Written to music by the Dresden Dolls...

Having possibly done something good in a previous life, I was allowed out of the office, with the express task of whipping through some basic monitoring at Prawle Point, one of my favourite places in the country. Sometimes life can be kind...! The day seemed to have been badly chosen at the outset, as when I woke up it was sheeting with rain, and the journey down was completed through a series of increasingly hefty showers. I wasn't worried though, because - in contrast to South Brent - it never rains at Prawle. True to expectations, the drop off the South Hams plateau to the coast was accompanied by a general brightening of the day and a lifting of the spirits.

We set out on our task in a stiff westerly breeze, which blustered around us and constantly threatened to remove our work, our coats and ourselves, if we were not paying close attention... Ignoring a couple of Cirl Buntings in the nearby thicket, we concentrated on the cliffs, finding such delights as the nationally scarce Autumn Squill, the dirt-common Rock Samphire and the variably rare Rock Sea-lavender (rarity depends very much on the lines you draw between taxa). We also managed to find a handful of clumps of the exciting (no, honest!) Golden Hair Lichen, which looks to me rather like a pan-scourer which has been steeped in saffron.

Teloschistes flavicans. Golden Hair Lichen.

 Autumn Squill (Scilla autumnalis). The purple one.

Today was another day at Slapton, where ringing continued apace for the season. A bright and early start meant we were in the right place at the right time to catch two Kingfishers and two Magpies on the opening round of the nets. You may find it perverse, but we were rather more interested in catching two Magpies than the Kingfishers... in 50 years of ringing at Slapton, only 7 Magpies have been caught before, whereas we catch up to 10 Kingfishers a season on a reasonable year. All context, you see...

Magpies. What more can you say? The bird on the right of the left-hand picture isn't going blind, it's flicking the nictating membrane over it's eye. Don't know what AJ's bird grabbed, but I'm sure it wasn't as painful as it looks...!

Half an hour later, during a walk round the nets, there was a squeal of anguish from the other side of the open water on the higher ley. Looking up and across the water, I was just in time to see the female Marsh Harrier standing firmly on a juvenile Coot, which was the source of the squeal. Unfortunately - or not: depends on your point of view, I suppose - the harrier lost her bottle when she saw me, so flopped off north up the ley to harass something else.

The rest of the ringing didn't produce any great surprises, though a healthy number of Reed and Cetti's Warblers were ringed again.

Cetti's Warbler. A small one.

Tufted Duck update: the brood of 9 seems to have been reduced in size, but a further three (count 'em) broods were out and about, all of which look as if they hatched at much the same time. So, that meant a brood of 5 tiddlers on the channel between the leys, a brood of 4 tiddlers and a single tiddler on the graveyard pool, and a further brood of 4 not-quite-such-tiddlers on the graveyard with them; I'm choosing to assume that the latter are the birds from 2 weekends back, though this is purely lazy speculation on my part. It'd be good if some of them manage to survive the various predators around the ley and get to adult size.

Female Tufted Duck with downy ducklings. This is the girl on the channel, with proper tiddlers.

Year of the Cett'

This is the year of the Cetti at Slapton. They first turned up in the nets back in the late 1970s, about a year before I was born, to be as precise as I wish to be. Since then the number ringed each year has described the sort of upwards trend you'd associate with a profile of - well, of somewhere fairly gentle. Not Lincolnshire - that's flatline flat - but perhaps if someone really heavy sat on the western border of Lincolnshire and the eastern side rose in sympathy, that sort of incline. Anyway, this year, it's as if the north face of the Eiger has suddenly been shunted into Lincolnshire - we've had over a hundred (count 'em!) Cetti's in the nets, over 60 of which are new birds. And there's still a good month left to the season...

Otherwise, we had the pleasant surprise of a Lesser Whitethroat in the nets last weekend, along with over a hundred Chiffchaff (no less than 99 new birds, plus a handful of recaptures from previous weekends' efforts). This season has turned into a very decent year in general, Swallow roosts aside, suggesting that we've finally had a good breeding season to repair some of the damage of the last two or three. About time...

Lesser Whitethroat

Yellow Wagtail. Not the easiest to age in the hand, this bird appears to be a first-winter male

This weekend began with some promise: a Yellow Wagtail caught in the alba wagtail roost is the first we've caught for a couple of years, but Saturday brought disastrously windy weather - we managed, somehow, to open a handful of nets on Saturday morning for the paltry return of 18 birds. The day was so quiet, we ended up photographing spiders...:


The day was rescued when the wind dropped in the evening and about 40 Swallows were ringed out of a passage of a couple of thousand; still no roost, though. Fortunately the weather was more clement this morning. We opened up at a civilised 6.15 and the catch was quite steady. Nothing spectacular until a Tawny Owl decided that night-time was for wusses and dived into one of our reedbed nets mid-morning. Spectacularly, this is only the fourth Tawny to be ringed here: the last one was in 1966! Much appreciated...

