As noted in the minutes of the Oct 2020 DBRC meeting, Tim Jones is standing down after serving as a member of the Committee for an extended sixth year. Tim has been an active member of the Committee, and his consistently pragmatic approach to assessing records has proved invaluable. The Society would like to thank him for his contribution over the past six years and wish him well in the future.

In the hope of maintaining a geographic spread across the Committee, DBRC approached Dean Jones to fill the vacancy. Dean grew up birding and ringing in Antrim and Lothian, before a tour of various European islands, including Lundy where he has been the Warden now for the past four years.

His experience and knowledge from ringing and birdwatching around Europe will be especially useful to Devon Birds and the Records Committee.

Unless the County Recorder receives any other applications before 15th April 2021, Dean will be formally elected to fill the vacancy for a five year period.

For more information and/or an application form please contact:

Kevin Rylands, County Recorder.   Email: recorder@devonbirds.org 

We are back in Lockdown, all sightings posts from observers should only be in their very local area (town, village or part of city). Any posts where the observer is obviously travelling distances to other sites will be deleted, Devon Birds will not edit these posts. 

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Great White Egret tucked away in Ireland Bay. Also Red-crested Pochard.

Late post for yesterday: Great Northern Diver west offshore, 2nd winter Med Gull & 101 Great Black-backed Gulls

19-11-16 Heron catching a young Pike

Showing well on the beach this morning.

1 male Hen Harrier and 1 ringtail Hen Harrier.

A very calm, flat sea and overcast - so perfect viewing conditions: 1 Red-necked Grebe, 1 Black-necked Grebe, 2 Slavonian Grebes, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Black-throated Diver, 1 Red-throated Diver, 9 Great Northern Divers, 3 Eider, 4 Velvet Scoter 3 Razorbill and 1 Guillemot. 

Iin the marsh, 2 Chiffchaffs, 4 Goldcrest and 2 Cirl Buntings on seed at the back of the 2nd car park.

A break in the weather gave time for a sheltered  walk around Arlington court, a small murm of starlings on a field started our walk, numerous Robins, wrens, blackbirds,  and mistle thrushes.

Down on the lake it appeared empty until the great white egret glided in and graced us with its presence.  further along flocks  of long-tailed, blue, great and coal tits were in abundance throughout the woods.

On the last leg mallards and teal on the overflowing river, and finally to top it off a tree creeper in the upper wood by the house,.

Flying In                                                Getting settled

Treecreeper

4 Willow Tits, Blue Great and Coal Tits,12+ Long Tailed Tits. several Chaffinches, 5 Greenfinches, 4 Tree Creepers, 2 Nuthatches, 7 Blackbirds, c.15 Mallard, 10 Tufted Ducks, 4 Goosanders, 1 Grey Heron, 4 Goldcrests, 6 Snipe, 1 Little Grebe, 5 Bullfinches, 5 Water Rail, 1 Cormorant, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 1 Mute Swan, 1 Coot,4 Wigeon, 1 Wren, Corvids and small mixed flocks of Black headed and Herring Gulls, 5 Robins.   1 Buzzard at nearby Thurdon.

Harvey and Ian Kendall

A new Yellow-browed Warbler arrived at the back of the driving range near to the YMCA a very well marked bird with 'flaring' supercilium on right side.

Burrator to Soussons,
A lot of thrushes on moor road just before the Dam, no Fieldfare seen.
Level of water in reservoir very low, Tufted duck, Little Grebe, pair of Kingfishers.
Between Soussons and Vitifer Great Grey Shrike and the highlight of the day seven Bullfinches feeding in the tree tops when a Merlin swooped through them scattering them all ways but without any luck,

Early morning walk around Occombe Farm, besides the usual also spotted a Jay, Green Woodpecker, Bullfinch (m&f), 2 Chiffchaff, 3 Buzzards, Coal Tit, Nuthatch, 4-6 Goldfinch and a Pied Wagtail.

Great Northern Diver close offshore this afternoon and also a more distant diving duck which I got some distant photos of an would appear to be a Long-tailed Duck, but am open to correction.

  
Great Northern Diver                                                                                           Long-tailed Duck       

I know there are alot of postings on the Desert Wheatear lately but I went to see it today and it didn't disappoint. Just managed to get off some pics before the weather turned vile for the day. Can any experts tell me if this bird is a Western or Eastern Desert Wheatear?

