Please be advised that the Taw & Torridge Field Meeting on Sunday 23rd June has had to change venue. The woodland is off limits at Hartland Forest so the meeting will now take place at SS373193, Landcross to Powlers Piece road. Clear fell area before Powlers Piece. Look out for Roger Doble and Dave Paul who will park up and look out for members. Meet at 9.30pm. Further information can be obtained from Norman Briden 01271371072 

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. 

You should also apply these principles to vulnerable species without the wider legal protection. 

Although some species may be found breeding at numerous locations, please keep information about them limited to well-known sites (e.g. Labrador Bay for Cirl Bunting and 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, as appropriate, the RSPB. 

Please be aware that egg collecting and other forms of disturbance and persecution remain very real hazards for some of Devon’s birds. Unfortuately this can involve people wanting to photograph or obtain close views of the  birds, as well as eg egg collectors. 

Every year editors on this site have to remove or edit posts which breach the code outlined here. Please play your part in making this unnecessary. 

Thank you.

Please take extra care when visiting Dawlish Warren. We have been informed that due to the recent bad weather there has been significant erosion from Groyne 10 eastwards. This means that access along the site, to and from Warren Point (and the bird hide) will be via the beach only, with a risk of being cut off for a period either side of high water! Signs have been put up to alert people to the hazards, but people need to be aware that access routes that they have become used to may not be available and they need to exercise extreme caution,  with the possibility of being cut off by the tide, and people are strongly urged not to try climbing the sand cliffs. Further information is available on the Teignbridge District Council website.

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.

Pair of Gadwalls and a first-summer Mediterranean Gull this evening.

At least 7 Mediterranean Gulls (6+ 1st-s & 1 2nd-s), amongst the 23 adult Shelducks, 6 ducklings, 25 Mandarin Ducks, the lone Curlew still about, 3 Oystercatchers, 3 Stock Doves, 4 juv Stonechats, Great Spotted Woodpecker, a pair of Swallows with 4 juvs at the breeding site near Laira Bridge & 6 Roe Deer (2 bucks & 4 does).

Steve Hopper has kindly pointed out to me that the white Dove pictured with a Feral Pigeon in my post this mornings is in fact a racing Pigeon. Thanks Steve - now I need to be able tell the difference as the Feral Pigeon  obviously does!

 8 Swifts and 1 Swallow flying S 0830 this morning. Yesterday, through window, a Feral Pigeon enamoured with a less than enthusiastic Dove (ringed) and a Woodmouse waiting beneath feeders in hope of a spill.

Feral Pigeon / Dove            Wood mouse

Instow dunes at the Yelland end were a couple of Sedge Warblers feeding their chicks.  A small number of Swallows, a Stonechat and a couple of Crows.

Sedge Warbler

Spoonbill (sleeping mostly), Redshank, Greenshank, 1 Juv Med Gull in with BH Gull, Psycho LLB Gull, Blackwit, 1 Wigeon, 1 Teal, 1 Shoveller, sprinkling of Hirundines (mostly H Martin). Goosemoor another juv Med Gull in with BH Gulls.

Cormelles car park pied blackbird made another appearance today, better camera today. Stunning when she flies having one complete white wing. 

Pied blackbird.

Arriving at the reserve this morning, to show a visitor around I was stunned to see a juvenile Siskin in the garden to the right on the little approach lane. In the reserve a Kingfisher very busy catching Sticklebacks. There may even have been 2 Kingfishers present.

Seawatching between 0500-0900 produced (selected highlights):

2 Storm Petrels, 334 Manx Shearwaters, 1 Arctic Skua, 2 Great Skua, 1 Great Northern Diver, 3 Med Gulls, 2 Sandwich Terns, 14 Common Scoter, 15 Swifts and 3 Harbour Porpioses.

On Dartmoor yesterday 14 June I saw a number of Siskins, a Nuthatch, male and female Chaffinch and usual Blue tits, Great tits and lots of Swallows.

Female Siskin                                                   Male Siskin

The Spoonbill was still at BGM this lunchtime. Very little else.

