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Ist winter Med Gull on the rocks from Broadsands today. Also Black-Necked Grebe and many Great-Northern Divers in bay and towards Brixham, and two Chiffchaff and a male and female Blackcap in the first car-park. The Surf Scoter and Common Scoters were seen heading towards Broadsands from Goodrington mid-afternoon.

An early morning look from Goodrington. Surf Scotor 1st wint, Common Scoter 4, Red-throated Diver 1, Great Northern Diver 2, Shelduck 7 & Great Crested Grebe 48.

The scaup is still at Fremington Pill - seen on this afternoon's incoming tide.

Scaup

Water Rails in the flooded area to the left of the hide.Arlington woodland.

   
Water Rail                                      both rails poor photo

At Broadsands today the Surf Scoter could be picked out at distance with 4 Common Scoter, also 1 Red-throated Diver and 3 Great Northerns off Broadsands beach. The Yellow-browed Warbler and 3 collybita Chiffchaffs were in the marsh at the back of the 1st car park.

Over at Preston/Paignton the 3 Eider reported below were feeding off shore.

Three GND's fishing and minding their own business till the gulls spotted how successful they were being and started mobbing them. I assume the dark bird is a female but could find no reference to plumage in Hamlyn?

Eds: These are Eiders Philip - a good record in recent years in Torbay -  I'm on my way to see them now!

Two Mediterranean Gulls at Marine Parade, Preston, Paignton this morning.

Twenty two Turnstone, Little Egret, Oyster Catcher, Pied Wagtail and four Great Crested Grebe well out at sea.

Still a Great Northern Diver and a 1W Little Gull near the pier this lunchtime.

Elberry Cove Broadsands

1 Red Necked Grebe and 2 Black Necked Grebe close to the shoreline this morning together with good number of Great Northern Divers scatted around the bay.. 

Not a full count this morning but from Broadsands Beach seawall  5 GND, 30+ Great Crested Grebes, Surf Scoter and 4 Common Scoter. The Yellow-browed Warbler was again in the back of the 1st car park and 3 collybita Chiffchaffs too.

In Youngs park, conservation area, Goodrington 1 Firecrest, 1 Goldcrest and 1 collybita Chiffchaff.

Treecreeper (only my second of the year here), Firecrest (now probably 5 wintering on the patch), Jack Snipe, Snipe 2, Shag 2, Little Grebe 3+, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Ring-necked Parakeet, Dunlin 148, Black-tailed Godwit, Wigeon 9 & Oystercatcher 9.

A quick pre-dentist visit this afternoon - usual Green Sands and (possibly) two pairs of Dipper (one pair near Lethbridge Road and the others nearer Topsham Road). A Little Egret on the flooded pitch and putt course and a lone Redshank on the similarly flooded Duckes Marsh Playing Fields.  A Treecreeper near Salmon Pool was the first I've seen there for over a year and was the highlight.

    
Dipper                              Little Egret                        Redshank

Still two 1W Little Gulls  and a GN Diver in the river entrance.

A nice build up of divers especially Great Northern over toward Brixham and Berry Head this morning after yesterdays storm.

Brixham: 41 Great Northern Divers, 1 Red-throated Diver, 62 Guillemots &17 Razorbills. Also several hundred Gannets and Kittiwake in the middle of Torbay.

Broadsands: 10 Great Northern Divers, 5 Red-throated Divers, 2 Black-necked Grebes, 14 Guillemot. Looking toward Goofrington 48 Great Crested Grebes and the fw Surf Scoter with 4 Common Scoter. (MD saw the Red-necked Grebe looking back from Brixham breakwater earlier in the morning)

The Yellow-browed Warbler was again present in the back corner of the 1st car park.

Paignton: 2 Great Northern Divers 

Today still several Black Redstarts around the seafront. A few rareties on the sea, 2 Red-throated and a Great Northern Diver were feeding off the Pier. Further out a Skua sp was chasing Kittiwakes and Gannets off Capstone point. The storm drain has been attracting masses of Gulls, counts of up to 1000 are regular. 3 Porpoise were showing well and a large Bull Grey Seal was snacking on a Small eyed Ray. 

 
Shag aka Colin                                                    Bull seal breaking up a Skate

The greater scaup still at Fremington Pill North Devon this morning at 10:30 however could not be found again on the return pass 40mins later.

The greater scaup was still at Fremington Pill at high tide today.

A couple more photos of the YBW still in Broadsands car park this morning. Thanks to Bob Carpenter who helped me follow the bird across the tree.

