Devon Birds would like to thank the many members and other birdwatchers who complied with the restrictions during the recent Lockdown and stayed in their local area (village, town or part of city) to birdwatch while exercising (and later) taking recreation. We hope that, despite the obvious frustrations, you found some respite in watching wildlife in your local area and perhaps discovered some birds close to home, that you might otherwise not have seen! As always, please submit sightings to the County recorder and / or BirdTrack. 

 

Please continue to follow the Covid related requirements (currently "rule of six outside, social distancing etc) while enjoying the new freedoms to extend your birdwatching. Some hides will remain closed for the time being and where you find one open, please follow Government guidelines on keeping yourself & others safe: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/social-distancing/what-you-need-to-do/

 

Thank you from

Devon Birds News site editors & members of the Records Committee

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. Please note that Wood Warbler should now also be treated as on the list. All species included need to be protected - many 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.

Some species may be found breeding at numerous locations however please keep information on these species limited to well-known sites (e.g. Labrador Bay for Cirl Bunting, 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 the RSPB.

Please be aware that egg collecting and other forms of persecution remain very real hazards for some of Devon’s birds.

Posts which breach these guidelines are likely to be not admitted / removed althogether, rather than edited.  

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 

If you follow our Blog but are not currently a member of Devon Birds please consider joining Devon Birds to help with the upkeep of running the website and this service as well as our valuable conservation work.

Yesterday and again today this juvenile Bar-headed Goose turned up with the Canada flock. It has the yellowy bill & legs as expected, and no head cross bars of an adult. bar-headed.  It however appears as big as the Canadas and overall brown/grey rather than ash grey, could it be a xCanada hybrid?

Bar-headed Goose juv

Bar-headed Goose juv

Bar-headed Goose juv

Seawatching from 0600-0830hrs: 1260 Manx, 14 Balearic Shearwaters, 1 Bonxie, 4 Common Scoter, 1 Teal, 11 Mediterranean Gulls, 16 Fulmar 1 Arctic Tern, 3 'comic' Terns.

Late Post -13/08/2019.  Small flock of 41 Knot on passage having just arrived back from the high arctic enjoying a rest, wash & preen after foraging along the shoreline.

In the reserve late this evening tape-luring Swallows. Monday night  - 1, Tuesday night - 85, Tonight 35. Year total now over 400. Also ringed Kingfisher no 12, another juvenile. Flying over were at least 12 Swifts.

By the bridge to the reserve one, occasionally 2 Dipper these last few days.

No migrants - best were 22 Med Gulls in Starehole Bay and 400 Linnet.

Encounter with a juvenile cuckoo near Laughter Tor on Dartmoor yesterday. Landed in a rowan sapling right in front of me; not very concerned about my presence. If only I had a half decent camera. 

Three brown-head goosanders roosting this morning. Had gone by 0630. Checked weekly, and these were first since 22 Jun. Would be interested to hear of any other goosanders in Devon over the next month or so at preay6960@gmail.com.

Spotted Flycatchers at Avon Mill Garden Centre yesterday, In the Trees by the river, catching flies, for a youngster.

Two Avocets on the estuary this evening - A rare bird on the Otter and only my 3rd sighting in 10 years.
Also Green Sandpiper, 10+ Dunlin, 3 Ringed Plover and an obliging Cetti's Warbler.

7 Black Tailed Godwits, 2 Whimbrel, 6 Ringed Plover and2 Dunlin.this afternoon.

Two pied flycatchers in small hawthorns on Brent Hill this morning, presumed migrants or at least dispersing juvs (over 3 km to nearest known breeding site). Otherwise just a whitethroat and a few chiffs and willows.

At Knighton Road, Plymouth an unusual Brown Magpie seen and Photo'd at 10.35am

Brown Magpie

Late evening visit to try and boost the Swallow catch - only caught one! But also ringed another Kingfisher, and retrapped one from a few weeks back. (I saw two Kingfishers in the reserve earlier on today). In the field next to the one south of the reserve, the farmer has cut the grass and there were several hundred Swallows chasing insects there for a while. Only a few came and inspected the tape recorder. Over the reserve were 5 Swift, the first I've seen in several days.

