Haldon Area
HAWFINCH One seen this morning in flight
Lower Tamar Lake
Lower Tamar Lake this morning.
7 Willow Tit, 1f Goosander, 9 Great Crested Grebe, 4 Cormorant, 5 Coal Tit, 7 Great Tit, 1 Nuthatch, 12 Blue Tit, 2 Robin, 2 Grey Heron, 1 Grey Wagtail, 10 Chaffinch, 1 Long-tailed Tit.
Baggy Point
10 Common Scoter and a single Velvet Scoter at midday.
East Soar
Productive morning around the airfield area with a Short-eared Owl, a Merlin carrying breakfast, a late Wheatear, sev hundred Skylarks and a Fieldfare
Wembury 07:30 – 08:15
Strong westward movement of Woodpigeon 7000+, Redwing 800+ and Starling 500+ this morning.
+1 Photo
Woody Bay
This morning while in Woody Bay I spotted this Guillemot about 50m or so off shore.
+1 Photo
Great Northern Divers in summer plumage off Hopes Nose
In addition to plunge diving Gannets we were treated to 3 Great Northern Divers in summer plumage off Hopes Nose this afternoon, together with several Rock Pipits enjoying the afternoon sun.
Cadover Bridge
Merlin through Brisworthy Burrows, 400+ Golden Plover (over) and at least 6 Ring Ouzels keeping hidden in the sunny, but blustery conditions. Also c10 Redwing and 30+ Fieldfare.
+1 Photo
Haldon Forest area
Yesterday at Haldon. Crossbills, Siskins, Nuthatches, Ravens and nearby Redwing, Fieldfare and a solitary Hawfinch thanks to Roy Adams
Skern, Westward Ho!
Timed my visit to coincide with the high tide. Took a while but eventually found the drake Lesser Scaup in amongst the Wigeon, of which not very many (70?). The roost was dominated by Oystercatchers – several hundred, Dunlin, ditto, Redshank, 80/100? Grey Plover – 10, Greenshank – 6, Bar-tailed Godwit – 7, Turnstone – a few, Knot 2/3, 1 Ringed Plover, 1 Curlew, 20 or so Pintail and a few Teal, plus good numbers of Shoveler and a sizeable number of Brent Geese. Herring, Common, Black-headed and GBB Gulls present.
Otterton to Landram Bay via White Bridge
A day out with Damian Offer. Small number of ducks on new LORP. 38 Teal, 24 Wigeon & 54+ Mallard. Also 2 Little Grebe & 2 Cetti’s Warbler. Grey Wagtail on the river.
Along coast, strong winds limited small birds, but 40+ Linnet, 4 Skylark, Rock Pipit & single Meadow Pipit. Otherwise 4 Stonechat, 2 Chiffchaff & a Goldcrest on walk.
Teigngrace
On a brief visit to Teigngrace, 22 Little Egrets on the food meadows.
Starcross
Kingfisher sitting on river wall just behind down platform at station,1pm
Torre Abbey, Torquay
2 firecrests and 2 goldcrests in the woodland walk and walled garden.
Exminster Marshes
The flooding in Station Road has started to fall and the road is passable in tall wellies.
At Turf this morning there was a varied collection of geese. Hundreds of Canada geese with 16 brent geese and one barnacle goose. Also single greylag goose, snow goose and bar-headed goose.
Elsewhere more Canada geese together with large numbers of teal and pintail, and smaller numbers of shoveller, wigeon and mallard. At least 10 cattle egrets and a similar number of little egrets. Not a lot of waders although plenty of curlew, one whimbrel, about 30 redshank and a few black-tailed godwit. Lots of black-headed gulls and at least 40 common gulls.
A kestrel and a sparrow hawk were close to the storage lagoon.
Fremington Pill – Saltpill Duck Pond
- 3 Greenshanks
- 1 Spotted Redshank
- 3 Glossy Ibis
- 1 Spoonbill
- 2 Great Egrets
- 8 Black-tailed Godwit
- 9 Cattle Egrets
- 1 water Rail
- 2 Cetti’s Warblers
Otterton Firecrest
Single Firecrest this morning at Otterton Mill. Feeding amongst trees beside the leat.
Torre Abbey, Torquay
Firecrest this afternoon in woodland walk to east of the walled garden. In the walled garden, mistle thrush and 2 redwing.
Cadover Bridge
This evening 2 Snipe on Drying Pond. a Goldcrest and a Firecrest. Numerous Fieldfares and Redwings at least 8 Ring Ouzels.
+1 Photo
Fernworthy and Slapton
Yesterday morning around Fernworthy Reservoir there were a large number of Crossbills, Redwings, Long-tailed tits and Chaffinches. There were a few additional Marsh Tits, a Great spotted woodpecker and a couple of Mistle Thrushes. Moving on in late afternoon to Slapton were I spotted a couple of Stonechats, a couple of Cetti’s and briefly two Water rail on the edge of the reed bed on the Blackpool Sand side.