 
Yellow Browed Warbler                                        Yellow Browed Warbler

A before sunset trip out over in the hope of seeing some seo's saw 5 red kite, a kestral, peregrine and numerous buzzards.sadly no seo's. There were large murms of many hundreds possibly thousands of starling and a large flight of golden plover which finally settled on the Moor. 

A excellent event today organised by the National Trust, saw five volunteers and a ranger pointing out birds to over 50 interested visitors. Some 600 birds of 32 species visited the meadow during the high tide including 2 showy Kingfishers, 4 Goosanders (a drake & 3 redheads), 10 Wigeon, 3 Black-tailed Godwits, 52 Curlews, 8 Oystercatchers, Common Sandpiper & 32 Shelducks.

All the visitors seemed very appreciative of the efforts to reduce disturbance which has led to positive effects for birds and birdwatchers. Many thanks to everyone involved.

On the estuary, also 2 drake Red-breasted Mergansers & 3 Little Grebes, and earlier a Firecrest by The Ride.

One less Canada Goose or an early Christmas dinner. Not much of any note on the marsh for a brief afternoon visit today. 4 Greylags and 4 Barnacles in with the Canada's and a Peregrine (as usual) on the pylon.

 
Canada Goose carcass                         Barnacle Goose (distant)

Glossy Ibis, 2 Greenshank,many Redshank, Kingfisher,teal 3 common Snipe and 1 cattle egret from the stubble and then over the river towards Braunton.

Eds: a reminder to label photographs some viewers will not know what the birds are.. Here Glossy Ibis with Greenshank, Kingfisher and 2 Snipe with Redshank.

Please note that access to hide is impossible at present due to high level of water

On the sea from Broadsands: 2 Red-necked Grebes (1 ad w & 1 juv winter) video link here: https://youtu.be/2mDJY0kamVY  . 2 Black-necked Grebes, 19 Great Crested Grebes, 1 Surf Scoter, 4 Common Scoter 3 Great Northern Divers 1 Red-throated Diver.

The Yellow-browed Warbler was again in the back corner of the marsh, with 1 Chiffchaff.

Preston: 8 Great Crested Grebes, 2 Great Northern Divers, 4 Red-throated Divers.

Red-necked Grebe juv

Black-tailed Godwit 41; Bar-tailed Godwit 2; Dark-bellied Brent Goose 138; Teal 4; Shelduck 4;

Goosander 9 (6M,3redheads) and just 1 Sanderling.

Three 1W Little Gulls together feeding close in over the shoreline by the pier this lunchtime

Greater Scaup

For the information of Dennis, who posted on this subject earlier, the starling roost in bamboo at South Brent is in my garden. It has been regular for the past couple of Autumn's, as the bamboo has matured. This year in October there were regular roosts of up to 60 birds most evenings, that grew to over 200 in November, as recorded. Even today at least 60 birds performed a mini murmuration before roosting. However of particular interest for Dennis, twice in December ( first on 3rd) I have seen and on one occasion when they flew up the road and surrounded my vehicle been part of a larger murmuration of at least a 1000 birds on the Kingsbridge - Wrangaton road , between the California Inn and Marriage Farm. Hope that is of interest to Dennis.

On Blaxton Meadow - 2 Snipe, 2 Goosanders (redheads), 10 Wigeon, 4 Black-tailed Godwits, 5 Greenshanks, 32 Shelducks & c40 Curlews,  Also Ring-necked Parakeet(s) heard, 2 Little Grebes and a Shag. 

Heathfield:  An embryonic murmuration of 350+ evening of 16th December - all birds in by 16.20.

Ashprington: None recorded to date (2018).

South Brent:  200 recorded in bamboo one evening in November.

Slapton Ley:  Not watched regularly in 2018 although apparently very low numbers this autumn (Oct-Dec) with no counts greater than 20,000 (up to 120,000 and regularly 70,000 in November during last 5-6 year intensive study) and then on only one or two dates.  Seldom more than 5,000 recorded in 2018 and on some evenings there were no birds at all. The 2018 autumn roost was initially at Torcross where a roost of local birds regularly forms in July. Otherwise roosts were in the reed fringe opposite the Middle car park and latterly in Ireland Bay.  Normally birds arriving in October roost at Strete Gate and the roost then moves towards Slapton Bridge ending up in Ireland Bay as more shelter is sought as a result of autumnal storms and much colder conditions.  The roost has typically been vacated by Christmas. 