A Black-tailed Godwit for it's third day out on the scrape.

Best bird was a male Marsh Harrier, which flew south from the reserve towards the reed-bed.

Few Birds to be seen, conditions had improved too much. 2 flocks of 5 Sanderlings 1 Manxie 6 Gannets, one Juv looking a bit worse for wear. Compensated for by spending an hour watching European Storm Petrels, albeit at a fair distance, feeding over static fishing gear buoy ropes. Max 5 in view at the same time. 

Storm Petrel, just about!

Hitching a ride.

9 ringneck parakeet at the roost at douglas avenue

This morning:

c100 Herring Gull, 12 Little Egret, 10 Common Sandpiper, 5 Whimbrel, 3 Grey Heron feeding on flatfish, 2 Greenshank on Ernesettle creek, 2 Greenfinch, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Whitethroat. Trees heaving with red apples and berries.

11 Sanderling,19 Ringed Plover and 2 Turnstone on the beach this afternoon.

Seawatch, 06:00 - 15:00 predictably slow with only 10 Manx & 6 Balearic Shearwaters all day, & 3-4 Med Gulls.

Constant trickle of Painted Ladies, together with 2 Migrant Hawkers in off the sea.

Usual Harbour Porpoises, at least 3, close in at first; c.20 Common Dolphin, mid am; but highlight of the day, at least 3 Bottle-nosed Dolphins close in c.midday.

06.30 to 08.50: juv Shelduck 7, European Storm-petrel 2, Fulmar 37, Manx Shearwater 5, Gannet 39, Common Sandpiper 1, Lesser Black-backed Gull 16, Sandwich Tern 3, Great Skua 1, Guilllemot 1. All heading W out of Bristol Channel, except for Gannet flocks feeding over four Harbour Porpoise and an Ocean Sunfish (presumed same as yesterday; appeared similar size).

mear valley 9 ringneck parakeet

At a rain- and gale-lashed Hartland Point from 08.00 to 13.00 Tim Davis & Tim Jones recorded 532 Gannets, 1352 Manx Shearwaters, 111 Fulmars, 14 Kittiwakes, an Arctic Skua, a Sandwich Tern, and three Whimbrels. All were heading W out of Barnstaple/Bideford Bay.

From Lundy during the morning and early afternoon Dean Jones counted 212 Gannets, 2991 Manx Shearwaters, 22 Fulmars, 19 Kittiwakes, a Ringed Plover and two Turnstones.

Off Watermouth in the late afternoon Tim Jones encountered small numbers of Gannets,Manx Shearwaters, Fulmars and Kittiwakes continuing to fly W out of the Bristol Channel, where Gannets have been seen upstream today at least as far as Lydney and Sharpness in the Upper Severn Estuary. Also off Watermouth, two Harbour Porpoises and an Ocean Sunfish.

Over a low high tide 14.00 - 15.00.  1 Little Egret, 31 Ringed Plover, 1 Turnstone, c250 Dunlin, 4 Sanderling, 5 Knot, 3 Redshank, 1 Greenshank 2 Whimbrel, 18 Curlew, 43 Common Tern, 2 Little Tern, 4 Sandwich Tern.. what a difference a bit of wind makes!

On 8th June driving out of Rgb I spotted 2 pairs among the nesting Lesser bb and Herring Gulls, so there may have been more. Hope they are successful as the Ilfracombe pairs I'm aware of always seem destined to fail. I also surveyed Mullacote ind estate for nesting Gulls which is easy cos there isn't any. Probably a bit too exposed up there. 

This morning off Ilfracombe a Basking Shark and several feeding Grey Seals were attracting lots of Gulls. Some good birds were present as well. 2+ Storm Petrels were close to the anchored Trinity ship. A Great Skua and 2 flocks of 4/5 Whimbrels were making their way down channel. 

young Seal enjoying a tasty breakfast.

