Double Dip

Thursday 21st September and a lovely autumnal afternoon and so after leaving work at 3pm I headed home on the bus via Marsh Mills for a walk along the River Plym to Laira Bridge. I had hoped to see the female red crested pochard that has been reported a few times recently but was out of luck. However I did see a male mandarin duck with mallards at the Plympton road bridge, more mallards along the estuary, a kingfisher and a male stonechat at Blaxton Meadow, a greenshank with redshanks near the Sainsbury Creek and a large and noisey flock of Canada geese out on the water - but still dip number 1.

Friday 22nd September and I decided to head to Topsham again for the high tide roost at Bowling Green Marsh, catching an early train and arriving at the hide at 8:30am-ish. The hide was packed and the light awful in the bright sunshine but I did get some good views of 2 curlew sandpiper, 2 ruff, a lapwing, 3 avocet, a whimbrel, a snipe, a bar tailed godwit and a partial summer plumaged knot amongst the dunlin, redshank, greenshank, black tailed godwit and curlew but there was no sign of any of the recently reported little stints. Somebody did call a little stint amongst the dunlin but before I could get on to it a sparrowhawk flew over putting everything up and it was never seen again.

Amongst the shoveler, teal, wigeon, pintail, gadwall and mallard I had a brief view of what I am sure was a juvenile garganey, quite orange toned and with a distinct facial pattern. It went to sleep amongst a group of ducks but it too was spooked by the sparrowhawk and I lost sight of it. A fox, a kingfisher, a jay, the dunlin eating adult lesser black backed gull, a small tortoiseshell and red admirals were also noted.

From the viewing platform there was no sign of any ospreys but I did see a Sandwich tern perched on a bouy downriver and 2 common sandpipers flying up the River Clyst. Oystercatchers and grey plovers were out on the mudflats amongst the feeding waders which included 2 curlew sandpipers, presumably the Bowling Green birds seen earlier.

I  had a brief and distant view of a smaller wader feeding alongside a dunlin out on the mud before everything took to the air again but I had a feeling it was a runty dunlin and not a little stint.

And so a pleasent days birding but disappointment at dipping little stint - dip number 2 - and I should have gone to Hayle instead (70 pence more for the train fare) where 3 were seen along with 3 curlew sandpipers and a grey phalarope - never mind!