Please think very carefully before posting any information on scarce or rare breeding species both here and elsewhere online.

A list of ‘at risk’ species in the county can be found here. Many of these receive full legal protection under Schedule 1 and/or are rare in the county and may be vulnerable to persecution/disturbance. It is an offence to intentionally disturb any of the Schedule 1 species during the breeding season without a valid licence. This also applies to anyone taking photographs of these species at or near the nest or whilst feeding dependant young.

Some species may be found breeding at numerous locations however please keep information on these species limited to well-known sites (e.g. Labrador Bay for Cirl Bunting, Aylesbeare Common for Dartford Warbler). Others may be found as obvious migrants and as such can also be posted eg coastal Ring Ouzel and passage waders, or raptors eg Little Ringed Plover, Red Kite or Marsh Harrier.

If you have any doubts and think there is a chance there may be breeding, either because of the habitat or behaviour of the bird(s) then do not post, but please submit your records to the County Recorder and the RSPB.

Please be aware that egg collecting and other forms of persecution remain very real hazards for some of Devon’s birds.

If you follow our Blog but are not currently a member of Devon Birds please consider joining Devon Birds to help us with the upkeep of running the website and this service as well as our valuable conservation work .

Acting on comments to Devon Birds some changes have been made to this page. To the right of this header post you'll see there are now several subjects for you to choose to read and post on. Just click your chosen subject and use as previously.

Please be careful not to post under the wrong subject. If you do, you can still easily go back to edit and change the subject yourself so it appears on the right page.

Please try and keep posts short, particularly in the Scarce / Rare Birds & Passage Counts page. Photographs are still very welcome.  

For help with ID email photos to id@devonbirds.org.

2 Black-tailed Godwits on the smaller scrape this evening.

Still 16 Juvenile Canada Geese around the area.

Some photos from yesterday morning's boat trip out of Brixham.

Manx Shearwater

Kittiwake

Diving Gannet

Nice surprise early this morning in North Devon, watched a Hobby take a House Martin. Several House Martins then mobbed the falcon before it flew off. 

Plenty of Large skipper flying around the meadow

Sightings on a boat trip from Brixham into Lyme Bay this morning were:- 1 Storm Petrel, 25+ Manx Shearwater, 10+ Kittiwake, 3 Fulmar, 1 Razorbill, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull , many Guillemots on the water and flying back and forth from the colony and gannets diving by the boat. Trips running every Sunday morning, if interested call 07866202576.

Picture of breaching Thresher Shark

3 Storm Petrels, 2 Great Skua, 1 Arctic Skua, 35 Manx Shearwater, 2yr Med Gull amongst the Kittiwakes on the Guillemot nesting site at Berry Head, 4 Harbour Porpoise and a 300+ lb thresher shark that fully breached at least 5 times (pictures to follow). 

In addition to the scruffy drake Mandarins spotted by Pete A. there was a female Mandarin with 8 well grown (1 week +) ducklings at the tramway bridge over the Plym at Longbridge.

On Blaxton Pool, a single Redshank with 3 remaining Curlews. Fourteen Shelducks included a pair with 2 ducklings, Swallow feeding 3 young in the nest, 23 eclipse drake Mandarins, female Red-crested Pochard, 3 Stock Doves and Moorhens with 4 small young.

Also 4 Bee and 3 Southern Marsh Orchids and my first Marbled White of the year. 

Pair of Whinchats,pair of Spotted Flycatchers,Redpoll,Cuckoo,Heron,Grey Wagtail,Willow Warblers,Stonechat family,goldfinches,meadow pipits and a green woodpecker. Good day.

Some less than routine sightings this morning. Two juvenile Siskins on the garden feeders, a Grey Heron on a neighbouring roof, soon seen off by the local Herring Gulls and a fly-by Ring-necked Parakeet.

  
Grey Heron                                Siskin (juv.)

Tuesday 12th June DWT Heathfield Reserve four Nightjar heard churring/calling and seen in flight.

Wednesday 13th June Stover Country Park, three birds heard calling and views of two in flight.

Just for your info: Bill Coulson's photo of a probable SPBF is a defininately a SPBF, even without a view of the underwings. Looking at the outside edge of the forewings you can see all the orange spots fully enclosed in a black rough circle. Had this been a Pearl-bordered Fritillary the orange spots would have been "open," the inner black borders only appearing as black spots. 

Devon Birds/RSPB/BTO Spotted flycatcher tracking project

We need your help in locating spotted flycatcher nests in Devon to contribute to our ongoing project that you can read about in the current issue of Devon Birds.

Spotted flycatchers have seen declines of 83% since the 1960s. Reasons for this decline may include factors operating within UK breeding grounds, such as reduced availability of invertebrates, but the species may also be declining due to problems along their migratory journey to Africa and back. But we know little about their wintering grounds. We need this information to understand what part of the annual cycle causes problems for spotted flycatchers, and where we might need to focus future work to reverse declines. To do this we are continuing the work we started in 2016, tracking migrations and determine wintering areas using tiny tracking devises. These geolocators weigh only 0.36g - incredible!

