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Marsh Tit feeding on a few seeds left on a bench at Stover Country Park 13.00 28th November.

Marsh Tit

Walking towards the scrape this morning, it seemed there were lots of birds present, and having not seen any since last Monday's shooting heroism, I was pleased to count 112 Black-tailed Godwits. Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests with the Tit-flock in the reserve.

Around the lakes 1 Yellow-browed Warbler, 2 Siberian Chiffchaffs, 3 Cetti's Warblers, 7-8 Chiffchaffs, 1 Firecrest, 6+ Goldcrests, 2 Kingfishers, 2 Water Rails, 6 Gadwall, 4 Little Grebes and 3 Teal.

                             Siberian Chiffchaff                                    Yellow-browed Warbler

A garden first this afternoon- a very smart Firecrest, initially feeding a metre away, so rushed in to get my camera and grabbed this shot with the 200mm lens. Ten minutes later a Peregrine flew over the garden!

am:-  1 Ruff foraging along the muddy foreshore on a falling tide.

Boat trip out of Brixham into Torbay aboard Kelly's Hero this morning was very rewarding with over 25+ Great Northern Divers, 11 in a group off Hopes Nose, Long-tailed Duck, 26 Common Scoter, 6 Great Crested Grebe all off Broadsands and 10+ Common Dolphin and 4 Porpoise. A great trip.

Birds at Saltram this morning included 24 Wigeon, a Water Rail, a Common Sandpiper, three Common Gulls and two Mediterranean Gulls on Blaxton Meadow, and nine Goosanders (three males, six females) and three Red-breasted Mergansers (two males, one female) on the Plym Estuary. The female Red-crested Pochard and 21 Moorhen were on the duck pond.

Berry Head seawatch 0730-1530: Leach’s Storm-petrel at 12:05, Balearic Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater, 6 Manx Shearwaters, juvenile Pomarine Skua, Bonxie; adult Little Gull, 4 Mediterranean Gulls (2 ad, 2 2w), 2 Red-throated Diver, 2 Great Northern Divers, 4 Common Scoter and 7 Brent Geese. Also 50+ Common Dolphin, c5 Harbour Porpoise, Grey Seal.

MD, DDe, ML, BMc

Lower Tamar this morning.

27 Goosander 7m 20f, 4 Willow Tit, 3 Marsh Tit, 6 Long-tailed Tit, 6 Coot, 15 Cormorant, 2 Little Grebe, 1 Goldcrest.

Whimbrel  with Oystercatchers

Garden tick this morning, a hunting Merlin overhead plus 4 Fieldfare & Redwing.

While conducting BTO WEBS the following species were seen:-

Gulls: Hg, BHG, C, LBBG, Med, GBBG

Canada Goose, Shelduck, Mallard, Wigeon, Red Crested Pochard (F), Goosander, Cormorant, Curlew, Redshank, Greenshank, Bar Tailed Godwit, L Egret, G Heron, L Grebe, Turnstone, Kingfisher.

This morning on a rainswept Crownhill Down: 40 + Golden Plover, 2 Ravens, Ringed Plover on TWL. Fieldfares and Redwings along the bridlepath.

Golden Plover

Golden Plover

Finally joined the Black Redstart club with one on next door's roof. Not seen here since January 2021.

Two snow buntings and male black redstart as expected but the male ruff on shallow pool just inside gate was a surprise.

Black Redstart

Snow Bunting

Ringing in the reserve this morning produced another hatful of Greenfinches, 4 Chaffinch 2 Bullfinch  and a Goldfinch; completing the Finch family for the day was a lovely male Siskin. Also 2 Chiffchaff and a Blackcap. Other highlights were a brief singing Chiffchaff and the Marsh Harrier, firstly over the reed-bed at Sherpa and later on over the Reserve.

Great half hours viewing in our back garden 2 Male 1 Female Blackcap feeding on Mahonia flowers, 2 Goldcrest, 2 Blackbird, 2 Robin, Wren,  Blue, Coal, Great and Long-tailed Tits and most surprisingly doing a raid for Goldfish fry a stunning Female Kingfisher luckily camera was near

Bill and Jill

Kingfisher

Blackcap

Merlin and Marsh Harrier at the lagoon. At Turf a Peregrine flew in off the estuary.

9 Purple Sandpiper and a Rock Pipit on outer Harbour wall this morning.

8 Turnstone at Paignton Harbour and Great N Diver & 3 GC Grebe off Roundham Head. 

Preston Sands two Black Redstart on rocks at end of Marine Parade . Red-throated Diver by Paignton Pier .Long-tailed Duck on the sea off Goodrington Beach . Great Northern Diver at Elberry Cove, raft of Common Scoter in middle of bay plus Firecrest in hedge behind the Venus Cafe , Broadsands.

Male Firecrest feeding

Great Northern Diver drifting into Elberry Cove.

am:- Highly mobile single foraging Black Redstart.

A single Robin showing an interest in this bird. 

As the tide fell mid morning, as well as all the usual wigeon, redshank, oycs, lapwings and gulls were two feeding Spoonbills a Greenshank a grey Plover and three Merganser (2x F and 1x M)

Two feeding Spoonbill on the Taw

Black redstart (f) behind Belcher's Slipway from 2pm. Maer Rocks on very low tide at lunchtime almost deserted. One turnstone and no purple sandpipers.

