Grey Phalarope on Black Hole Marsh

Seeing as Sunday is one of only two evenings that I'm not at work I always like to go down to Black Hole Marsh or Colyford Common if I can. Here I usually enjoy the peace and tranquility, the birds and sometimes the company of one or two local birders too. I knew this evening wouldn't be anything like that because a while before I ventured down I'd received a text from Ian Waite telling of a Grey Phalarope on Black Hole Marsh. When I arrived there were about twelve people on site which increased to a maximum of twenty, the most I've ever seen here and definitely a taste of things to come, for the new hide is nearing completion. The bird was showing well. Showing well behind the bank that is!

Crippling View

Lots of people trying to see the Grey Phalarope.

Eventually very slight naughtiness just has to ensue.

I call this photo 'The Four Degrees of Ever So Slightly Naughty'

Later I partook of a bit of naughtiness myself. Actually I was no more naughty than the good people pictured above. However, my scope was very naughty indeed!

On Thursday morning I was up on Beer Head where I didn't see anything worth reporting but I took this atmospheric photo of  Seaton and the river valley shrouded in valley fog.

It's taken me hours and hours to get this post on here. The new blogger photo uploader is just awful, locking up and causing my computer to keep crashing. Anyone else having problems with it? Also why does it let you upload several photos but insists on putting them all on your blog in one go? It's a nightmare! (Excuse the hyperbole, I doubt anyone would actually have a night terror due to a photo uploder). If it doesn't start working soon I'm gonna have to defect to WordPress or stop altogether, far too time consuming!! No fun at all =(

Harried Harrier

Today I have mostly been dipping Buff-breasted Sandpipers at Davidstow Airfield :-( This morning however I did see the Marsh Harrier that was found by Steve. I watched from the Farm Gate, from where I could see it trying its utmost to hunt along the river and reed beds. It was constantly harried by crows though and was forced to go to ground before eventually giving up and flying off northward.

Here's a photo challenge.Can you see the Marsh Harrier trying to hide in the long grass? I'm afraid the Crows had it surrounded though. It is there just to the right of the post.

The same scene with a bit less zoom so you can't see the Harrier, but what's that in the background? Yes, a naughty birder, standing on the bank, digiscoping a Barn Owl. Tsk!

Can't tell who it is?

 How about now?

A new addition to the 'Rouges Gallery of Naughty Birders'

Impressed of Seaton

Well my Birthday present finally arrived on Friday morning, it's a Nikon ED 50 scope. I had been toying with the idea of getting one of these for some time, well, since getting back from Scilly last year at least. Why?  Well because I've had my Nikon ED82 for over 4 years and it just seems to get heavier and heavier! Yes, yes, I know it's just that I'm getting older and older!! Although it's not too bad over short distances, the thought of having to lug it around for a week on the Isles of Scilly again next month was just too much. Well the ED50's certainly light and with the lighter tripod I brought to go with it it's an absolute pleasure to carry. I was quite confident the view would be good as it's had many a good review (and indeed it is) but I was a bit worried about digiscoping with it, so as soon as it arrived I set it up and had a go digiscoping the House Sparrows in my garden.

A close view of the juvenile House Sparrow showing it has a couple of 

unwelcome guests on the back of its neck, yuck!

This Juvenile's a little bit scabby looking too.

I think the ED50's definitely okay for digiscoping on this evidence though :-)

I'd just started writing this blog post this morning when I got a call from Bun, James McCarthy had found a Dotterel on Axe Cliff, although I hadn't been planning on going out birding today as I'm nursing a rather painful finger injury (accidentally (obviously) stuck it in the meat slicer at work!!) I just had to go up there for a look, Dotterel is a patch Mega and my only previous encounter with this species were the nine shimmering Dotterel shaped blobs in a Cambridgeshire field in May last year. Bun and I were the first on site and James showed us where the bird was, it kept approaching us but each time it did so it was spooked by people walking the coastpath, which is very well trodden in this area. Still they were superb views compared to those we'd both enjoyed in Cambridgeshire. Happily all the local patch birders and most Devon birders were able to see the bird. 

It was also the perfect opportunity to give the ED50's digiscoping ability a real test, a quite distant (typically it never approached as closely as it had before I got the camera out), and very mobile bird against a stony background wasn't going to be easy. It wasn't.The main drawback was the overall lightness of the scope and tripod meaning that the wind was much more of a problem than with the larger scope.The results are quite pleasing though, considering the magnification was only 15x. I popped back up later with the ED82 hoping to take some shots for comparison but the bird remained distant and the wind had really picked up too. So I didn't. It probably would have done a better job but never the less I'm happy with my purchase. 

 Dotterel

All heavily cropped and sharpened.

A couple of ( always popular for some reason) 'twitch shots' too.

First to arrive (after Bun and me) were Brian and Dave.

Most local patch birders were out of town.

If you look really closely you may be able to see a 'naughty birder' far in the distance, creeping up for a photo opportunity.

There he is look, naughty, naughty! ;-)

Finally, while watching a Barn Owl from the Farm Gate on Friday evening I noticed a lovely example of the atmospheric phenonenon 'sundogs' or parhelia.

Parhelia over Black Hole Marsh.

Marsh Harrier

With reports of Ospreys not far to the  north, east and west of us today , hopes were high this afternoon when Bun and I arrived at Black Hole Marsh/Colyford Common to wait for one to fly over our patch. I haven't seen an Osprey on Patch since September 2008 (the bird pictured at the foot of this blog)  There have been a few but I've managed to miss them all. In fact I haven't seen an Osprey at all, anywhere, since then! I still haven't :-( What we did see, however was a Marsh Harrier, coincidently the first I've seen on patch for almost two years! It hung around for about an hour, periodically hunting over the Axe Marsh and Colyford Marsh reed beds before finally tiring of the constant harassment from the local crows. It flew off high south, fortunately not before it was seen by most who came down to see it. The three gorgeous Curlew Sandpipers were still on Black Hole Marsh, and a Little Ringed Plover was new on Colyford Marsh..

A couple of naff snaps of the Marsh Harrier from the 'super' super-zoom. It didn't do too badly all things considered.

Also today's addition to the'Naught Birders' series...

Some 'naughty birders' are serial offenders, so it seems. ;-)