Paignton: 2 Great Northern Divers 3 Razorbill

Goodrington: 4 Velvet Scoter, 1 Red-necked Grebe, 3 Great Northern Divers

Broadsands: 2 Slavonian Grebes (Broadsands Bay), 1 Black-necked Grebe (out from Elberry Cove), 1 Great Northern Diver, 2 Eider

In marsh 3 Chiffchaff, 3 Goldcrest

Brixham: 9 Purple Sandpipers on the Breakwater

No sign of Yellow-browed Warblers for a week now at Young's Park, no sign at Clennon for 5 days and no sign at Broadsands since Wednesday.

After getting good views of the Desert Wheatear (see other posts below), South Efford Marsh produced 8+ Water Pipits, Kingfisher, 3 Black-tailed Godwits, hundreds of Teal and Peregrine.  

The Desert Wheatear was showing very well on Leas Foot beach, with occasional trips to the golf club tractor shed, this morning till at least 11:00 when the rains came in. He didn't seem at all phased by all the attention he was getting, and approached close enough to get useful snaps even from a point & shoot. 

Another early start a new record for teal all on main pond 512.wigeon 100plus shoveler 8 .again great views of male marsh harrier quartering the field and ponds eventually landed on a bush and stayed there for twenty minutes before being chased off by crows.also a peregrine falcon and kestrel hunting over fields .small birds included a flock finches 100plus ,linnets chaffs and goldfinch.

The Desert Wheatear appeared at 8.30am this morning on Leasfoot Beach favouring the middle of the beach and still present till 10am at least in a strengthening cold wind. 

Desert Wheatear still showing well on Leas Foot Beach and sometimes sheltering in a gulley by the golf clubhouse.

The Spoonbill spent the high tide at Bowling Green Marsh - still present at 12.15pm 

Desert Wheatear still present on Leas Foot Beach 4 to 4.30pm this afternoon.

Flock of 23 Lapwings flying east this afternoon.

This afternoon there were 4 Pale-bellied Brent Geese off Shelly Beach. In the distance 2 Slavonian Grebes were together near Cockwood Wreck. 150 Common Scoter were out in the bay off the seafront. Later in the fading light at the very least 2 Purple Sandpipers were on Maer Rocks. Maer car park produced Mistle Thrush and 2 Goldcrests in windy conditions.

Went down just after high tide hoping for ringed birds or a sheltering oddity species. Great views from the car of feeding flock of majority Brent Goose, Oystercatcher, Shelduck, Redshank, Lapwing, Dunlin, with some Grey Plover, Curlew and Black-tailed Godwit. One Snipe flew by. One Common Gull in the gull gathering. Horizontal hail/snow came and went which the birds had to work hard to shelter from. A black and white duck in flight out of Appledore and onto the river mouth was sadly not clinched on ID and could have been anything between Tufted Duck and Velvet Scoter (majority black with white in the secondaries, underparts not seen). No divers seen from here either (just one Cormorant), and only ringed bird was metal ring on an adult W Herring Gull (unreadable). Meadow Pipits but no Snow Bunting around the visitor centre. Out on the W'ward Ho! beach at river mouth, a few thousand Golden Plover mostly in the air.

Before the heavy showers arrived!

A window of fine weather this morning produced some good fortune bird wise. Starting at The White House on the Taw Estuary were 1 Great Northern Diver, 1 Great Crested Grebe,1 female Red Breasted Merganser  & 1 hovering Kingfisher all within 100 metres of one another. On my way back checked Braunton Great Field before lunch & the 4 Common Cranes were feeding well. Digiscoped these from 1/2 mile away from the marsh road then checked the scrape at Wrafton on the way home. 6 Spoonbills on the scrape.

4 again showing on Braunton Great Filed north of the Marsh Road at 13.50.

Spent a couple of windswept hours at Broadsands this morning. Eventually found 1 Red-throated Diver, 1 Great Northern Diver, 1 Slavonian Grebe and 1 Eider.

Later 3 Purple Sandpipers at Brixham Breakwater.

