A Small Fall of Stonechats

It was lovely Beer Head weather this morning, but circumstances conspired against my getting there. I was all ready to go either to Beer Head or indeed Axe Cliff (for a change) when I realised I had misplaced my keys. This is not an unusual occurrence in fact it's getting worryingly regular, so I wasn't too concerned at first. After the first hour of searching I began to get slightly vexed. Two hours later, they turn up, they are in Martha's school bag in Axminster!!! They'd fallen into it from the kitchen table! Fortunately during my assiduous search I did find my spare car key at least, so was eventually able to get out and about. Yes I know I could have walked somewhere, it has been known!!

Anyway I had in mind a nice copse of sycamores behind Beer Caves, I thought it may be a good spot for a Yellow-browed Warbler. No luck with that, but along this hedgerow I counted no less than ten Stonechats between where I was standing taking the photo and the large tree. There may have been more further along it.

Stonechat Lane Beer

Most were eventually making their way westward towards Branscombe. I wonder how many were on Beer Head this morning? I remember on the 4th of October last year seeing 19 there, I reckon there may have been that many today too. I know they're a bit boring but here's a picture of one anyway:

Ubiquitous Stonechat

Talking of small falls, there's been one on the Scillies, of Red-eyed Vireos!! I mean, who wants to go all that way just to see a few American LBJs when they could stay on patch and see fantastic birds like this?....Yes, that's right .... I DO!!

Rex often can't jump up onto the sofa at home, poor old soul, but once out on his walk he's usually revitalised somewhat, here he is leaping over quite a high stile with aplomb!!

In the background of this picture you can just about see one of my 'favourite' places - Beer Quarry! Come to think of it, I don't like being at Kilmington Quarry either, even though both are disused. I fear that I may suffer from 'Quarraphobia'! The field that Rex is leaping into has been planted with Chicory, I think this is done to break up the soil, because chicory has a very large taproot. What it also has is one of my favourite flowers. They are a beautiful colour and look like this:

Aesthetically Pleasing, No?

The Borrow Pit water I collected yesterday was rubbish under the microscope compared to the plenitudinous microscopic life in Bruckland Ponds' water.

Here are a few more bits and bobs I've found:

Female Cyclops with eggs

Female Diaptomus with eggs

Diaptomus like cyclops is a copepod, it is characterised by it's stupendously long antennae, longer than the whole body length. I couldn't get them in the picture. If you look really closely at the picture you may be able to see lots of small disc-like shapes along it's sides. There's one between the antenna and leg just below the end of the pointer. These are another organism (I don't know what) living on the surface of the Diaptomus. They were 'running' around the outside edge really quickly, reminded me of little cars going around a Scalextric track!! But them I'm weird! I'll have to try and video this if I see it again.

Another Rotifer: Keratella quadrata

And Finally I attempted some video footage through the microscope, This is Euglena, it's a medium size flagellate protist with very plastic body. It has green, ovoid chloroplasts, and a distinct stigma (a red "eyespot") in the anterior end. They are usually around 60-120 microns in length. This video is at magnification of 400x. I think it may just win first prize for the most riveting video on a blog ever!!

A Day Off.....Nearly

Just a quiet day today, I've got a nasty virus coming on so haven't been out much. Rex needed his walk though, so as the weather was fine I took him to Axe Cliff. Steve was just leaving as I arrived, he'd been up there early for the vis mig. There were a few bits and bobs still going over during my brief visit, most notably Skylarks, I counted well over fifty. Also very obvious were several Reed Buntings, I counted at least six of these. Here are two of them:



This afternoon I went to Seaton Marshes to collect a sample of finest Borrow Pit water to take home and study under my microscope. An enjoyable pastime made more so by the fact that I can indulge in it whilst drinking tea, scoffing chocolate and wearing my dressing gown. (Studying pond water under the microscope that is, not collecting it from the Borrow Pit!) I haven't looked at it yet but, the kettle's on, so more thrilling micro-digiscoped images coming soon!!

The Borrow Pit

It was very pleasant in the autumn sunshine and there were a few Chiifchaffs and a very vocal Cetti's Warbler in the surrounding scrub. My attention was drawn to the water as a fairly substantial wake appeared and moved along the surface with nothing in front of it. What was causing it? I wondered. I took a closer look through my bins, it was a large Grass Snake, the first time I've ever seen one swimming. There were loads of Migrant Hawkers, I counted at least twelve and they all looked exactly like this:

An Unexpected Visitor

Generally a much quieter day today after all of yesterday's excitement. The weather was still very wet and windy this morning, but not ideal for seawatching because the wind was a more or less straight southerly. When this happens there is little or no shelter to be had anywhere in Seaton and so the only option is the 'emergency reserve' shelter at Beer. This is where I found myself this morning along with Steve, yes, even he abandons the 'Spot On' in a wet southerly!! Here it is, blurry through rain spotted lens:

Emergency Shelter

Actually unlike the Seaton thatched shelter, this one actually does shelter you and this is why we are sometimes forced to go here. Unfortunately the birds are often distant because they tend to turn and head out seaward far to the east of here. It's better than nothing though. Here's a photo of the inside, showing contents, those contents being, Steve and some other bloke. This morning this other bloke was heard to make a few querulous comments about being surreptitiously photographed whilst innocently engaged in birding activities and then gratuitously displayed on various blogs! I can't imagine what he means!! Anyway to put his mind at rest I will adopt a 'tried and tested' method (much favoured by the tabloid press) to conceal his identity. It's foolproof!

Who on earth could that be with Steve?

The visibility was dreadful and the pickings were slim, with 3 or4 Arctic Skuas, a few Common Scoter and a single Gannet!! One of the Skuas , which looked good for a Long-tailed (with conspicuous pale upper tail coverts) came right in over Beer beach chasing a juvenile Herring Gull (not so good for a long-tailed!?) and gave great views.The others were quite distant. We were hoping the weather would clear up a bit but it didn't.

Here's a picture of Beer beach and the rough but pretty empty sea:

Lovely day for sunbathing

Someone was expecting an imminent improvement in the weather. Why? Because just visible in the above picture between the fishing boats and the dinghies are these:

Any takers?

The seawatching was so slow that Steve and I decided to pop along to Colyford Common. As we battled against the gale force wind and horizontal rain on our way to the extremely welcoming looking box, Steve commented that every time he visits Colyford Common in these conditions there's usually a single unusual visitor on the scrape, and guess what! There was! An Avocet, no less, usually a very scarce patch visitor but this year we've had a massive FOUR now! I took a few snaps in the rain, so they are in the post-modern naturalistic naffism style again:

Unexpected Visitor

It was a bit breezy

Also on the scrape were about a dozen Blackwits, 4 Ringed Plovers (which were new too) and 2 Ruff.

Later in the afternoon I popped along to the Farm Gate where Ian Waite had spotted a juvenile Merlin perched in a tree. I hadn't been home long after this when he texted to say the Marsh Harrier was back at Colyford Marsh. I wasn't feeling too well so decided not to go out for another look. A while later though Steve phoned me to say that it was hunting just to the north of Coronation Corner and that I should be able to get it on my house list and I did. Here's the indisputable photographic evidence!

Three specks

One of the specks in this picture is the female Marsh Harrier, it is honestly, can you see it? (click for larger view) I'll give you a clue it's not the Grey Heron-y speck or the Buzzard-y speck but the other one!!