Big Birding and meeting Noah on Avalon Marshes, Somerset

It was time I visited the RSPB Hamwall and adjoining Natural England Shapwick reserves.  Well that's what several other birders suggested recently.  So we decided to get our Campervan 'Patience' into action for a few days.  A quick bit of research uncovered a distinct shortage of caravan sites near the reserves, but there was a large site just outside Glastonbury 'The Isle of Avalon' near the cycle route running past the reserve.  So that's where we stayed.  It was fine, the facilities were quite good, but it was noisy and busy being August.

An attractive 20 minute cycle through quiet droves and tracks took us to these very nice and very BIG reserves.

Image from RSPB.org.uk

 

They are so vast that everything feels kind of distant. In our 3 days we covered only a small part of the reserves, even though the first two days were on bike. On the 3rd day we took the Campervan to the RSPB Car Park and walked into the nature trails off the main paths.  This was delightful and the reed lined ditches along the tracks were twittering, shrieking and squawking with life.

It's easy for me to spend many hours alongside a ditch or a hedge watching birds going about their business as I find it all captivating.  But oddly many birders seem to be on a mission to bypass these little gems to get to a particular hide, with the biggest and best gear to capture photos of the biggest and best bird that their phone has alerted them to.  This week at Shapwick it was an Osprey called 'Noah'.  Well we called him Noah because apparently he had spent the last 3 days or so in the same dead tree on the lagoon overlooked by a very small hide called 'Noah's Hide'.  Maybe it was 'Noah's Lagoon' I don't know because we abandoned the map on day one, finding it inadequate for the task of navigating around the reserve.  

I'm not a tick box birder or a collector but eventually, we decided we should at least go and check out 'Noah' as undoubtedly Twitter would be asking if I had bagged a photo of the celebrity Osprey on my visit.  

We followed the bumpy track into the woods and found the hide to be heaving, hot and small.  It was overflowing with regulars who seemed to know Noah's every move for the last 3 days.  Some of them had been up since 4.30am to get that unique shot which no one else had captured. I wondered if Noah was aware of his dedicated fan club.

Noah was in his tree, a long way from the hide and my 300mm zoom lacked the oomph required for the job.  I balanced on the steps to the hide and took a few wobbly, distant shots.  Luckily Noah had just caught a fish and decided to circle the tree with it, showing it off, before settling down for his lunch.  So my distant shot did at least show him stretching his wings in full glory and you can kind of see a fish at his feet.

Having got the ‘Noah’ thing over with I was eager to get back to see what else was happening on the reserves.  There were a couple of distant Glossy Ibis, a Marsh Harrier and I managed to spot one Bittern – apparently I had missed no less than nine ‘flyovers’ by Bitterns the previous day.  Such is the nature of ‘Birding tales' – much like ‘fishing tales’.

So with all the ‘Big Birding’ out of the way I got down to enjoying what I enjoy most, watching the little things going on around me.  There were too many of these to mention – Black Caps rustling in the Elderberries, Reed Warblers frantically fattening up their late youngsters ready for the long migration South and Cetti’s Warblers tormenting me from behind the thick layers of reeds with their exotic call. Just a few of the fascinating things going on in this fabulous reserve.

One of these special moments happened to be a dear little Chiffchaff who seemed as intrigued by me as I was by him (or her – I can’t tell these things with juvenile Chiffchaffs).  

Turnstones at Starcross, Devon

The Turnstones are at Starcross Quay again.  But their numbers are much lower - in fact half as many!

A year ago today, we took the Starcross ferry to Exmouth across the Exe Estuary to visit our favourite restaurant - the River Exe Café.

Whilst waiting on the jetty at Starcross, we noticed a large flock of Turnstones crowding along the Quay Wall.  Many were basking in the sun, many were chattering and pushing around to secure their space.  We counted around 200 of them. Just a handful were scratching through the seaweed in the muds below the jetty.  Most were just resting.  

This year we counted around 100.  Some were sitting on nearby boats waiting for the tide to go out so they could drop down into the seaweed strewn muds.

These Turnstones had likely just made their long journey from Scandanavia and chose this safe roosting spot, just out of reach of land, to restore their energy before continuing the long journey South to winter in Africa.

A few Turnstones do winter around the shores of the Exe Estuary.  You are likely to hear them before you see them as they use their strong beaks to flip stones over, in search of small crustacians. These birds are more likely to have come from the Arctic or Canada and their journey stops here for the winter.

I hope we will see this year's Turnstone numbers increase over the coming days and we are not witnessing yet another serious decline in numbers of another migrating species. 

