It was a cold and frosty but sunny start to the day on Saturday 5th March and as I needed to get some keys cut at the Marsh Mills Sainsbury's I decided to take a River Plym walk.
I arrived at Blaxton Meadow for the high tide at around 8:30am to find the water level very high as there are ongoing problems with the sluices. As a result most of the Redshanks and all of the Dunlins were roosting on the Embankment instead of the Meadow but a few Redshank were present with 7 Greenshank, 5 Oystercatcher, 27 Curlew and a Snipe. Just 3 pairs of Wigeon now remain with the others presumably having departed East.
A very smart looking summer plumaged Mediterranean Gull was picked out amongst the Black-headed Gulls, a regular wintering bird that I have failed to find on any of my visits until now and identifiable by its red leg ring from a Polish ringing scheme. An adult Lesser Black-backed Gull and 6 Common Gulls (1 first winter and 5 adults) were also noted.
Around Saltram a Treecreeper, a male Bullfinch, a male Stonechat and a Goldcrest were the highlights with both Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers heard only. Skylarks were singing away over Chelson Meadow and the usual Ring-necked Parakeets were noisely flying around.
A pair of Goosander, a Common Sandpiper, 7 Mandarin Duck, a Grey Wagtail, a Redwing, 2 Mute Swans and 9 Roe Deer were the best of the rest on an enjoyable and tentatively spring like day.
Tuesday 8th March was cold and grey but after 2 very gruelling long days at work I needed a bit of a wildlife fix and so we took a walk around Burrator Reservoir on Dartmoor. It was a lovely walk despite the dull skies and for a change there were very few people about which was very nice.
The highlight was a Marsh Tit around the top car park, it kept flying towards us from the nearby trees and hovering briefly in front of us before returning to the trees. I've seen photographers putting out nuts and seeds in the car park in the past to attract birds including Marsh Tits close to their cars and so presumably it's a bird habituated to being fed by humans.
Siskins were vocal and flighty in the trees and 2 Mistle Thrush, 2 Ravens, a Goldcrest and a male Stonechat were also noted while out on the water there were 3 Great Crested Grebes, a Little Grebe, Mallards, 2 Canada Geese, the white Feral Goose and 5 Cormorant.
A few Gulls were roosting on the chain near the main dam - a couple of Herring Gulls, a Great Black-backed Gull, 3 dark backed Lesser Black-backed Gulls (intermedius) and a paler backed (graellsii) bird which looked very Yellow-legged Gull-like.
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