Things have been a bit fraught lately and so we had a quick walk around Stover on Friday 9th February to get out and about for a break before heading to The Brookside Café at Bovey Tracey for lunch. It was a sunny but cold and windy day and I had forgotten to take my camera with me, especially annoying as there were around 20 goosanders out on the lake and some of them were quite tame and gave some great close up views - bugger!
Also seen were a pair of bullfinches, a female great spotted woodpecker and a nuthatch on the bird feeders along with the more usual blue, great and coal tits and chaffinches but there was no sign of any marsh tits. A raven and siskins were seen and heard flying over and on the lake with the goosanders were a male tufted duck and 2 male and a female pochard.
Plans for further bird watching trips went out of the window after our trip to Stover due to the deteriorating health of my dear father-on-law and he very sadly passed away at 5am on Thursday 15th February while I was at work on a night shift - a very low time with the death of our friend Julies mum Maggie the evening before also adding to the sadness.
Friday 16th February and a bright and sunny but cold day saw us heading out for a drive and some fresh air to try and chase some blues away and we ended up at Marine Drive in Torpoint for a walk and a look around. The tide was very low and viewing the estuary was difficult into the sun but I did find a Sandwich tern, 1 of 2 that have been wintering in the area and my first February sighting of one. Also seen were a great northern diver, a little grebe, 4 great crested grebes and a Slavonian grebe (although they spent very little time at the surface between dives), 2 bar tailed godwits and a flock of 100+ dunlin feeding on the mudflats with redshank and curlew, a flyby adult common gull, 30+ wigeon and 4 brent geese - a nice selection of sightings and a good distraction (for me anyway) from events at home.
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