I arrived at Marine Drive at Torpoint at around 10:30am, 3 hours after high tide, and I set up my scope overlooking St.Johns Lake as the tide began to recede. It was lovely to see some sunshine and blue skies but it meant difficult viewing conditions at times looking over the water into the sun. I still had a cracking couple of hours birding though (and it was nice to finally meet and chat to Mike Passman from Thurlestone who writes the excellent Thurlestone Bay Bird Blog).
Looking out over the water and I picked up around 15 Great Crested Grebes and around 6 Little Grebes resting and preening or busily diving and amongst them were the recently reported Red-necked Grebe and Slavonian Grebe. The views weren't great with the Slavonian being distant and the Red-necked being into the sun but eventually the Red-necked moved into a closer and better position and gave some great views while the Slavonian unfortunately just disappeared. I kept a look out for the reported Black-necked Grebes too but with no luck and so had to contend with just a 4 Grebe day.
A Great Northern Diver, a Kingfisher, a Whimbrel, 3 Mediterranean Gulls (2 adults and 1 first winter), 6 Pale-bellied Brent Geese, c.60 very twitchy and flighty Avocets and 6 Ringed Plover were also noted along with the usual Curlew, Redshank, Dunlin, Oystercatcher, Turnstone, Wigeon, Shelduck, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Canada Geese and Gulls. A Red Admiral flitting about despite the cold conditions was a surprise sighting and my first butterfly of the year.
Avocets with Herring Gulls
3 hours just flew by before I headed home to get ready for my sister-in-law Mary's 70th Birthday celebrations but it had been a very enjoyable and restorative birding time.
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