I have been keeping a eye on the pontoon where I know at least 3 Swallow nests are, 2 have fledged this morning, 1 set of 4 and another of 5. By the sound of the noisy chicks on the 3rd nest they wont be long to join the rest. The adults finding plenty of food along the canal bank. With the apparent Swallow numbers down this year, its great to see all these fledglings in one place.

Spotted Flycatcher this afternoon on the Otter, downstream from Ottery St Mary, among the newly planted trees. Lovely to see one again.

Took a walk around the hills behind Killerton House thinking it might be a good area for a future fieldtrip.  Found a Spotted Flycatcher in the grounds of Killerton Chapel.  Nuthatch and some woodpeckers (Green and Gt Spotted)elsewhere but generally very few birds for such a varied habitat.  After talking to NT staff I learnt that the entire estate including the extensive woodlands (The Clump, Park Wood Columjohn Wood, The Plains etc are not free access and that unless one is a NT member, you have to pay an admission fee, plus the car park at £2 for two hours (£4 all day).   During my childhood there was a heronry at The Clump but not for many years.

Emailed ML with original photo & noted a crack in the upper mandible which suggests a fracture or breakage due to a possible collision.

I noted this morning that this bird was flying very slowly & while stalling, picking insects from the leaves of shrubs which suggests the growth impairs it's ability to feed in the usual manner so has had to adapt it's feeding behaviour to some extent to allow for this, though the poor bird is obviously struggling to survive.

Stopped off at the pond to have a look on my way along the Tarka trail to  Barnstaple.  4 House Martins & 2 Swallows were foraging within a few metres of the boardwalk .One of the Swallows was so close to where I was standing I had to take a step back to avoid a possible collision.

This one Swallow alighted twice on the handrail at the side of the boardwalk only 2 metres away from where I was standing & rested for some time. My initial assessment was the bird was exhausted or unwell.

Looking at the photos when I got home I noticed it had an abnormal upper mandible. I have not been able to identify what it is. Is it a growth of some sort from an injury or a parasite that has attached itself to the bill?

Good to see at least one pair of Shelduck with 10 juveniles on the north side of the Taw estuary between Chivenor & Barnstaple, but could only find one pair.

Family of 5 nuthatches, and 2 Y Gr. Sp. Woodpeckers being fed in our Gribbleford garden 

Female pied blackbird cormelles court car park area in combemartin. Quite spectacular when she flew with her white wings. Phone camera shot 

After being inspired by my good friend Mark Glanvile who runs “Bristol Swifts” these last couple years I’ve been trying to find out more about the Swifts, Swallows and House Martins that nest around Dawlish. On my evening walk around the center, unfortunately didn’t see the Alpine Swift seen earlier but did see 15 Common Swifts. They seem to be nesting in three main areas and have reclaimed a historic nesting site that wasn’t used last year, the number do seem to be up.

While Swallows do seemed to have disappeared this year, House Martins have found a new nesting site in the new housing development next to Sainsbury’s, 20+ birds here which is a positive sign, the odd thing here is they are only nesting on houses with the white render, don’t know why?

Alpine swift seen over the strand and Brunswick place Dawlish at 4pm with common swifts and house martins 

A Red Kite appeared over Scadson Woods between heavy rain showers at 10.20 hours. Quickly joined by the local Herring Gull population it gained height and headed towards Paignton. First new garden tick for me in a long time !!!

Been off in  foreign parts for a few days (well, Cornwall!) Returned to the reserve yesterday to find what looked like a full set of feathers from an adult Wood Pigeon on the grass. Female Sparrowhawk of perhaps a passing Peregrine?

This morning a Kingfisher perched over the pond (the nearby river being too muddy).

Just before the rains came this evening a sparrowhawk had his dinner in next doors garden - not so good for its prey, a probable sparrow

Cuckoo heard calling briefly in late AM (11:00).

10th June 2019

Seaton Wetlands- 8 Little Egret, Grey Heron, 2 Cormorant, 3 Mute Swan, 55 Shelduck, 30 Mallard, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, B-H Gull, Herring Gull, 1 LB-B Gull and GB-B Gull.

Eds: This post has been edited.  Please read the list of rare breeding and vulnerable Devon Birds that should not appear in sighting postings, normally the whole post is deleted.

Two parakeets seen in Rockbeare 5.30 am.