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At a recent Council Meeting it was agreed that Field Trips (Guided Walks) and Indoor Meetings could restart as soon as Branches were happy to proceed, with all necessary Covid safe precautions in place. 

Full details are now on the website.

Taw & Torridge Branch will not be re-starting Indoor or Outdoor Meetings before January 2022.

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A Sunday excursion out over the moors to see deer provided instead numerous kestrels, buzzards and a bird of prey that I am unsure of.  Kestrels were hunting and perched on gate posts like little statues. There were odd meadow pipits, and pied wagtails numerous pheasants both dead and alive. 

Kestrel.

08.15hrs 30 Sep: 14 Cattle Egret in tight group flying in low past Bovisand, Jennycliff and then they flew out from Mount Batten breakwater where I soon after became unsighted from my location at Eastern Kings. The groups last observed flight line was all heading westwards along the Hoe, so they may have risen up over the Hoe (and over Plymouth) as they didn't pass  E/Western Kings to enter the Tamar. Also 2 Sandwich Tern, 1 ad Med gull, 5 Little Egret, 5 Grey Heron, 28 Goldfinch together and 1 Gannet. Robert Hurrell 

A pleasant couple of hours on the warren reserve gave little out of the ordinary. Good views of the Female Kestrel were had especially when she was sat on the hide roof! She was last seen heading back towards the point being harassed by a Crow. On the way back to the car park at the rear of the pond behind the Reserve building on the edge of the golf course was a distant view of a feeding Juvenile Spotted Flycatcher taking large bugs mid air. Views were short and sweet as it headed off along the fence line of the golf course.

Spotted Flycatcher Dawlish Warren

This morning not a great deal of activity other than a Peregrine Falcon flying north - south over the site. A Grey Heron mobbed by 3 Magpies as it was attempting to land, and a Kestrel. After walking around the reserve most of this activity was observed from the cafe!!

Red Kite seen over the woods just before the Castle Hill viaduct on the A361 6.00 pm this evening (30/9/18). 

Juvenile Great Skua and Balearic Shearwater, both seen on the way back in.

Great Skua, juvenile

Great Skua, juvenile

Balearic Shearwater

Pics of the feeding frenzy from today's trip, also one of several very smart juvenile gannets seen today.

Gannets

Common dolphin and gannets

Gannet, juvenile

Saturday a group of Devon Birds members came out on a Boat trip from Brixham. Very poor sea state gave us rough seas. Birds seen 4 Mute swans flying over just before departing from Brixham, 1 Bonxie, Gannets, Manx Shearwater, 2 Shearwater sp, Fulmar, Kittiwake, GBbG and herring Gull. A frustrating trip.

Sundays trip totally different and a great trip. A big feeding frenzy with 35+ Common Dolphin, 200+ Gannets diving and was a Fantastic sight. 12 Harbour Porpoise, 12 common Scoter, 4 Bonxie, 1 Balearic Shearwater, Swallow, Kittiwake, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Common Gull and Herring Gull. Hope some pictures will be posted by somebody on the trip.  

Lopwell Dam ~ Maristow Quay ~ Thirteen Raven, two Buzzard, four Little Grebe, two Little Egret, four Muscovy Duck, two Common Sandpiper, two Kingfisher, Pied and Grey Wagtail, four Lesser Black Back Gull and fifty plus Black Headed Gulls, pair of  Mute swan with three full sized youngsters, twelve plus Canada Geese and three Moorhen.

Back home at South Brent Tawny owl, the Hobby came in at 09.55hrs and three jays.

14 Cattle Egrets with cows in large open field adjacent to coastal footpath east of Wembury Point at SX507485. Departed west a few minutes after 08:00.

Sunday am exmouth,25 dark bellied brent geese at the duckpond.

On Lundy today we saw this stunning Greenland Wheatear thrashing caterpillars inside out. 

Greenland Wheatear

Coming back from Chudleigh to Teignmouth about a mile from Chudleigh near Higher Dunscombe Farm lots of hirundines passing over. Parked and walked back to investigate. Estimated 150 to 200 Swallows and House Martins around the fields and in the sky, about one fifth House Martins, but I suspect this was a serious underestimate. Quite a spectacle and all that I saw were juveniles.

2 Willow Tits at the hide.

Nice to see a great spotted woodpecker land on the fence post next to me. Several yellowhammers, blackcaps and a few wheatears.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Wheatear

Yellowhammer

USeemed to be a day of raptors at East soar, several Kestrels at least 2 sparrow hawks and buzzards, I may have caught a glimpse of a very distant merlin in the afternoon, not 100% but I think it was.

