake was sheltered from the wind and it was warm and humid with lots of butterflys flitting around - small tortoiseshell, speckled wood, common blue, small copper, green veined white, small white, large white, gatekeeper and meadow brown - and I found a nice clouded yellow and best of all at least 3 brown argus, a new butterfly for me. The heat and humidity meant they were very active and mobile and it was hard to get a decent photo of what is a very attractive butterfly despite its small size.

 Brown Argus - a worn individual and the first one I saw

 Brown Argus- underwing showing figure of 8 mark

 Brown Argus - underwing of a less worn individual

 Brown Argus -  a much smarter looking individual showing a blueish tinge

 Brown Argus

Clouded Yellow



Also on show were a few dragonflys which were equally active and mobile in the warm conditions but I eventually managed a few photos. Around the Main Pond I also saw a few small red eyed damselflys including a pair laying eggs in the water and yes, they were small with red eyes, well the males had red eyes, and were a new damselfly species for me too.



Common Darter - female



Common Darter - male

 Emperor Dragonfly

Emperor Dragonfly - close up



Yellow Shell



Heading home and there was the usual chaos on the trains with no one seeming to know what was going on with trains being cancelled and rescheduled, but I did see a hare with a smaller leveret near Newton Abbot as they ran away as the train passed by which made up for the delay.