Long-billed Dowitcher, Bowling Green Marsh

Saturday 19th October was sunny and mild and so I decided to finally head off to Bowling Green Marsh at Topsham for the high tide wader roost in the hope of catching up with the long-billed dowitcher that has been gracing the River Exe for a couple of weeks now. I saw my first and only long-billed dowitcher at Bowling Green Marsh back in 2007, poor and distant and obscured views amongst the wader roost and without the use of a telescope, and I was very keen to get some better views this time.

I felt tired and groggy after my night shift on Thursday but I was full of hope and expectation as I caught the 08:25 train from Plymouth, getting some nice views of ring-necked parakeets feeding in the trees opposite the station entrance before I caught my train.

 Ring-necked Parakeet

 Ring-necked Parakeet

Ring-necked Parakeet

I arrived in Topsham on time at 10:08 and walked down to the hide at Bowling Green Marsh but with the high tide due at 10:30 I was surprised to find it almost empty although it did get very busy and noisy later. There was already a large roost of waders out on the marsh but viewing was difficult in the poor light looking into the sun but amongst the curlew, redshank, lapwing, black-tailed godwits and bar-tailed godwits I did find a single dunlin and a lone whimbrel.

Wigeon, teal, mallard, pintail, shoveler, moorhen, a coot, a little grebe, 2 tufted duck, little egret and grey heron were all seen but despite searching I couldn't find the dowitcher amongst the waders. A sparrowhawk flew over twice putting up most of the waders but there was still no sign of the dowitcher amongst the waders when they eventually resettled on the marsh.

Waders were beginning to fly off towards the River Clyst as the tide turned and eventually I caught a very brief view of the dowitcher amongst the throng of waders but it was obscured and difficult to view before it promptly went to sleep with its head under its wing. It awoke a few times and moved position but still remained obscured before I eventually lost sight of it altogether but at least I had seen it.

I decided to head over to the viewing platform overlooking the River Clyst as the waders continued to fly off from the marsh in the hope that the dowitcher would be amongst them and within a few minutes of scanning through the waders feeding out on the increasingly exposed mud I found it amongst a group of redshanks and managed to get some great views of it. It was smaller than I expected and looked like the love child of a snipe and a godwit but it was a very attractive and charismatic looking bird and quite distinctive.

 Long-billed Dowitcher with Redshank

 Long-billed Dowitcher with Redshank

 Long-billed Dowitcher

Long-billed Dowitcher

It eventually flew upriver and was lost from view but my attention was taken by a lovely great white egret feeding in the river channel with little egrets, a very nice surprise and only my second ever sighting of one in Devon.

 Great White Egret with Litlle Egrets

Great White Egret

A kingfisher hovering over the water was nice to see, it landed on a post from where it dived and caught a fish before flying off, and eventually I refound the dowitcher feeding on the mud upriver with greenshanks and redshanks before it flew downriver again to feed on it's own opposite the viewing platform. It didn't stay for long before flying off again upriver, appearing to head over towards Bowling Green Marsh but I failed to refind it on a quick look from the hide on the walk back to the railway station in Topsham.

The journey home was subject to the usual problems with my train being cancelled from Newton Abbot resulting in a 50 minute delay but it had been a great day out and I was very pleased to see the long-billed dowitcher with the great white egret a nice bonus too.