Kestrel

Sparrowhawk

Fairly quiet but a 1W Little Gull at Torcross end, 5 Med Gulls, 200+ Swallows, 100+ House Martins, 7 Reed Buntings, 12 Chiff-Chaffs, Sedge Warbler and a Wheatear

A mid-afternoon walk at Horsey island, along the road side bank from the White House gave us distant views of a great white egret. It seemed keen to keep its distance. Plenty of little egrets around to give a good size comparison.

Great White Egret

East Soar, am, of note: 1 Merlin, 11 Golden Plover; good numbers of  Swallows moving through early am; lots of Meadow Pipits and Skylarks around; 15+ Siskins overhead; 1 Wheatear and 1 Grasshopper Warbler.

3 bar tailed godwit and 1 common sandpiper 

21 Avocet at South Efford marsh today also 24ish Black tailed godwit, a  lovely grey wagtail landed on the fence in front of the hide. Several glimpses of the kingfisher.

Avocets

Grey Wagtail

Hi, I have found a pair of binoculars in Shute church yard.  If they are yours please call me on 01404 831080

A quiet and windy morning highlighted by Merlin over Higher Soar and Hobby over the farm fields. Also: 270 Swallow, 100 House Martin, 3 Wheatear, 75 Meadow Pipit & 200 Linnet.

5 Little Grebe, 2 Tufted Ducks, 21 Mallard, 1 Wigeon, 3 Shovelers, 1 Cormorant, 6 Great Crested Grebes with 2 well grown juveniles, 1 Grey Heron, c.10 Canada Geese, party of Blue, Great and Coal Tits, 24 Coot, 6 Moorhens, 1 Nuthatch.

Harvey Kendall & Barry Bryne.

Lower Tamar Lake 0715,
4 Cattle Egret (flew out at 0810), 2m Tufted Duck, 1 Grey Heron.

At high tide and a few hours after. Little Egret 7, Curlew 2, Bar tailed Godwit 6, Ringed Plover 3, Med Gull 14, Cirl Bunting 10 and 2 White Wagtail. The disturbance was chronic all along the foreshore to the point with everything being flushed and with no place to settle!

Sorry put up the wrong photo yesterday, doubled up on one of them

Red Deer Stag

Stags, Hinds, and young showed well but in the distance, mainly in the bottom & sides of the coombes, but when they saw you they moved off quickly

Hinds & Young

Young Stags

Hinds & young

47 med gulls 30 adults,6 2w 11 flight. 

Sightings for this morning at the lake

1 Cattle Egret, 1 Little Egret, 3 Shoveler, 1 Gadwall, 1m Tufted Duck, 23 Canada Geese, 12 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Mute Swan, 1 Littel Grebe.

1 Spotted Flycatcher watched hunting insects for twenty minutes.

Short-eared Owl came in from the sea this morning and spent time on the point as well as the golf course

Short-eared Owl

A generally quiet morning enlivened by 2 Golden Plover, 7 Ringed Plover, 140 Skylark, 100 Swallow, 5 House Martin, 7 Pied Wagtail, 9 White/Alba Wagtail, 13 Wheatear, 3 Blackcap & 450 Linnet.

Later at Harleston Hobby & 2 Grey Wagtail over.

From the hide one imm. Little Gull, three imm. Med. Gull and a handful of Common Terns among 40+ Sandwich. Over the dunes a Short-eared Owl being mobbed by a Kestrel.

Great Egret off Fremington Quay, 13:10 today Thurs 27 Sept 18. My first in North Devon.

At high tide and a few hours after. Little Egret 7, Curlew 2, Bar tailed Godwit 6, Ringed Plover 3, Med Gull 14, Cirl Bunting 10 and 2 White Wagtail. The disturbance was chronic all along the foreshore to the point with everything being flushed and with no place to settle!

4 Balearic Shearwater

4 Common Terns inc one (fw) sat on sea 2 miles off Berry Head

13+ Harbour porpoise

Common Tern

Harbour porpoise

I missed Gerry's Osprey, but a very confiding Whimbrel flew in to say hi

Whimbrel

Osprey flying around this afternoon 

I have had numerous sightings of this bird and finally managed to establish the full ringing code from a number of pictures taken on 7 September. It is "Z010032".I reported it through the BTO and the following is pasted directly from their report.

Ringing Scheme: Arnhem Ring Number: Z010032 Species of bird: Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)
This bird was ringed by Arnhem as age definitely hatched during current year, sex unknown on 15-Aug-2013 10:09:00 at Bloemendaal, Kennemerduinen, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands
OS Map reference - accuracy 0, co-ordinates 52deg 25min N 4deg 32min E accuracy 0.

It was found on 07-Sep-2018 time unknown at Paignton, Devon, UK
OS Map reference SX9061 accuracy 0, co-ordinates 50deg 26min N -3deg -32min W accuracy 0.
Finding condition: Sight record by non-ringer
Finding circumstances: Metal Ring Read In Field

No sign of a the Grey Phalarope this afternoon, but juv/1w Red-necked Grebe present.