Tawny Owl. What a cracking bird in the hand, or out of it... Photo courtesy of Tim Frayling

Jynx

A quiet weekend at Slapton in many ways: the weather wasn't ideal, and the continued lack of a swallow roost meant that ringing was rather slow. However, we did hit a very nice patch when a juvenile Wryneck appeared in the scrub nets - only the fourth Wryneck ringed here since 1960, yet the second in the last 10 years! Gentle entertainment whilst it did the Wryneck party trick.



And here in action (with some - interesting - commentary! That'll learn people to keep quiet when I'm filming)...

Aside from that, an ephemeral lizard graced our tent:

Sparrowhawks and butterflies

Here we are again. More outside work, more plants and more invertebrates. Some ringing at Slapton again at the weekend - nearly 200 birds caught and ringed, of which only 20 were retraps from previous ringing: autumn's well on the way now. Pick of the bunch were the first Grasshopper Warbler of the season and a superb male Sparrowhawk, who posed briefly for a few pictures. An evening bat-detectoring by the bridge produced a few Daubenton's and an abundance of both 'normal' and Soprano Pipistrelle, as well as what was probably an Otter swimming directly below us down the channel to the lower ley. By that stage of the evening it was well dark, so outline was all we had to go on, but it seemed a little big for Mink... A probable, it remains.

Second-year male Sparrowhawk

Juvenile Sedge Warbler

Magpie Moth

Beyond that, I've been out surveying recently - rain seems to be more abundant than anything else at the moment. Oh well...

A nice patch of mire...

Upper end of a mire on the pebblebeds. The rushy-looking stuff is actually a mix of rushes and Black Bog-rush

Rhynchospora alba White Beak-sedge

Some interesting lichens today: Roccella species on some coastal rock crevices, as well as Long-headed Clover and some of the more expected species (Golden Samphire, Madder, Sheep's-bit for instance). Then we were rained off - drenched off, really.

Trifolium incarnatum Long-headed Clover

Roccella fuciformis and fucoides

Some very bedraggled Six-spot Burnet moths

Serratula tinctoria Saw-wort

Marbled White

We also made it to Basti & Laura's birthday do on Sunday, after ringing, which was a bit of a laugh. Fortunately some protection from the weather

Arturo, Jo, Basti, self, Antje and Michael...

Slapton calling...

Slapton calling to the faraway lands
Now autumn's declared - migration's at hand
Slapton calling to the travelling birds
Get into my reedbeds, you boys and girls
Slapton calling, they're looking at us
Sedgers and Chiffies with wanderlust
Slapton calling, see we ringed up them birds
Better stop now 'cause I'm all out of words...

And I probably could never apologise sufficiently to The Clash for that mangling. Oh yes.

A good weekend's ringing, especially considering we could only use one day of it - the rest was too windy. We managed a whole 50 new birds and an additional 9 which had been ringed before. The bulk of the catch was, as expected, Reed Warblers, but evidence of autumn migration came with the first juvenile Sedge Warblers - five sparkly-fresh buff and black smoothies. One of my favourites; hence the eulogising! Beyond that, the day was quite well packed with an assortment of juvenile residents (no, not referring to the inhabitants of Slapton village - what a suggestion!).

Not content with the day, we trundled off to Prawle Point to try for Storm Petrels. This was a bit of an experiment, particularly as Nik's always said he's caught very few there. True enough, we caught only 13 over 3 hours, but of those birds, one had a Portuguese ring and another a British ring. Even more interesting, the British ring proved to be one we'd ringed ourselves over the midsummer weekend, on the Land's End peninsula! Nice to have a movement like that within the same year.

Waking up at 6:30 the next morning to a panorama of wildly-waving willow (it's not what you think, officer, honest) was a bit of a relief really. We cleared up and out, and I set myself the geeky challenge of 'let's identify everything you possibly can between France Wood and base, via the seafront and the nature trail'. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, come to look at that. Oh well. I botanised my way to oblivion - 203 species, whilst the fauna came out a very poor second, with something like 40 species identified. Given that normally I'd expect more than 50 species of bird in that area, it was a bit poor, but a force 6-7 wind didn't help matters much, I suppose.

Anyway, a few piccies of the days:

Storm Petrel. This one sans carrot, unlike the Cornish birds.

Baby 1: Chiffchaff

Baby 2: Goldfinch

Baby 3: Great Tit

Baby 4: Robin

Baby 5: Reed Warbler. Notice the emerging quasi-Bluethroat tail... Who's yer daddy??

Yeah, well there were Swifts there earlier.

Wet woodland. Lichen-rich. Now, if I could ID them, I'd be quids in.

Lichens. Pretty patterns to me, but that's all, I'm afraid.

More of them. I know they're crustose and leprose growth forms, but no more than that

A potentially interesting (no, really) trefoil. Looks like it's Hairy BfT, and keyed out to that species in the field. Will be looking for confirmation!

The particularly exciting Strapwort Corrigiola litoralis. Get's worse, doesn't it?!

Weekend news...

