Devon - Glorious Devon

(Google the above title for interest.)

I suppose when you live in what is all but the middle of England, it is not surprising that the coast and the sea is a big draw. And that’s how it is with us… we are past the bucket and spade phase, the stretch wool swimming costumes, and never ending sticks of rock, but we still long to visit the coast with the beaches and estuaries, headlands with strong winds, great views, and the smell of salt and the ozone….oh and some cracking coastal birds which rarely get into Derbyshire.

So that is why we decided to encompass my birthday and have a week in Devon, staying once again at our favourite Imperial Hotel at Exmouth. A good room with a sea view, looking across the Exe estuary, with Dawlish Warren in the distance.

Tuesday 24^th January, and we wake up to a pea souper..well very misty anyway. So, after a lazy morning we drove to the recreation ground at Topsham, where a Yellow Browed Warbler had been reported. Thanks to a local who emerged from his house as we were parking, we found the exact spot and spotted the YBW actively feeding. The poor light did not make it easy, but we could make out the eye line and a thick wing bar.  …a Lifer for day 1!

Wednesday 25th January, and 12.45 was the sailing time for the 3 hour Stuart Line bird watching cruise, up the Exe estuary. I strongly recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in South Devon. For £12.50, the trip is very good value, and the leaders (Ian Waite this time) work well with Stuart Lines, ensuring that nothing is missed, and the boat will heave to if that helps to get a better eyeball on something special.

We had 130 people on the boat, and surprisingly, 7 of them were staying at my hotel.

Very soon we were ticking off Shag and Merganser, and as we passed Starcross the regular Slavonian Grebe was seen, this time with a friend. This Grebe appears to be OK, but it can’t fly so it’s an easy bird to tick. In fact we saw a third Slavonian later on.   Bar tailed Godwits and Black Tailed Godwits were near the river outlet at Powderham (as was a Spotted Redshank and Greenshank), a chance for Ian to dwell on the difference in plumage.

Brent Geese were frequent sightings, with Greylag, Canadian and one Barnacle. Plovers were plentiful, with Grey, Golden, Little Ringed and Green, and Dunlin and Knot added to the wader list. But the highlight, especially for the non-birders on the boat, was to see the good number of Avocets, right up near the Exe marshes. Really nice to see.

Ian’s highlight was identifying Mergansers, and saying that they don’t have Goosanders on the Exe. Whereupon a pair of Goosanders landed on a nearby sand bank!  

My highlight was on the journey back when David Smallshire picked out a Bonaparte Gull. With a jizz a bit like a Tern, the bird was quite identifiable, and we tracked it for 3 or 4 minutes. Yippee.!! Lifer No 2.

Thursday 26th January.  A birthday treat was the coastal train journey from Exmouth. Besides the Exe to Exeter, then along the famous Dawlish Wall, up the Teign and finally to Paignton. My brother Simon and his wife Sarah pick us up in his classic Jaguar and we drive to Berry Head, just South of Brixham. 

My excuse was to try and see a reported Surf Scoter with the Common and Velvet varieties, but the wind was blowing such an absolute hooley, that a quick glance over the cliff edge was enough to see… nothing. So I quenched my thirst with diving Gannets and some Guillemots, and thus added 2 to my year list!

Friday 27^th January, and I followed up a report of a first year male Scaup at Mud Bank lane Exmouth (on the edge of the Exe), successfully!!

Little birds of note on Saturday and wet Sunday, but a visit to Seaton gave Mary her birding buzz! 

(Ed; At Seaton Marsh, had to point out the 3-times seen hovering Kingfisher to the Birdman, but watching a cock pheasant making clandestine approaches towards two hens was entertaining!!)

Tuesday 31^st January the last chance to up the January total, so Chris and I head to Holme Pierrepoint near Nottingham, for a reported Smew. 

Started off with a Green Woodpecker at the Skylarks nature reserve, and with nothing apart from Goldeneye at the rowing course, we drive to a well-known spot to observe The A52 pit. Despite parking on the verge, and getting soaked from spray from large lorries, I pick up a White Nun near the far reed bed, alongside a female Redhead. 

