We walked down to the hide at Beesands Ley, hearing Cettis warbler and water rails and seeing a goldcrest feeding in the hedgerow with blue and great tits, and from the hide we watched a male and 2 female teal, 2 male, 2 female and an immature male shoveler, coot, a little grebe, 29 mute swans, moorhen, tufted duck, a cormorant and a female scaup that frustratingly kept its distance and spent a lot of time under the water or behind the island and out of view from the hide. A few of the female tufted ducks had quite large white blazes around their bills but the scaups more rounded head shape and lack of a hint of a tuft were all noticeable.
We walked round to the beach side of the Ley where the scaup was still being elusive but we added a greylag goose and a black swan to our day list which both flew in and landed on the water. A quick scan offshore revealed just a few gannets flying around and a pair of stonechats were seen flitting about in the hedgerow before we decided to move on to Slapton Ley.
We parked up at Torcross and walked along the Ley side towards the bridge as a few rain clouds rolled in and we had a few brief spells of rain and hail. Cettis warblers were calling and more stonechats were seen along with a female cirl bunting, a meadow pipit, a reed bunting and greenfinches.
On the Ley we scanned through the wildfowl and mid-Ley we picked out the male ring necked duck amongst the tufted ducks, presumably the bird that overwintered earlier in the year. Also seen were gadwall, wigeon and pochard along with coot, cormorant and mallard before we decided to head back along the beach to Torcross for lunch and scanning the sea along the way we picked out a few shag, a group of 8 female/immature common scoters close to the beach and a great northern diver flying across the bay before landing on the sea and being lost to view.
After a delicious lunch of fish and chips in the Start Bay Inn we drove along the Ley on the recently reopened road to the bridge where we parked up and walked along the back of the Ley to the quarry, seeing a goldcrest and a female blackcap as we began our walk and hearing water rails squealing in the reeds.
There were good numbers of wildfowl in Ireland Bay and scanning through we picked up more wigeon, tufted duck and pochard, teal, great crested grebes, at least 4 little grebes, the male ring necked duck and a female scaup, a different bird to the one seen at Beesands Ley with a smaller white blaze around the bill. Despite scanning we couldn't find the recently reported black necked grebe though.
At the quarry we picked up a feeding flock of small birds and amongst the long tailed, blue and great tits we found a chiffchaff, a male blackcap, a wren, a goldcrest and a very smart firecrest which gave some excellent views. A Jay, 2 ravens, a buzzard and 2 grey herons were also seen before it was time to head back to the car for the journey home but just before we left we were treated to a murmuration of starlings over the reedbed, only a small flock of around 500 birds but lovely to watch (and hear) and a great end to a great day out.
Starlings
Starlings
Starlings
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