Not a lot happened this weekend. We took advantage of a good spell of weather to ring at Slapton again, catching a whole host of Long-tailed Tit and Goldcrest in particular. The Long-tails were particularly interesting, in that we caught over 40 of them, with a good dozen retraps, which included birds ringed in ~2003, 2004 and 2005. Not a bad lifespan for such a small and apparently fragile bird. They seem to be coping admirably with the recent run of poor springs and summers.

Sunday found Na and myself wandering around Berry Head in a stiff southwest wind, searching somewhat casually for some migrants. The weather didn't help much, but we managed a brief female Merlin, which apparently came in off the sea and headed inland rapidly.

A search of the quarry and a cup of tea at the seawatch point provided prolonged views of a pale-phase adult and a very gingery juvenile Arctic Skua harassing Kittiwake offshore - the 200 or so kitts preferring to loaf in the sunshine just offshore with the skuas lurking in the midst of the flock - every so often the skuas would decide it was time to see if someone else was ripe for hassle, and roll off the sea, raising the entire flock in the process: a fine sight in yellowish autumn sunshine.

We finished off with a tour of Brixham breakwater, to see if the winter flock of Purple Sandpiper had returned, which they have - around 10 snoozing on the old fishing pier off the end of the breakwater. Cracking little birds... No pictures today though; sorry.

Greyish Willow Warblers and sundry others

Well. Since the last post it's been a decidedly busy ol' time. The mysterious N and myself have decided to search for somewhere to live - I'm joining her to look at a flat in Chudleigh later - and have spent the last couple of weekends doing a spot of seasonal bird-ringing. Our exploits took us first to one of her Dartmoor sites, where we caught almost sack-all. Almost... We did catch a rather grey Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus), perhaps not as grey as those discussed by 'fat Paul Scholes', but decidedly duller than our local birds. Interestingly, it looked rather Chiffchaff-like in the field, without reasonably close scrutiny. Wonder how many others go misidentified?

OK, it's a slightly overexposed picture, but you can see the colder, rather greyish tones to the bird.

Slightly greener around the rump and on the remige/remix fringes. Perhaps an intergrade towards 'acredula'?

Last weekend we returned to the ever-dependable Slapton. Our brief holiday from the site allowed the jammy gits to trap, ring and photograph in glorious technicolour, the site's first Aquatic Warbler (Acrocephalus paludicola) since 2003. Arse. Fortunately the bird has been lurking in the same area ever since, allowing us to catch brief - in fact almost unidentifiable - views between net rounds. As usual, the bulk of the ringing was Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica), but some more porky Blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla) and Sedge Warblers (Acr. schoenobaenus) were also trapped and ringed. Birds of the weekend were a smart adult female Firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus), a late Grasshopper Warbler (Locustella naevia) and a couple of Meadow Pipits (Anthus pratensis); the latter are rarely caught at Slapton, perhaps because we don't make enough effort for them! Too busy to take pictures, I'm afraid, so you'll have to imagine them!

Weekend update

Pfff.... Briefly, spent the weekend helping on a ringing course at Slapton, which coincided with the largest ever catch of birds at the site - we ringed a total of 732 birds, with 60-odd recaptures and a French-ringed Sedge Warbler also caught. Busy times, coping with all that and about 10 complete novices being trained in some of the basics of ringing! Much of the catch was Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica), about 400 of them, in fact. The only reasonably scarce bird caught was a Grasshopper Warbler (Locustella naevia). A couple of highlights away from the birds in the hand were a flock of Brent Geese (Branta bernicla) flying past to the north on Saturday, then another flock of 16 close ishore on the Sunday - these identifiable as Pale-bellied Brent (B. b. hrota). The first flock of Wigeon (Anas penelope) arrived on the Ley on Sunday and a couple of Hobby (Falco subbuteo) were hunting hirundines and invertebrates each morning. Best of all, however, was to round a net on Sunday and come face-to-face with an Otter (Lutra lutra)! We're seeing them increasingly on and around the Ley now, so it wasn't that unexpected, but very pleasant nonetheless.

Star bird from this morning is this female Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus): the first I've ringed in this country. Feisty girl, that one!

Spring migrants

An interesting weekend, for some nicely non-birdy reasons which I'm not going to go into. Filthy weather meant ringing was out of the question, so we took a wander around Slapton and Beesands Leys with N. An easterly wind was howling through, with steady rain, yet despite this we managed to note Reed Warbler, Blackcap and Chiffchaff singing, with a Willow Warbler and plenty of vocal resident Cetti's in addition. Swallows were feeding carefully over the ley surface, with a House Martin and a handful of Sand Martins picked out from amongst them, as well as a slightly surprising Swift - first of the year for both of us. Bird of the day was a nice spring Yellow Wagtail flushed from the line, keeping company with a handful of cracking Wheatear; always a pleasure to see. Beyond that, there was little out of the ordinary, although the resident female Marsh Harrier was seen briefly before she dropped into the reeds at the back of Stokeley bay - perhaps trying to end it all in the face of the conditions: I wouldn't blame her!

Some of my Philippines photos are now up on www.jerbarker.co.uk so feel free to have a look. A first-draft trip report is also on there, though there will need to be some changes and a bit of editing.