Early visit to the farm produced 246 teal,194 wigeon,4mallard,49 dunlin,1 pintail ,1male marsh harrier,7shoveler,2bar tailed godwit,1 greenshank,1redshank,27lapwing,6spoonbill on Isley marsh.

The 4 Cranes were in Braunton Great field this morning. Showing well but skittish.

Having dipped out on Mike Passman's reported desert wheatear on two previous occasions due to being at sea when the call came in, I was pleased to receive a call at about 12.55hrs today from Eric Wotten. Sadly I was at the top end of Soussons at the time, but a quick walk back to the car and down to Leasefoot Beach at Thurlestone where the desert wheatear showed well until I left at about 15.15hrs with the bird appearing settled and feeding despite other people, including dog walkers, on the beach. 

Desert Wheatear - Thurlestone - 16.11.2016

Desert Wheatear (flying)- Thurlestone - 16.11.2016

Having seen them from the house, I cycled out to get a closer look. Easily seen from the Marsh Road and I was able to call Sue Bruce who joined me. After a few minutes they were disturbed  (by a dog walker), but they flew closer! Got a few shots, showing NO colour rings. Sadly the dog walker then returned (there's a public path across the Great Field) and they flew firstly east, then circled and landed over near the Burrows probably where John Bronze saw them.

   
Looking a little wary.                                                        And off they go!

Just seen 4 Cranes out on Braunton Great Field. From my bedroom window!   Should be viewable from the Marsh Road.

The 4 Velvet Scoter could be seen from Broadsands this morning but closer to Three Beaches headland, 1 Red-necked Grebe still a fair way out but just north of the buoys on the Mussel Farm, 1 Great Northern Diver, 2 Eider.

Later in the morning, single Black-necked & Slavonian Grebe plus and extra Eider were reported.

The Yellow-browed Warbler was again seen and heard in the back of the Marsh.

Showing well at 12.15-12.45 on Leasfoot Beach Thurlestone . This is next to the Golf Club .Use Golf Club visitors car park , there is a path to the beach c 100 yds

After my request for starling roost gatherings I have had several replies to date.  As follows:

Topsham - good displays

Teignmouth Pier - regular smaller gathering but often lively.

Slapton Ley - large gatherings - could be good if raptors around

and in the North a large gathering at Woolley Wood nr Bursdon - many pausing at the Solar Farm nearby before going into roost 750,000 to one million believed present.

If you know of other roosts in Devon please let me know.

Julia – Data Manager

Early afternoon visit. 11 teal, 7 gadwall, 1 shoveler (very tame drake), 2 dabchick, 2 water rail, 1 kingfisher, 1 sparrowhawk.

Following Mike Langman's post this morning I made a first visit to Broadsands. The six Black Necked Grebes were still present but no sign of any Divers. Also present were 4 Velvet Scoters. At Berry Head were 2 Rock Pipits and 2 Porpoises feeding just below the point. 

  
Black-necked Grebe                                                           Velvet Scoter

Rock Pipit

Called in briefly late morning and had 4-6 Ring-Necked Parakeets flying around and calling 

A Yellow Browed Warbler ringed this morning. Also on site 1 Firecrests ( imm. f ),4 Chiffchaffs and 2 Goldcrests.

2 Spoonbills roosting by the Tarka Trail most of the morning.

In the reserve, 17 Long-tailed Tits trapped (12 ringed).

No Cranes over!

With Rupert Ormerod located the Great Grey Shrike near the Marines compound, There were 3 Brambling with the Chaffinch flock at Woodbury Castle, and a number of Dartford Warblers were displaying and singing in the warm sunshine.

Sightings today at a very misty lake.
2 Willow and 1 Marsh Tit, 8 Goosander, 13 Tufted Duck, 2m Gadwall, 1 Snipe, 26 Mallard, 4 Fieldfare, 3 Redwing, 1 Bullfinch, 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 3 Nuthatch, 3 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Cormorant, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Jay.

1 Yellow-browed Warbler found in marsh at back of 2nd car park (1st of autumn for this site), 1 Chiffchaff, 3 Goldcrest and 4 Cirl Buntings and 1 Reed Bunting on seed at back of 2nd carpark.

On the sea: 6 Black-necked Grebes, 2 Great Northern Divers, 1 Red-throated Diver, 2 Eider.

Black-necked Grebes                                                                Yellow-browed Warbler