But to be able to do this we need to catch and tag spotted flycatchers in places where they return each year, as we need to recapture tagged birds the year after to retrieve the tag and its data. The best places to do this are peoples gardens. Do you have Spotted flycatchers nesting at the moment in your garden or farm? And have you had them nesting the past few years? If you are happy to have your spotted flycatchers captured and tagged for this project, please could you email james.kennerley@rspb.org.uk or malcolm.burgess@rspb.org.uk.

Thanks, James & Malcolm

Seawatching 0545-0815hrs: 1 Storm Petrel, 14 Puffin, 210 Guillemot, 27 Razorbills, 208 Manx Shearwater, 4 Sandwich Tern, 7 'Comic' Terns, 2 (1st S) Mediterranean Gulls, 24 Kittiwake, 38 Gannet, 12 Fulmar & 3 Harbour Porpoise.   

Unseen warbler recorded singing this lunchtime turned out to be a Lesser Whitethroat.

Also thought it unusual to see a lone Whimbrel on Isley Marsh on evening of 12th June. Late north, early south or non breeding?

Not much but a cheeky little Rock Pipit and Fulmar

 
Rock Pipit                       Fulmar

Lots of the usual birds showing well this morning at East Soar this morning plus this beautiful Pearl - bordered Fritillary. This may be a Small P-b Fritillary as these seem to be most often seen at East Soar but I couldn't get a look at the underwings.

Probable Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

1Red Kite drifting East at 2pm

45 Common Scoter in flock off Berry Head

1 imm Mediterranean Gull

3 Sandwich terns

1 adult Med Gull (or that's what it looked like: black hood and bright red beak), but with black tipped wings more like a Common Gull (Eds that'll be a 2nd summer Med Gull, highly variable wing tip pattern ) in mid Torbay. Flypast, good view but fleeting.

plus 6-7 Harbour Porpoise

    
Common Scoter                           Med Gull                                  Sandwich Tern

Hazy sun after early mist.

2 Garden Warblers singing, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Raven over plus other corvids, 1 Buzzard, 2 Meadow Pipits at the Upper Lake, 7+ Mallard, 4 Great Crested Grebes, several Wood Pigeons, Blue and Great Tits.

Harvey Kendall.

Spotted one Egyptian Goose, quite close to my yacht up the bag at Salcombe, it was making quite a noise,it liked to be on either a floating pontoon,or sitting on a nearby dinghy.

Great Crested Grebe on nest in Exeter (I last saw it May 15th when there was a Male and chicks) no sign of male or chicks today but female actively nest building. Also a smart Lesser Black -backed Gull nearby.

 
Great Crested Grebe                               Lesser Black-backed Gull

Pair of spotted flycatchers,male and female Redstarts feeding at least 3 fledglings' families of goldfinch, nuthatch gs woodpecker and chaffinches.Beautiful day.

Cycled from Plymouth to Yelverton & back. At Weighbridge Cottage, 3 female Mandarin Ducks with 4, 5 & 7 ducklings respectively and also an eclipse drake there. In Plymbridge Woods, 4 Marsh Tits, a pair of Grey Wagtails with 5 juvs and another with 1 juv, plus the 4 juv Peregrines at the nest (1 occupying a ledge just below the nest after falling out several weeks ago). Clearbrook produced Lesser Redpoll and Tree Pipit, and in Cann Woods, a singing Garden Warbler.

The Risso's Dolphin showed well from the Torpoint ferry quay from 14.20 to 14.50 but generally distantly. Initially it was around the boats at entrance to St Johns Lake before it moved upstream passing just a few meters in front of the Torpoint slipway. I eventually lost it north of the barges, well north of the dockyard. It doesn't seem to be a fan of boats that are moving and becomes elusive when a boat passes.

Took this photo from a distance yesterday on northern side of the Point and thought I'd enlarge it to see what it might be before wiping it. Could it be a Basking Shark?

9 Swift in group, 10 House martin , 3 Swallow.

A Red Kite flying over Peter Tavy at 11am this morning, headed off East before I could grab a shot. 

A pair of barnacle geese circling and then alighting on a football pitch at the football club.

Little in the way of Waders on the marsh yesterday although there were lots of juvenile birds actively being fed by parents. One sight which caught my eye was the left wing of the Spoonbill present although distant from view. I am uncertain but it could possibly be a firearms injury? The bird was active and still flying several short hops unencumbered by the wound. Hopefully it will make a good recovery. If it has been shot then this is a real shame that someone has chosen to do so to such a beautiful creature.

Spoonbill

Red Kite being mobbed by Carrion Crows halfway to the dam

A Risso’s Dolphin beside Devonport Dockyard today, intially showing very well at close range from the Torpoint Ferry. Still around this evening but much more distant having moved further up river from the ferry (still beside the Dockyard).

Few birds but 11 Swifts over Bolt Head ( in or out?) and 80 Linnet on oilseed rape.

16 species of butterflies inc.first Gatekeeper, Grayling & Silver-studded Blue. Also 63 Dark Green Fritillary. New moth for me : Chimney Sweeper. 

Mammals: Brown Hare

four swifts flying and screaming around the roof tops of exmouth library.