The Usual Suspects

I've been out on patch a couple of times today but haven't seen anything new,  just the usual suspects, which at the moment are worth seeing! Early this morning I saw the Wryneck from the hide at Seaton Marshes after only having distant views on Friday (same hide aversion as Gav, I'm not proud of my antisocial streak, I just have to live with it ;-)) I (satisfyingly) had the hide all to myself this morning and was able to set my scope up and digiscope it and everything! It wasn't going to be easy to get a good photo but I got these.

First it was in the shade...

But it wasn't any easier when it came out into the early morning sun.

I've seen the Osprey catch two helpings of Grey Mullet on the river today. I wasn't even looking for it. I just happened to be driving past at the right time. Twice! ;-) On the second occasion it temporarily alighted on one of the tram poles with its catch. 

About 10 seconds later...

This happened..Unsurprisingly!

Then this afternoon I received an invitation to join Gav looking for migrants on a cold and windy Beer Head. How could I refuse? Actually it wasn't all that cold and I felt like a right numpty in all my 'mountaineering gear'! After three and a half hours of  yomping around the fields ( neutralizing the artery clogging after-effects of an earlier jam and custard doughnut, or so I'd like to think!) we'd seen about four Chiffchaffs, a single Wheatear,  and a  few (twenty or so) Meadow Pipits. Gav also had a few additions to his Beer Head yearlist (including Mallard on the estuary, scoped from Beer Head! Pathetic or what?))

We also had a look for ( yes, you've guess it) the Corn Bunting. It was still in the same field with the Yellowhammer flock and proffering crippling views. Well they would have been if we weren't so far away.

Wow! Stunning shot of stunning brown blob.

This just wouldn't do. Minor naughtiness followed, allowing this...

Stunning. Brown. Moulting. Tailless.

 Two thirds of a Corn Bunting

Earlier in the week, Thursday I think, I popped over to The East Devon Commons to look for some fungi that I particularly wanted to see. I'd read about a good location in Matt Prince's Birdforum Thread. Once there, I soon found the fungi in question, the deadly poisonous and appropriately named Death Cap. 

Several of a group of seventeen Death Caps growing alongside the road.

They look quite innocuous, aside from their sickly green colouring I suppose.

Eating  just one would kill an adult though.

 I saw lots of fungi at this location but I'm rubbish at identifying most of them, here's a couple I  do know though. 

A Bay Bolete, stains blue when pressed- like so.

Fly Agaric.

The quintessential toadstool

White Helvella.

I spotted this  ugly specimen at Trinity Hill Woods yesterday, where I also had a very unexpected patch year tick, a Grasshopper Warbler no less! Quite a late one. When I almost trod on it, it jumped up into a tiny sapling just a few feet away and  gave great views. Well, until I reached for my camera anyway.

 Typical!

Another Good Day on Patch

I was a bit late arriving at Beer Head this morning ( the urge to stay in bed was just too great) thus missing most of the best birds on offer. I could probably have caught up with the Pied Flycatcher and possibly the Spotted Flycatchers, but instead decided to join Bun for a look around the Beer Cemetery Fields, there wasn't much variety but I was very pleased to see at least six possibly seven Spotted Flycatchers here. I really do like Spotted Flycatchers, a lot, even though they're not very colourful and haven't got much of a song they have that 'je ne sais quoi' - character I suppose. I've never managed to get a decent photo of one before, well before today! A couple of them were very well behaved, like so.

This one was looking very dapper

 sporting a fine blackberry based hat.

This smart Yellowhammer distracted me for a while,

 another underrated bird I reckon.

While we were at the Cemetery Fields Steve called to say he'd found a Cattle Egret. It had landed in with some cows in a field between Seaton Marshes and Black Hole Marsh. We decided to go down there for a look, like you do. It wasn't easy to get close enough for a photo, but we had very nice views non the less.

Distant Cattle Egret..quite a good photo of the cow though.

Even worse photo of the Cattle Egret.. 

..Quite a good one of Phil though ( not trespassing, obviously) hiding behind the hedge ...

Wonder what he's taking a photo of...

...The Cattle Egret obviously..And couple of birders who are also NOT trespassing!

Any similarity to Bun and I is purely coincidental

( Thanks for the use of photo Phil).

Whilst leaving Beer Head I looked out to sea and noticed a sure sign that it's August Bank Holiday weekend, a mass of 'weekend fishermen' racing out of Axmouth Harbour towards Beer Head. What's the rush!? Fishermen are a strange lot aren't they?

"First one there gets THE fish!!"

Beer Head

This morning I went to have a look around on Beer Head for only the second time this August, which makes me look a teensy bit capricious ( ;-)) having been foolish enough to announce to anyone who'd listen that I'd be up on Beer Head every day this August to be sure not to miss another Ortolan Bunting. If I do miss another it will serve me jolly well right, wont it?!! Anyway, this morning there were enough migrants about to make me pleased that I'd made the effort. Loads of Willow Warblers ( I counted at least 20 and didn't get to the Under Hooken area), 2 Spotted Flycatchers ( a very belated patch tick for me this year), 5 Wheatears, a very confiding (for a change) male Redstart,  a couple of Whitethroats and Blackcaps and a large flock of Long-tailed Tits (not at all common on Beer Head in my experience). Ian M had 3 Yellow Wagtails amongst the cattle in 'The Dell' but by the time I got there they had moved on. Not long after leaving here I was on my way over to Colyford Common where Ian M had found a Ruff. When I arrived it was on the scrape with a few Common Sandpipers and a Redshank too distant for photos unfortunately. Two Greenshanks landed on the small scape all too briefly before flying off northward. I didn't have time to check Black Hole Marsh as well. Hope that wasn't a mistake! If I hadn't got to go to work in a couple of hours I'd be at Radipole Lake now, twitching an Aquatic Warbler, if you can imagine such a thing! Not an Aquatic Warbler but ME TWITCHING!! I mean, as if.

The Confiding Redstart

 Still striking even in his drabber autumn plumage.