Bird Sightings

A brief look this afternoon produced a Dipper, common enough on the Exe but you don’t see them here too often.

A trip to Dawlish Warren, optimistically looking a ‘yank’. Land wise very little, 2 Chiffchaff & a Goldcrest. 40+ Linnet, 3 Stonechat and 7 Skylark was about it.

2 Sanderling on the beach. 27+ Sandwich Tern as tide came in, but didn’t stay to high tide. 21 Barwit, 70+ Ringed Plover, 150+ Dunlin were best of the waders though they remained distant as it wasn’t a big high tide.

Otherwise 250+ Wigeon, 150+ Teal, 32 Shelduck, a few distance Brent Geese and an Ad Mediterranean Gull.

6 Painted Lady, 2 Clouded Yellow amongst 11 Spp of Butterfly. 15+ Migrant Hawkers.

Late PM visit – Dunlin, 3 Ringed Plover and a stint-sized wader with one leg in the big pit. Due to distance and poor weather conditions I couldn’t 100% confirm the ID of the wader. Also 1,000+ Herring Gulls in roost, smaller numbers of LBB and GBB Gulls.

Snow goose among a flock of Canadas. Provenance unknown.

A visit this afternoon produced: Mediterranean Gull (ad-w), 1+ Kingfisher, Black-tailed Godwit, 9 Greenshanks, 19 Little Egrets & a Sparrowhawk.

Well over 300 linnet gathered on the wires on the west side of the hill this evening

Mid afternoon watch from the Black Hole Marsh island hide:

• 1 Curlew Sandpiper
• 1 Little Stint,
• 2 Ruff
• 6 Ringed Plover
• 7 Dunlin
• 1 Common Sandpiper
• 2 Lapwing
• 14 Redshank.

200 Dunlin on the sea wall roosting at high tide, south of Turf. Amongst them were 2 Juv Curlew Sandpiper & a Juv Little Stint. 5 Ad Common Gull, first sign of their arrival. Also 5 Swallow.

From Turf 3 Sandwich Tern, 210 Curlew, 3 Grey Plover & first Shelduck returning amongst small numbers of other waders.

From Exminster VP, 10 Gadwall, 12+ Shoveler, 60+ Teal & 2 Little Grebe. Imm Kestrel being only other bird of note.

A walk along the trail at lunchtime on the high tide but with mud still exposed. Large numbers of canada geese (100-200) spread about. 200-300 oystercatchers spread along the trail. Couple of dozen bar tailed godwits still in summer plumage. 20-30 dunlin with a couple of curlew sandpiper mixed in. 20-30 redshank, only 1 or 2 curlew. 1 great white egret, about 6 little egrets spread along the walk. 3 cormorant on the river, 2 teal flying over. 30-40 swallows migrating south. BH gulls and several dragonflies buzzing about but not able to identify them

Fourteen Mediterranean Gulls, 12 Sandwich Terns and 3 Turnstones were noted at Bovisand this morning.

0700-0900: 4 Cory’s Shearwaters – 3 between 0700-0800 and a 4th at 08:44 – all just past the Mew Stone. Also a single Manxie, 3 Med Gulls. Other shears too far out to call.

Yesterday’s spoonbills were the icing on the cake…before that at the Skern were several wheatear, linnet,pied wagtail and meadow pipit. A mini murmeration of starlings, 80 to 100 curlew, 100+ oystercatchers. Peregrine sat on the ground chased off by a large juvenile Peregrine. Fremington pill had 4 greenshank, 3 glossy ibis, 9 knot,redshanks a few teal and a kingfisher. On the river 4 great white Egret,3 herons, several little egrets and on Saltpill were 2 snipe. A good day’s birding!

Late for Saturday 23rd.
Lower Tamar Lake this morning.
1 Willow Tit, 1 Marsh Tit, 5 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Grey Heron, 11 Blue Tit, 9 Chaffinch, 1 Robin, 5 Coal Tit, 15 Moorhen, 1 Wren, 14 Coot, 5 Mallard, 1 Nuthatch, 2 Grey Wagtail, 1 Goldcrest, 5 Long-tailed Tit.

Two spoonbills feeding on the falling tide.

• Walk along cliff path to east of LORP produced many migrants moving west. Several hundred Swallow and fewer House Martin. Small groups of  Skylark  and Meadow Pipit also moving. Two Wheatear in stubble field. Also three Clouded Yellow

Great white egret, 2. Glossy ibis, Teal 60+, Redshank 80+, Oystercatcher 40, L egret 5, Greenshank 4, Canada goose 30

Second ever record for Spoonbill with two flying SW at 1015hrs, 2 Ring Ouzel in Starehole (3 weeks earlier than usual arrival), Meadow Pipit 410 generally moving west, Grey Wagtail 1W, Swallow 100, House Martin 100, Great Spotted Woodpecker moving up through Starehole,  Wheatear 2, Goldcrest, Robin 34, Blackcap 14, Chiffchaff 36, Siskin 22W,  Jay 2 in Starehole, Goldfinch 90.

Oh4 Dunlin and Ringed Plover in the big pit. Ring Necked Paraket was a surprise along the bridleway, my first here. Also, Wheatear, 2 Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer, Green Woodpecker plus usuals.

Wryneck briefly around 13:00, 2 Cory’s Shearwater still offshore and 5 Balearics flew East.

The only waders along the beach at high tide this morning – apart from 49 Oystercatchers and 4 Curlews at the regular roost site – were 17 Turnstones. Thirty Mediterranean Gulls, mostly adults, were on the stubble field. Two White Wagtails M.a.alba were on the beach and 115 Meadow Pipits flew west in small parties throughout the morning. The only other migrants of note were 40 Siskins in three parties of 9, 6 and 25 at different locations. Also noted were a Grey Seal and a Clouded Yellow.