73 mute swans including 10 signets,4 sandwich terns and one wheater.behind the sports center exe estuary exmouth this morning

Whooper Swan on Wrafton scrape this morning.

No signs today of the Pallid Harrier seen yesterday morning over the footpath- as reported by Oli Force, Exmouth Community UK, via Facebook.  In fact not a lot of birds present today but a Common Sandpiper was good as I have been expecting to find one here for a long time.  Also present 2 Little Grebe, 5 Tufted Duck, 1 Cormorant, 2 Moorhen, 4 Mallard, 4 Jay, 3 Meadow Pipit and a Buzzard.

NOTE: there appears to be a recent spate of car breakins at Four Firs Car Park. Do not leave any valuables in your car.

Whooper Swan on the scrape this morning 09.30.

Kingfisher in the water gardens at 15.00

Slapton Ley, on the way into Slapton no less than four Buzzards sat on roadside telegraph poles, two Stock Doves and a Sparrow hawk hunting a roadside hedge.

The entire Slapton / Torcross area is alive with Swallows along with a handful of House Martin.

On the beach a large flock of gulls I would estimate at least 200 mostly GBBG and LBBG along with at least ten Mediterranean Gulls of mixed ages, unfortunately a walker thought it was great fun to keep walking into the flock and driving them off the beach which killed off any chance of viewing the gulls in any detail, huge numbers on the sea but well off of the shore line.

Build up of great Crested Grebes on the Ley since my last visit.

Meadow Pipit, Linnet, Goldfinch, Cetti’s Warbler, Pied Wagtail and Reed Bunting being the smaller species, one of the Reed Buntings being ringed and another with a large tick on the side of its neck.

Beesands Ley, large flock of 75 plus House Sparrows, several Starlings, two Stonechat, 50 plus Mute Swan on the ley and the reported Great White Egret showing really well as it moved around the ley feeding.

Aveton Gifford, Kestrel and Kingfisher near the A379 road bridge, along the tidal road a Black Tailed Godwit, two Greenshank, 300 plus Canada geese and 250 plus Herring gull, one LBBG with another gull roost further down the river beyond the reserve, eight Little Egret and a small number of Swallow.

Back home at South Brent the visiting Hobby came in for food at 4.35pm while being mobbed by Jackdaws and a Magpie.

Good afternoon for inverts in the garden topped off by late Humming-Bird Hawk Moth on buddleia; also Small Copper & Comma, Emperor Dragonfly, Southern Hawker & Common Darter.

Hobby 0830 this morning around the Point. Flew off towards Woolacombe 

Woodlark feeding in Winter Barley at 11.45am,  25/9

Several flight views from first field from car park, then flew to field with turbine and lost to view

At low tide the Cattle Egret was roosting on one of the islands in the meadow before flying off North.

Six species of raptor this morning included female Merlin and Hobby hunting over Soar Mill Valley but not together! Movements of 270 Swallow, 320 Skylark & 370 Meadow Pipit. Also: 8 Ringed Plover, 2 Red-legged Partridge, 25 Stock Dove, 5 House Martin, White Wagtail, 5 Wheatear, Whitethroat, 9 Blackcap, 8 Chiffchaff, 60 Goldfinch & 360 Linnet.

Non-avian: 4 Roe Deer - male, female & 2 yearlings; 7 Wall Brown & 36 Red Admiral.

Give us a kiss!

Glad there's a Cattle Egret about - I've been looking for one among the Cattle around the reserve. On the reserve pond today were a pair of Gadwall. Several Chiffchaffs around.

Oddly there were no Ducks at all out on the scrape. But one Black-tailed Godwit which flew off South.

An absolutely cracking late aft / early evening on R.Caen & Horsey Island with the flood tide.

1 Cattle Egret showing well in the crystal clear evening light on Horsey.

A good day of vis mig but nothing like Start Bay yesterday!! Tally included 700 Swallow moving east, 800 Meadow Pipit & 210 Skylark grounded, 6 House Martin, 11 Wheatear  9 Ringed Plover, Dunlin, 2 Whinchat, 16 Stonechat, 18 Blackcap & 350 Linnet. All this attracted 5 species of raptor inc. the first Merlin of the autumn (possibly 2). 

Non-avian; 8 Sika Deer inc.one stag.

Grey Phalarope on the lake early afternoon, viewed from the dam. Thank you Alec for the tip off.

The Cattle Egret showing well for a for minutes near the Blaxton Meadow in the field with the cows near the main track, also a Heron at Radford Lake at the top of a very large pine.

Cattle Egret with the cows in Saltram, 5 Black-tailed Godwits on Blaxton, 3 Greenshanks, Ringed Plover, 183 Redshanks, 13 Turnstones, 2 Common Sandpipers, 37 Curlews, 15 Little Egrets, 20 Grey Herons & Stock Dove. 

