Oh Happy Day!

This morning I bumped into Phil at The Farm Gate, whilst we were chatting Phil spotted a female Tufted Duck (or better) fly in from the north and land on Black Hole Marsh. We went down there for a look 'just in case' but the duck was nowhere to be seen. BUT..... Wait for it.......Phil spotted an OTTER!!!  I was absolutely thrilled to get my first ever views of one in the wild :-) It climbed out onto the bank eating a fish before it vanished for a while. We saw it again a short while later swimming over the lagoon before running over the grass towards Colyford Common. Absolutely brilliant!!! I can stop sulking now too ;-)

Ringing at Colyford Common and Twitching at Lyme Regis

I spent a very enjoyable day ringing today with the AERG at Colyford Common, first time I've been able to attend for a while, glad I could make it today though as we caught some smashing birds, including 18 Long-tailed Tits, 18 Reed Buntings (with no retraps even after ringing 22 Reed Buntings ten days previously) a couple of Chiffchaffs, a Cetti's Warbler and plenty of the usuals too. Here's a few photos:

Very popular with the AERG paparazzi...

A lovely Cetti's Warbler

Very popular with Steve - Reed Buntings, guess what? He LOVES 'em!!

I can see why!

Apparently this Goldfinch was a 'bit scabby' - Nobody's perfect!

A gorgeous (for a Chiffchaff) Chiffchaff

One of the eightteen Long-tailed Tits caught today.

We let them go in small groups so the flocks wouldn't be separated too much. I tried to get a photo or two of the birds flying out of bag to freedom with somewhat limited success, it has to be said, camera's way too slow. Here they are anyway:

Two out...

Now five...

...Last one leaving the bag.

Just as the ringing was drawing to a close for the day I got a text from Bun, which had me pootling over the border to Lyme Regis to twitch this...

What??!! No not really... Actually it was this..

A gorgeous little Grey Phalarope, whirring about right underneath The Cob wall.

I love 'em

Awful low sun  by 3 o' clock when I arrived and I'd forgotten my digiscoping camera, the S3 did it's best though. I tried a spot of video but a bit shaky I'm afraid. Great bird though, glad Bun's got a pager. :-)

Hey Up Me Ducks!

Or if you don't understand that. Greetings, friends! I'm afraid I've had another bout of Blogger's Block this last couple of weeks. I'm not sure why, but I've been suffering from a feeling of general malaise and apathy lately and the first thing to suffer has been my blogging, simply because I've never been a natural writer an do actually find writing very difficult at times. It's cathartic though I suppose (in a purely emotional sort of way!).

Well what's been happening that I may have blathered on about on here? Firstly ( I can't remember the date) the horrible, hideous, heinous Black-throated Thrush dip. After walking for over two miles (all uphill) onto Dartmoor to look at an empty tree for a couple of hours, Bun and I  were delighted to hear, much later (once safely back in Seaton) that the thrush was back in the self same tree, where it obligingly stayed put for over an hour giving  almost all the birders who'd dipped that morning ample time to get back to see it. Never mind though, we've been able to see the bird in all it's glory 'all over the Internet' courtesy of Dave Stone's gripping photos. There was one positive though. I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of Devon birders for the first time, namely Steve Young and Mark Bailey, the latter of which appears to be able to walk faster than the human brain can conceptualize!!

After this, I enjoyed a couple of days and many, many, many hours dipping the Otters, which just about everybody in Seaton saw, except me! (I've never seen a wild one) If Otters weren't so utterly fantastic they'd be on my list of enemies by now for sure.

A few days later though things were looking up, our next twitch succeeded in getting us both a lifer, the bird being the Church Cove Greenish Warbler. We were quite happy to be twitching a Greenish Warbler but because the bird had been identified as a possible Green Warbler there were masses of listers there on the Saturday morning (31st), including most of the top  2009 yearlisters. We had good views of the bird but it was very mobile. That fact, coupled with the general crowding meant I couldn't get any photos of the bird.  Surprisingly it was exactly as some people had previously suggested,  'a chameleon' one minute looking strikingly green and the next decidedly dull, depending on the background. I personally couldn't see any yellow on it  at any time though. Nice little bird. Incidentally I went on this twitch without my phone, I'd forgotten it but thought "Oh well, it'll be okay, Bun has his with him so if we're missing something colossal on patch I'll still here about it" Imagine my surprise when I got home to find two missed calls from Gav, and what's more two Voicemail messages!! Eek! What had I missed? It had to be something BIG, didn't it? I urgently rang back my mailbox to hear - Message one - "Rustle, rustle, squelch, squelch, thud, rustle, rustle, squelch." Etc.etc...   Message two was identical, sounded like walking about on Axe Cliff to me. 'Twas just a 'Bum Call' or two. Phew!

Here's a couple of snaps taken at the twitch, recognise anyone?

I haven't seen a great deal on patch lately, four Black Redstarts at the yacht club last Tuesday being the only notable birds until today. They didn't hang around too long though. I didn't bother trying to take any decent photos of them because they like to hang around on the dormer windows of the houses on Trevelyan Road, hence digiscoping them is a  bit of a no-no, unless you want reporting for being a 'peeping tom'. I did take a quick snap of one surreptitiously with the S3. Very naff indeed, but it shows that this particular Blackred was having to fight for its vantage point (the window) with a Grey Wagtail; not a species I'm used to seeing on rooftops.

 

The Grey Wagtail was a very yellow individual too, take a closer look...

See, lovely and very yellow!

I said they were the only notable birds of the week until today, well that's because this morning Phil spotted two Whooper Swans in with some Mutes, in the 'Swan Field'. I'm very late with this news if you've read the other 'Backwater Blogs' today but I took a photo so I'm sticking it on here anyway.

Can you see them?

Now you can!

The moth trap has been out on a couple of occasions since we got back from the Scillies and two new moths for the garden have been November Moth and Yellow-line Quaker, far too dull to prompt me to photograph them. Talking of which, I found these caterpillars of the dullest moth on the planet chomping away on what's left of my outdoor tomatoes.

Bright-line brown-eye Caterpillars.

Why is one bright green? Or to put it another way, why are five dark brown?

Not very attractive I know. How about a bit of 'cute factor'?

Somehow, I seem to have acquired a few of these....

All lettuce donations gratefully received ;-)