Blue-headed Wagtail, South Huish Marsh

Friday 17th May and after a particularly shitty long day at work the day before an offer from David for a walk along the coast path from Hope Cove to Thurlestone and back was grabbed with both hands.

On arriving at Hope Cove it was cool and grey but the sea was flat calm and house martins were flitting about around the buildings, calling and swooping up to investigate the eaves. As we walked up to the cliff top path to Thurlestone a few swallows and swifts were also seen flying overhead and along the path a few whitethroats were singing.

Arriving at South Huish Marsh swifts, swallows, house martins and a single sand martin were hawking over the water with a pair of shoveler, adult lesser black-backed gulls amongst the assorted herring gulls and great black-backed gulls, a grey heron, a shelduck and mallards also seen. A female yellow wagtail had been reported on the marsh the previous day and a blue-headed wagtail had been reported on May 10th and I thought I could hear the call of a yellow wagtail somewhere but couldn't be sure and I couldn't locate it despite scanning around and so we carried on towards Thurlestone.

From the bridge over South Milton Ley two reed warblers were singing with 1 seen but there were sadly no moths in the toilet block by the golf course and little else was noted except for a very tame song thrush on the roadside verge.

We had lunch in the Thurlestone Arms before beginning our walk back to Hope Cove but the skies were ominously dark looking and a heavy mizzle drizzle duly arrived. We stopped off at South Huish Marsh again and while David sheltered from the wet weather I scanned around, finding a male reed bunting and a reed warbler in the reeds close to the car park fence along with a nervous pair of stonechats carrying food in their bills, presumably with a nest nearby, and so I moved further along the fence line and out of their way.

Stonechat

I heard a sedge warbler singing and a first summer black-headed gull had joined the assorted gulls and there were still plenty of swallows, swifts and house martins hawking insects over the water. The mizzle continued and I was beginning to get quite soaked but on a quick scan around the feet of some cattle out on the marsh I had a distant and brief view of a yellow wagtail before it disappeared in the vegetation. It eventually reappeared, looking a bit bedraggled in the rain and regularly shaking itself dry, but it appeared to have a blue-toned head. I hoped it would move nearer as the cattle munched their way across the grass but it stayed distant although a few crappy photos I managed to grab in the low light and mizzle clearly show a blue head, my first blue-headed wagtail in Devon and presumably the same bird seen on May 10th. (A better photo is on the www.thurlestonebaybirds.co.uk website).

 Blue-headed Wagtail

  Blue-headed Wagtail

Blue-headed Wagtail 

It was soon time to leave and carry on the walk back to the car as the mizzle continued but by the time we arrived back at Hope Cove it had stopped and the house martins were still prospecting for nest sites around the buildings as we headed back to Plymouth.

Hope Cove Signage