Freak Show and Willow Warblers at Bowling Green Marsh, Topsham, Devon

It's a while since I visited RSPB Bowling Green Marsh and there's such a fantastic bird hide and viewing platform overlooking the River Clyst as it joins the Exe Estuary. The area offers a safe roosting place for all types of wading bird.  

The natural vegetation around the adjoining marshes attracts many passerines too - often on migration, but many resident.

The Waders are starting to arrive now, on their Autumn/Winter migration and gradually the numbers will increase steadily over the coming colder months. High Tide is the best time to see them as they get pushed off the mud banks in the estuary.  Which fell nicely mid morning today, so I hot footed it down there to see what was about.  And although still a little quiet, there were plenty of waders to keep a Birder happy for a couple of hours in the hide.

However, en-route to the viewing platform I got distracted by some Willow Warblers, pointed out to me by a local (well known and almost resident) Birder. The birds were obviously there, but challenging to photograph as they were mostly flitting about on the other side of the hedgerow, flashing glimpses at us now and then.  

They decided to play hide and seek for an hour or so, and I'd now gathered around me two other birders and a few locals gawping like we were in a freak show.  The other two birders were now running up and down the hedgerow shouting at me 'here Jo", " no here Jo", "over here, look there's a parent feeding a juvenile" and I was running frantically as instructed but missing each opportunity which evaporated by the time I got there - as it does when you're trying to photograph birds on demand!

Much as I enjoyed the company of my fellow birders, I knew I had to be on my own if I was going to get any shots worth keeping.  Eventually, I got my moment, brief as it was and I won't win any awards.  But, like all my photographs, they are a memory of a nice day spent in a beautiful location, watching nature at its best - doing its thing.

Whitethroat, Berry Head, Brixham, Devon

Three weeks ago at Berry Head, I took a nice photo of an adult Whitethroat catching insects and appearing to take them back to a nest to feed youngsters.  So it was a treat to see an adult feeding a youngster in the same spot today.

This is another bird whose breeding numbers have dropped substantially in the UK in recent years.

Juvenile Chiff Chaff

Every time I think things are going quiet and there will be nothing to photograph, something catches me by surprise again.

With the mating season over, the male birds have stopped singing from their perches. Then the parents started actively and frantically feeding their young broods and you could hear the youngsters calling from their nests for food.  Then it all went quiet.

But just because it's quiet doesn't mean they're not there. They just don't have anything much to shout about.  But if you listen very, very carefully you will hear the fledged young calling to their siblings as they start to explore their wider surroundings learning to feed themselves.  Occasionally you see the parents pop back to top up the youngsters' feed.  Many parents, who have often gone without much food themselves whilst using up a lot of energy feeding their young, may now have to prioritise feeding themselves ready for the long Autumn migration.

This week I've seen so many gorgeous newly fledged birds.  This young Chiff Chaff was delightful, flitting around this grand iron gate on Exminster Marsh in Devon.

Reed Warbler, Exminster Marshes, Devon

Yesterday I wrote about my fascinating encounter with a pair of young Sedge Warblers and I made mention of the Reed Warblers.

Today I set about getting photos of young Reed Warblers, which isn't too difficult on Exminster Marshes.  The Reed Warblers seem to have had a good year as I've often seen them whilst out on my regular walks on the marshes.

This one appeared from the reeds alongside the canal path and asked me to take a photo as he was proud of his catch! 

Sedge Warbler, Exminster Marsh, Devon

Spring and early Summer for me means the croaky repetitive notes of the Reed and Sedge Warblers singing from the reed beds and adjoining hedgerows on Exminster Marshes. When I first heard them I struggled to tell the difference, but after two summers of living alongside the marshes, I now know which one I'm listening to.

In July the singing has disappeared and is replaced with the tiny frog like croak of the newly fledged Sedge Warblers seeking out caterpillars and bugs in the tangled growth at the bottom of the drying ditches; and the lighter chattering of the young Reed Warblers catching flies and bugs higher up the reeds with their parents guiding them.

Today I was stopped in my tracks by a very confiding young Sedge Warbler who decided I was intruding on his and his sibling's territory.  I needed to be checked out, then told off! Not satisfied with shouting at me from the reeds, he took to a nearby post and continued the ticking off.  

After a few moments of kicking off, he decided not to bother with me any more and disappeared back into the tangled mass of grasses and brackish water in the bottom of the ditch.  He called to his sibling who had remained out of sight and undercover.  Her quieter croak was only just audible as she called back (I am assuming their sexes from their behaviour!)  

Eventually these little Sedge Warblers both got used to me, ignored my presence and carried on feasting themselves on the endless supply of caterpillars they seemed to have discovered in these ditches.  

Every now and then, they would reappear as if to show off their catches and let me take a few photos, before going under again.