Little offshore except reasonable numbers of Fulmars and Kittiwakes flying south. Over the ley at Torcross  250 plus House Martins, 20 Sand Martins and 6 Swifts. Also Little Grebe, 61 Tufted Ducks and 5 Pochards ( 3M ).

Seawatch 05:30-10:00 Fairly slow, only 33 Manx Shearwater and 9 Balearic. Highlights were a Sooty Shearwater south at 06:45 and a pale phase adult Pomarine Skua south at 08:30. Also 1 Bonxie, 100+Kittiwake, 4 Sandwich tern, 1 Common Tern, 3+ 'Commic' Tern, 6+ swift.

flock of swallows feeding over farmland above copythorne rd yesterday morning

A ninety-minute seawatch late morning produced Gannets passing at a rate per ten minutes of 10-25, Manx Shearwaters of 5-15, and Fulmars of 1-2, plus 5 Common Scoter, and a Great Skua. No Auks or Kittewakes.

On the way home, 10 minutes at BGM produced the Spotted Redshank and singles of Common and Green Sandpipers.

Cormorant (over) and single escapee Bar-headed Goose (the regular bird here) seen just outside of the site in fields adjacent to Nomansland Cross - both common birds on the lakes at Shobrooke, but, to our knowledge, this is the first time that they have been seen here in the Sandford and Upton Hellions Nature Group (SUHNG) recording area, which borders the park. 

Some lovely waders on the beach at South Milton, Sanderling, turnstones, Dunlin and ringed plover.

Turnstone                               Sanderling                                Dunlin

Seawatch highlight totals 0530-1230hrs: 1 juv L-t Skua which lingered for over 1 hr also 1 Arctic & 7 Great Skua, 168 Balearic, 247 Manx, 1 Sooty & 1 large Shearwater, 3 Puffin, 2 juv Y-l Gulls, 251 Kittiwake, 39 Med Gulls, 11 C Scoter, 12 Sandwich, 9 Commin & 29 'comic' Tern, 3 Whimbrel, 3 Grey Plover, 4 Ringed Plover,3 Dunlin,1 Green Sandpiper, several flocks of waders too far out to id, 1 Tufted Duck, 50+ Common Dolphin & 6 H Porpoise.

An hours watch from the shelter near Lime Kiln car park (11am -12noon) produced:  28 Gannet, 3 Balearic Shearwater, 12 Manx, 2 GBB Gulls and 5 Oystercatcher.  All flying west. Variable weather conditions with visibility from horizon down to half a mile.  Two of the Balearics came in within several hundred yards.  

Quick look between folk music sessions in deteriorating condition lots of Herring gulls, a few,BH Gulls, one Oyster Catcher on the rock armour and one Turnstone on the rocks near Jacob's Ladder. Visibility down to about 50 yards offshore.

Turnstone

Surveying the Bradiford site for DevonBirds in 2017, I noted that an oystercatcher pair were collecting food from the pond mud on Bradiford and flying to the roofs of the industrial unit 'nextdoor', which strongly implied successful hatching. I wonder if this year's nestling has jumped down from there, or they've moved to lower ground because of the gulls.

Black-tailed Godwit 7; Bar-tailed Godwit 1; Med Gull 1A; Redshank 1 and 3 Dunlin flying up-river.

A surprise sighting was that of an Oystercatcher chick still in down feathers on the concrete bank between Bradiford Water and the rear of RGB. It was being attended to by 2 adults. In the 30-odd years that I have been birding along this stretch of the river, this is the first time that I have ever known Oystercatchers to be breeding here. The chick was incapable of flight and could not have come far.

First returning Little Grebe and autumn Wheatear. Also: 2 Turnstones, Whimbrel, 4 Greenshanks, Dunlin, Common Sandpiper, 32 Curlews, 1st-s Mediterranean Gull, Shelduck pair with 2 juvs, 27 Mandarin Ducks, 2 Shags, 4 Stock Doves & 2 Swifts.