Always love Smew, and this one completes my set of all 3 Sawbills.  It also brings my January total to a very satisfying124 - especially when my previous best January was 114.

I suppose considering I have been to Norfolk, Devon and Slimbridge it is not too surprising, but 62% of the year’s target sounds good!

 (Ed: Now you’ve got January out of your system, can we get back to less verbiage, DARLING?)

5 days R & R...Pre - Devon!

I’m sure you can understand that when I am tucked up under the duvet, with a warm bottle (I admit it!), my thoughts keep drifting (Ed: ?) back to the wonderful moment last week (Ed: ???) when I witnessed the wonderful spectacle of waders coming in off the Wash in groups, at 7am, and then the awe inspiring sight of c4k of Knots returning to the Wash at the tide receded.

In fact it took me back some 10-12 years when I was told there was a very small nizzen type hut on the edge of the lake, and birders would go in there well before high hide, and just wait until the birds were flushed (oh,oh!) off the sea and onto the islands on the lake.  And until the birds had returned to the water, any birder in the hide would not be allowed out for fear of frightening the birds. I WAS TOLD, and I repeat it with the honesty of the story, that there was a convenient bucket in the corner of the hut. 

Well, it ain’t there now – so I assume those awful storms put paid to that.  

Tuesday 17^th January, and I am still recovering from my accident in Norfolk, with a very painful back.  But mooching aground gets me nowhere, so I drove to Slimbridge to hopefully add 3 or 4 birds to my year.

The journey to Slimbridge, especially out of Derby was horrendous. (Don’t you get a recurring theme of my driving experiences?), but I duly arrived there safely, only to emerge from the car and find that it was wet, and it was so cold all the Flamingos had been put inside. 

The Rushy Penn was a good start with 8 Cranes, and Bewick Swans were dotted around on different pools or grasslands, but the big disappointment was no White Fronted Geese. I was told that as it was low tide, they would have been out on the Severn Estuary, and although I hung around to 3 o’clock ish, none came to the reserve. I shall have to hope that they will still be around at the end of February when I might try again.

Otherwise very little to report. I did hear a call in the Zeiss hide of a Bittern, but by the time I got to the appropriate window, it had vanished in the reeds.

Saturday 21st January, and up to then I had been favouring my still painful back, with a GP visit and a later GP telephone consultation. So, a quick visit to Carsington failed to find the Diver or a Barnacle Goose, but a nice bonus was a Tree Creeper.

Sunday 22nd January.  This was the first of my new hour and a half Birdwatching for Beginners walk in Markeaton Park.

Despite the biting cold, 22 different species were seen, with one of the first being a cute diminuitive Goldcrest. Not everyone had binoculars (a rectifiable mistake for next month!!), but the hovering of the Goldcrest was still visible to everyone.  Having mastered what they were told is the smallest British bird, the group readily identified 2 subsequent Goldcrests.

Pausing at the feeding table near the Ha – ha, the group saw 3 species of Tit collecting seed from the handfuls that I had put on the table, and then wondered at the agility of the Nuthatch, the only British bird that can climb down a tree.

The  lake offered up the usual suspects, but the bonus for standing round in the cold, was to see 2 little grebes repeatedly diving near north island. Little Grebes, the smallest  of all British water birds, have been seen briefly at Markeaton in the last 4 years, but unlike Great Crested Grebes they have not bred there. Maybe 2017??

Monday 23rd January.  Right, I’ve packed all my optics, booked for the Avocet cruise on the Exe, researched what good birds are around the Exeter and Exmouth area, and Mary and I are off to Devon for 7 days. 60 birds target!! Well, I’m on 111 so things are slowing up a bit.   

Sufficient for the moment to say that we duly arrived at Exmouth mid-afternoon, with the driving being a bit painful for 270 miles, but no birds to report for the day.   So, I’m going to hold over all the excitement of Devon until next weeks’ blog. We don’t get home until Monday 30^th, so this one will miss my usual deadline.   I’ll just leave you with this glorious photo of a sunset on the Exe, at the end of an Avocet cruise in 2014. The background on the Starboard side is Dawlish Warren.

And don’t forget next Sunday (5^th February) the usual Carsington Beginners walk..as always at 10.00am