Swallow in Okehampton
Lone Swallow flying North over Okehampton at 1510.
Valley of Rocks . Lynton.
3 Wheatear, 1Chiffchaff, 2 pairs Stonechats, about 10 Meadow Pipits, and 1 Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly.
Wrafton Scrape and Sherpa Marsh
From mid-afternoon
Wrafton Scrape
Drake Garganey feeding on nearside of large scrape with plenty of Teal. A few Sand Martins feeding overhead.
Wrafton Pond
Three Gadwall on pond with ~30-40 Sand Martins overhead, Chiffchaff and Goldcrest in trees to left of viewing platform and calling Cetti’s Warbler
Sherpa Marsh
Few species on grazing marsh bar abundance of Sand Martins, one Cetti’s Warbler along the toll road ditch.
Horsey Island
Few Shelduck and Oystercatcher pairs out on the mudflats, large flock of Redshanks at the edge of the sea wall breach.
Little Ringed Plover. Northam Burrows/Skern
Litte Ringed Plover feeding late afternoon by the pool to the left of the Skern toll road.
Willand – wet meadow by River Culm, LHS of the road when heading towards Bradfield
53 Little Egrets including 3 Cattle Egrets ranging over the grassed field at 3pm 21 March
+1 Photo
Alpine Swifts at Shaldon and South Fort Berry Head
Alpine Swifts seen at Shaldon and at the South Fort on Berry Head today. The bird at Berry head was on view over the main Carpark and between the Fort and the Caravan park looking west. Fantastic low passes along this area and over the field. Wheatear and Willow Warbler seen towards the Cafe and two Porpoise seen fishing off Berry Head along with 20 Gannet.
Wrafton Scrape
No Black-tailed Godwits this morning but oddly the Garganey was back – on the smaller scrape. Some Sand Martins about. 6 Gadwall in the reserve, and a female Canada Goose diving under water and resurfacing about 5 yards away! Walked around Sherpa where a few hundred Sand Martins spent the time flying into the strongish Southerly wind. No other species with them. Returned in the evening to find 117 Black-tailed Godwits and again good numbers of Sand Martins. Drake Pochard and Gadwall on Wrafton Pond.
Plym Estuary & Saltram
Highlights this afternoon were a single Sand Martin dashing west and a 3rd cy Yellow-legged Gull, on Blaxton Meadow before drifting out over the estuary. Otherwise, 7 Snipe, 6 Greenshanks, 33+ Turnstones, 4 Goosanders (2 drakes), Wigeon & a Green Woodpecker.
Berry Head
Alpine swift, c. 0950. 1 Swallow 5 common Dolphin, 2 singing Blackcaps.
Shaldon Alpine swift
Alpine swift finally located after several hours, prolonged views high up above fields at Commons lane (behind Coast View holiday park), til about 2.15pm.
Totnes
Opposite Bowden House on the road to Ashprington, at least one cattle egret evident in a flock of littles.
Tarka trail Bideford , Barnstaple return.
Cattle Egrets , 3 Saltpill pond , 6 on sheep fields south of Penhill……Little Egrets , 30 total inc 16 on a field at Yelland.
Brent geese , 200+ still on Penhill Marsh , Black tailed Godwit , 3 in summer plumage in a flock of 26 at Fremington quay. Mediterranean Gulls , Several in summer plumage , Bideford East . Sand Martins , 50+over Saltpill pond….
Radford Lake
A female Red-crested Pochard was on the lake this morning.
Purple Sandpipers – Torquay
8 Purple Sandpipers still in situ at Haldon Pier, Torquay Harbour this pm.
Plym Estuary & Saltram
Little of note on a wet afternoon, but: Mediterranean Gull (ad-s), Wigeon, 4 Goosanders (1 drake), c30 Turnstones & 11 Snipe.
Wrafton Scrape
Early visit this morning in the light rain – no Garganey but 32 Black-tailed Godwits and 20 ish Sand Martins. 6 Gadwall in the reserve. Returned late afternoon (in much heavier rain!) to find more Godwits – up to about 120. Don’t think I’ve seen this many here before. 3 Greenshanks chasing about. Only 6 Sand Martins. Still no sign of the Garganey, nor any Alpine Swifts….
House Martins at Berry Head
In addition to the Alpine Swift today at Berry Head at 12.45pm (not am!) mentioned in the previous post, we had two small groups of 3 House Martins, male and female Cirl Bunting, a fall of Chiffchaff, Guillemot, Razorbill and Fulmar on the breeding ledges, Gannets and Porpoise.
Alpine Swift-Berry Head
Managed to get a quick photo of this Alpine Swift that flew low over our Teignmouth U3A Birdwatching Group on Berry Head at 12.45am today.
Swallows at Fernworthy
2 swallows flying low over the lake feeding on Friday 17th March
Orcombe Point – White Wagtail
I took a wander around the fields at Orcombe Point yesterday morning hoping for a Wheatear, unfortunately, no luck. However, the dung heap revealed a smart male “alba” White Wagtail with a couple of resident “yarellii”. Also, Meadow Pipits and Linnets were about, Skylarks and Chiffchaffs were in song and on nearby Maer Rocks a group of 20 or so Brent Geese moved off with the rising tide.
