Not Quite Scilly: Not Annual

In a local birding context, 'not annual' is a label given to those usually desirable species that cannot be guaranteed every year, but in West Dorset and East Devon it is also true of snow. A decent covering seems always to do something bird-wise, so the last couple of days have been interesting...

We weren't supposed to get any snow, just rain and sleet. And first thing yesterday, that was exactly what we did get. I was at West Bay by 07:30, peering optimistically through a curtain of the stuff for anything that might be little, and an auk. But evidently I cannot tell optimism from foolhardiness. Half an hour later I was back home.

Fairly soon the sleet was coming in down in big, wet, floppy flakes. It was now snow. Just. I cannot really credit the snow for what happened next, except that I might not have been gazing through the conservatory window otherwise. A movement caught my eye. A male Blackcap, possibly the first I've seen actually in the garden. It was feeding on Honeysuckle berries in the little wildlife hedge I planted in the first 2020 lockdown. For an hour or more it was intermittently on view, and knowing it was there as a result of my labours pleased me greatly.

Cheers Gav, nice berries.

By lunchtime the snow had stopped, and Cogden beckoned. A walk on the beach was my plan, to look for flotsam that might be little, and an auk. The road was closed, so I had to walk from Burton Bradstock instead. Still, that gave me even more sea to fruitlessly scan...

Looking east from Cogden. Not much snow at beach level, though there was a proper covering on higher ground.

In the photo above, that snowy hill on the far left is called the Knoll. This is what it looked like close up...

Yep, that's snow.

It was a lovely afternoon, but there was little going on bird-wise. Mind you, I must have seen 25+ Song Thrushes, plus Blackbirds and a few Redwings, poking about in the soft ground of the lower fields with an air of mild urgency, as if it was all about to freeze solid any minute...

Song Thrush and a dusting of snow, just inland of the coast path.

Always good to see a few Redwings, which were typically shy.

Also notable was a Heron on the deck and three Chiffchaffs...

Most of my Heron sightings here are fly-overs.

One of three Chiffs.

Bird of the day was on the beach, and a gull...

There were several beautiful Med Gulls in a small flock at West Bex, but this one is wearing a colour ring - Red HFV6.

I've been woefully slack at reporting colour-ringed Med Gulls recently. I don't see many, and know I ought to make more effort, so pinged off an email last night. I was amazed to get a reply before breakfast this morning! Red HFV6 was ringed as a chick in Hungary ten years ago, and along with the usual history of subsequent sightings I was sent a link to a map of them all...

I'm pretty sure I haven't recorded a colour-ringed Med Gull from further east than this.

Look at where it's been! This is another reason I love gulls - they are such great travellers. With many species it strikes me that they can turn up almost anywhere. Two of the sightings - in 2015 and 2018 - were at Radipole Lake in Weymouth, with familiar observers' names attached to them. Birding is a small world really.

Despite a freezing night, and a lot of snow now hard and crispy on the higher ground, I had to work today. But lunchtime was earmarked for a visit to Colyton WTW to see if there were many Chiffs in residence yet, and if any of them might be pale and interesting. I'm hoping for a tristis or two this winter. I saw maybe 10+ Chiffs, but all regular colybita birds. The adjacent field was dotted with winter thrushes. Five species in all - Mistle and Song Thrush, Blackbird, Fieldfare and Redwing...

Mistle Thrush dwarfing the Redwings.

Fieldfare

Fieldfare and Redwings

As I said earlier, a decent covering of snow always seems to do something, and evidence was right there in that field - seven Golden Plovers among the thrushes. Pretty much the only time we see Golden Plovers in the Axe Valley fields is during snow and/or a serious freeze-up. Birds winter on nearby high ground, but will visit the valley in such conditions.

There is a very, very slim chance that a flock of Golden Plovers might hold something rarer, so a proper check is obligatory. I imagine it must be rather exciting to clap eyes on an American Golden Plover or wintering Dotterel in a flock of Goldies. It's never happened to me, but for the briefest of moments my pulse did skip a beat or two...