4 Grebe Day at Slapton and Beesands Ley

A walk around Plymouth Hoe on Sunday 4th March and things were back to normal in the warm sunshine with the only reminder of the recent bad weather being the sad sight of a dead lapwing floating in the water on The Barbican. A more pleasent sight was a female type black redstart at Tinside Pool busily catching plenty of small flies that were buzzing around.

A Lapwing casualty after Storm Emma

Female type Black Redstart, Tinside Pool

After 2 particularly crappy long days at work on Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th March and the impending funeral of my father-in-law on Friday 9th March I really needed to get out for a bit of birding and with Wednesday 7th March being a particularly sunny but cold day we headed off to Beesands Ley for a walk.

On the drive to Beesands I was surprised to see patches of snow still lying on the ground along hedgerows out of the sun but there were no redwings or fieldfares or lapwings or golden plovers to be seen in the fields.

From the hide at Beesands Ley I quickly found the reported red necked grebe busily preening out on the water, good but a little distant views of my least familiar grebe species.

Red Necked Grebe, Beesands Ley

Red Necked Grebe

Red Necked Grebe

Red Necked Grebe - courtesy of Thurlestone Bay Birds website

I also picked up the male ring necked duck amongst the tufted ducks and eventually the male scaup along with a little grebe, 2 great crested grebes, a pair of gadwall and at least 2 female and 8 male pochard.

Canada Geese, Pochard and Tufted Duck, Beesands Ley

Ring Necked Duck

Scaup with Tufted Duck

Scaup, Tufted Duck and Ring Necked Duck

Tufted Duck and Scaup

Tufted Duck, Scaup and Ring Necked Duck

Tufted Duck, Scaup and Pochard

Ring Necked Duck, Tufted Duck, Scaup and Pochard

Following Storm Emma last week there had been a lot of damage to the beach path at Beesands with The Brittania cafe having been badly trashed and with the tide being high we walked over the clifftop footpath to Torcross to find the path and WW2 bunker above Torcross had disappeared onto the beach. The Slapton Line (the road from Torcross to Strete) was also closed due to debris and damage with the road having almost been washed away from the Slapton turn towards Strete.

A quick look at the Ley from Torcross and I found a black necked grebe busily diving close to the bird hide but by the time I had negotiated the mud and debris in the car park and found the bird hide closed due to damage the grebe had moved further away. I managed to get a record shot of it, noticing its very red eye again in the bright sunshine. I then found a second black necked grebe nearby, at first glance I thought it was a female smew before realising it was a grebe. It was very black and white and smart looking compared to the first bird and I thought it might have been a Slavonian grebe but on closer inspection it was indeed another black necked grebe before it dived and was lost from sight.

Black Necked Grebe, Slapton Ley

We had lunch in The Start Bay Inn where I watched gannets flying by from the pub window while enjoying my fish and chips before we walked back to Beesands along the beach on the low tide. A quick look at the Ley again before driving home and the red necked grebe and scaup were still on show but there was no sign of the ring necked duck.

Photo of the 2017 Slapton Humpback Whale on the Start Bay Inn menu

A very restorative day and needed before the sadness to come on Friday.