A pre-dawn visit produced 49 Dunlin roosting on the shore of the huge pit - viewed with a scope from the top of the down. A very good count for November. Most of the flock flew south after dawn. Two Dunlin, two Ringed Plover and eight Common Gull still in the pit when I left at 08:25.

Yesterday on pasture fields near Powderham we counted 31 Cattle Egrets also nearby a hundred plus Brent Geese a pale/hybrid amongst them.

On the Exe Shags, G.C. Grebe, Curlew, Avocets, Redshank, Greenshank, Dunlin, Blackwits, Golden Plover, At dusk a Marsh Harrier over Exminster Marsh.

Cattle Egret

Brent Geese

Yesterday foul weather curtailed the visit to Seaton. Greenshank, Redshank, Curlew, Teal, a solitary Little Grebe, a Kingfisher and a GWE.

At BGM. Water level really high. Wigeon, Shoveler, Pintail, Teal, Shelduck, Little Grebe, f. Tufted, Blackwits, Curlew, Snipe, Lapwings, Redwings and a Kestrel

Lapwing

GWE

2 GlossyIbis, 2 Greenshank, 5 Godwits (distant) 1 Little Grebe and good numbers of Redshank. 

Purple Sandpipers feeding along rocks at the base of Capstone, along with three cormorants, Greater Black-backed Gull, Rock Pipits and Oyster Catchers

Adult female Marsh Harrier quartering Saltpill pond and banks of the river Taw before flying off across the river....2 Spoonbill roosting on Isley Marsh, a Common Sandpiper at Tapely , plenty of passerine activity along the trail from Bideford including my first singing Song Thrush of the season at Instow.....

On The sea: 8 Great Northern, 1 Black-throated,1 Red-throated Diver, 5 Great Crested Grebes, 1 Long-tailed Duck with 26/27 Common Scoter, also 1 Harbour Porpoise and a pod of 12+ Common Dolphins.

Around the car parks 5 Cirl Buntings, 1 Reed Bunting and a Cetti's Warbler in the 2nd car park. 2 Siskin overhead, 2 Firecrests, 3 Goldcrests and 5 Chiffchaffs.

Late for Lower Tamar Lake yesterday.

6 Goosander 2m 4f (One male seen in the River Tamar between the Upper and Lower Lake, 13 Cormorant, 2 Willow Tit, 5 Marsh Tit, 6 Coot, 5 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Nut Hatch.

Yesterday (Thursday) afternoon at Stover where I was shocked to see the devastation near the Information Center.  Trees down, paths closed off  and what sounded like gun shots nearby.  Despite the disruption there still remained a few Tufted ducks, Wigeon, BH Gulls, Coots, Moorhens and a Little Grebe on the lake. A Jay landed in the top most branches of a tall oak tree.  

Tufted Duck

Jay

This morning, in the wind and rain, about a hundred Gannets heading South, many hundreds of Kittiwake also South, some flocks very close in, quite a spectacle. Two Great Northern Divers near the pier. Later in the afternoon, bit quieter weather wise, single Great Northern Diver off the Ness, two unidentified divers further out.

Long-tailed Duck back on Goodrington Boating Lake today.

Three Great Northern Diver off Brixham Breakwater.

Long-tailed Duck

Mid-afternoon just behind our garden a sparrowhawk stopped off feeding on an unfortunate house sparrow. The neighbour's cat appeared before I could get any better photos.

Sparrowhawk

On Sea: 1 Black-throated Diver, 3 Great Northern Divers, 3 Great Crested Grebes, 26 Common Scoter.

Around the car parks: 3 Firecrests, 2 Goldcrests, 3 Chiffchaffs & 9 Cirl Buntings on seed in 2nd car park. 

4 Goldcrest, 1 male Blackcap, 3 Dippers and large amounts of Chaffinches including 2Siskin.

No Godwits on the scrape again today - probably due to the shooters being around the Marsh on Monday. Dipper in the river on the way to the reserve, where there were several Chiffchaffs calling, including one very loud and persistent one.(or maybe it's my new hearing aids!) Later on in a burst of sunshine, it started singing! Very lovely. Grey Wagtail and a couple of Water Rails also present, along with good numbers of Greenfinch.

Red-throated Diver briefly off West Hoe at 12:40 before flying towards Mount Batten where it landed on the sheltered side of the breakwater.

6 Kingfishers

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

At least 106 Skylark feeding out on the salt marsh. Some Linnet and a few Goldfinch mixed in with the main flock.

Seawatch 07.30 - 10.30: 1 Balearic Shearwater, 12 Manx Shearwaters, 27 Fulmar, 6 Little Gulls, 6 Mediterranean Gulls, 1 Adult full-tailed Pomarine Skua,  326 Auks, 1700+ Kittiwakes, 200+ Gannets, 4 Brent Geese, 2 Common Scoter, 1 Dunlin. 11 Porpoise, 6+ Common Dolphin, 2 Atlantic Bluefin Tuna.