Fantanstic to see the National Trust responding to feedback and putting a clear "No Entry" sign up at the north end of Blaxton Pool. Many thanks! Now it's up to all visitors to act responsibly in the best interests of the wildlife there, and obey.

Earlier today, a Whitethroat in my garden (Mount Gould).

1 ruff,4 adult med gulls peregrine, bar tailed godwit,3 white and 17 pied wags,8 skylarks, 4 wheatear and 300 linnet.

The wind dropped at 1.30pm and the sun came out triggering a massive passage of Swallows! Watching from the Monument Car Park 2pm-5pm birds were moving strongly NE along the coast over the sea as far as I could see and along the beach: peak passage was 500/minute,  estimate of 40,000 Swallows  conservative in the three hours I counted, birds still streaming past when I left and over the Ley and fields inland to Slapton Viillage, a handul of House Martins and Sand Martins with them. Highlight on the sea was a 1W Black Guillemot in flight and settled. Also 6 Eider, 7 Common Scotor, 1 Arctic Skua, 3 Manx and 2 Balearic Shearwaters, 50+ Sandwich terns amongst large numbers of gulls offshore. Earlier 2 juv/1W Yellow-legged Gulls on the lower Ley. Reed Warbler, 4 Reed Buntings,  2 Wheatears and a Whinchat. 

Our Goldfinch population decreased by one this afternoon thanks to this Sparrowhawk. You can just see the hapless bird's wing below the wire in the second photo.

Sparrowhawk

Sparrowhawk

Very little to see on the birding front but two adult Mediterranean Gulls, 12 plus Pied Wagtails, small numbers of Swallow and three Oyster Catchers.

Back home at South Brent Tawny owl last night, Hobby and a female Kestrel, six Long Tailed Tits and a small number of Swallow and House Martin.

A friend reports seeing a Barn owl at Marley Head on Friday evening (21st)

Wryneck along coast path between Starehole Bay and Overbecks this afternoon 14:45-15:00 at least. SX728368

Drizzle this morning until 1100:

2 Chiffchaff, 8 Stonechat, 50+ Swallow on the move, 3 Curlew, 1 Whimbrel, 20 Sandwich tern, 3 Med gull. Pipits and Wagtails among clouds of flies on the seaweed, urghh!!

Matt Twiggs found a Common Rosefinch at Froward Cove, near Coleton Fishacre this morning and it is still showing regularly this afternoon - 

Directions for Common Rosefinch -park at Higher Brownstone Farm, follow track beyond daymark and down hill to Froward Cove -through gate and take left path - through pine belt for 300 yards to cove - walk down cove for 20 yards and look back right- bird feeding about 25 yrds away beyond blackthorn.

In the light rain as I arrived this morning, there were quite a few Swallows and House Martins over and near the reserve. A small flock of Wigeon flew North past the reserve. The Tit flock found me for a change and I watched as about a dozen Long-tailed Tits buzzed around over my head. There were some Blue and Great Tits with them and at least 4 Chiffchaffs, one of which was prompted by the sun coming out to burst into song.

I ended this visit by going back to the south side of the reserve, where yet another overweight Willow tree crashed over in the gales. and found it bathed in sunshine and covered in birds. Probably the same Tit-flock, but several Chiffs and then a real surprise when a MARSH TIT appeared. Closely followed by a juvenile Spotted Flycatcher. Some movement overnight then.. Never seen Marsh Tit in the reserve before

Kingfisher and Dipper in the river.

In Start Bay a flock of 5 Eider, all females, flew south off the Memorial Car Park at 07:50. Largest number I have seen here for a long time. When the rain eased I went up to Start Point. There were 12 Blackcaps, 4 Chiffchaffs and a Willow Warbler in a small sheltered spot in the farm. Elsewhere 2 Wheatears, 150 Meadow Pipits ( grounded ) , Grey Wagtail and 10 White Wagtails.

A quick walk around Cranbrook Countryside Park this morning produced some expected common birds but nevertheless of interest.  These included 2 mute swan cygnets (a first at Cranbrook for me), 3 Little Grebe on the Big Lake at Stonebarton off Crannaford Lane and a flock of c100 Goldfinch.  Several new, shallow scrapes and an extension to the Big Lake mentioned earlier are under construction and the rough area opposite the railway station has been flailed.  Below shows the new construction.

This morning 2 Ringed Plover

Wet and cold. But there were some Swallows around and over the reserve this morning. Another over Croyde this afternoon.

A surprisingly early Ring Ouzel this morning feeding in Hawthorns to the South of White Bridge (path still closed) and then flew towards South Farm Road but I couldn't re-find it as the heavy rain started! No sign this morning of the Cattle Egrets in a very brief look north of White Bridge, but at least still 3 birds there yesterday.