An autumn passage roost has existed at this site for some 200 years but during the last 3-4 years there have been notable changes in the pattern of passage and roost sites.  Birds have also moved further south at dusk to Beesands (and beyond?) and roosts of up to 1-2,000 have "dribbled" on into mid January.  It is thought that these changes are due to Climate Change with very much milder, less stormy conditions during Oct, Nov and Dec.  Autumnal storms (often tail ends of US East Coast hurricanes) have increasingly passed northwards through Ireland and the Western Isles of Scotland and less frequently affecting England and Wales.

Despite the coverage being very poor during autumn 2018, there is considerable anecdotal evidence that it has been a very poor season with very few birds compared with the last 6 years intensive study.  This may indicate that birds are wintering further north and east such as the UK East coast (Dungeness?) and the Netherlands.  (The roost at Dungeness regularly declines in mid November when peak numbers occur at Slapton.  Some birds following the NW European coastal fringe are thought to cross the English Channel at this shortest crossing, along with Wood Piigeons and finches, following the English South coast to S Devon/Cornwall before crossing back to France/Iberia across the Western Approaches)  Further research is being carried out to try and determine whether there is evidence to support this hypothesis by looking at long term data sets from Falsterbo (Sweden) and other Scandinavian and N European sites as well as UK sites.

Similar northward movement of winter ranges are occurring with many other species, in particular wildfowl which are now wintering much further north than 5-10 years ago as the northern oceans become warmer and free of ice at higher latitudes.  Similarly Mediterranean/Southern species of marine life are increasingly being recorded in the North Sea and higher latitudes.  Because many wildfowl are now wintering on open water well away from human habitation and traditional methods of assessing overall numbers (e.g. WeBS), novel methods of obtaining counts, such as satellite images, are being used to obtain accurate estimates of population sizes (BOU Online Newsletter).

Out in the bay Great Northern Diver, Pintail, 469 Wigeons, 50 Brent Geese, 5 Great Crested Grebes, 3 Little Grebes, c400 Golden Plovers, Greenshank, 43 Curlews and a Rock Pipit. On a flooded marsh, more a lake, 134 Teals, 2 Gadwalls, Greenshank and Water Rail.

The fw Surf Scoter could be picked out with 6 Common Scoter today from Broadsands. Scanning around the bay also produced: 1 Red-necked Grebe, 2 Black-necked Grebes, 19 Great Crested Grebes, 13 Great Northern Divers, 5 Red-throated Divers, 1 Black-throated Diver, 7 Razorbill and 16 Guillemots.

The Yellow-browed Warbler was again in the top corner of the first car park with 2 Chiffchaffs and 1 Siberian Chiffchaff.

At Baggy Point: four Eiders, 27 Common Scoters, two Red-throated Divers, plus single Gannet, Water Rail (first time I've ever recorded one at this site), Mediterranean Gull and female Blackcap. Down End was quiet apart from a pair of Stonechats and a superb male Black Redstart.

A link to video of the divers on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jAAusOA2Wcc

Does anyone else think the new, paler bird looks odd?  Upper mandible appears to be dark all along ridge of upper mandible - can White-billed ever show this?

Eds: It is a paler headed Great Northern compared to the other bird it is with and larger billed too but the dark all the way to the tip of the upper mandible rules out White billed Diver. The bill would have looked more yellowish too even in today's light.

Started my WeBS count this morning with close views (but awful light) from Cockwood Steps of 2 Great Northern Divers (new one with pale on back of head rather reminiscent of White-billed!) and 'Herbert', the resident Slavonian Grebe; pretty awful phonescoped images below. At least 3 G C Grebes and a Kingfisher also near Cockwood Steps. Rest of count uneventful, apart from a hailstorm!

                                               Great Northern Divers                                    Slavonian Grebe

Another impressive count of pintail near Greenland Bank - 250, otherwise few birds on the WeBS count today. The big surprise were 2 male cirl buntings feeding alongside 2 linnet and 3 meadow pipits on the sea-wall and at times on the cycle path about 200m north of the new bridge at Powderham.

Ring-necked Duck still at Torcross. Couple hundred Black-headed Gulls included one in summer plumage. Adult Mediterranean Gull and 3 Wigeons in Ireland Bay. On the sea Black-necked Grebe off the Memorial Car Park then flew out to sea. Also Great Northern Diver ( plus one flew south ) and after the strong easterlies Common Scoter down to 16.

A Great Northern Diver was on the lake at Decoy, Newton Abbot, This morning(16-12-18) at 08.45

One of the Common Snipe on the scrape.