My pre-Christmas break had to come to an end at some point and so it was back to work on a night shift on Saturday 10th December but not before a Plym/Saltram walk in the morning.
It was bitterly cold and I was wrapped up in plenty of warm clothes as a Plymouth rarity showed very well - a hard frost! The ground and roofs were dusted with icing sugar frost along with all the vegetation and grass and it all looked very pretty but it was blooming cold, the coldest I've known it in Plymouth for some time.
I started at Marsh Mills but I had missed the high tide and the mudflats were starting to become exposed resulting in very few birds present on Blaxton Meadow - 2 Curlew, a Turnstone, 9 Snipe and 46 Wigeon (24 male) were present along with Mallard, Shelduck, a few Redshank and a few Herring Gulls.
A walk around the Park was quiet too with a Green and Great Spotted Woodpecker seen along with 2 female Stonechat, a Lapwing, a Buzzard, at least 7 Redwing and a high count of at least 14 Song Thrush.
Along The Plym 2 male Red-breasted Merganser, a Little Grebe, a Great Crested Grebe, 5 Goosander (2 male), a Kingfisher, a Grey Plover and a Common Sandpiper were seen and a Grey Wagtail was found feeding along the waters edge underneath the A38 flyover.
I was glad to get back home and into the warmth though, it was a beautiful day to be out with some lovely light but it was bloody freezing!
I survived my 2 night shifts (it was much warmer at work than in my house!) and so on my next day off on Tuesday 13th December I headed out to Wembury for a walk. It was grey and dank and there was no frost on the ground when I stepped off the bus but it was still bitterly cold.
As I walked down the road to the main beach I found a pair of Blackcap, a Fieldfare and a Redwing amongst the 20+ Blackbirds feeding on fallen apples in one of the gardens with the Fieldfare regularly chasing off any Blackbirds that came too near.
Offshore there were Kittiwakes and Gannets milling around, all adults except for a single juvenile Gannet. An adult Common Gull flew in towards the beach, circled around the roosting Gulls and then flew back out to sea which was a nice surprise. A Great Northern Diver was picked up flying across the Bay before landing on the sea and promptly disappearing under the water, later it was seen flying up the River Yealm, and 2 Razorbills were also feeding off the beach although they were rarely at the surface for long and were quite difficult to track between dives.
A flock of 14 Golden Plover flew over heading east and along the beach 2 Turnstone, 3 Curlew, Oystercatchers, 6 male and 3 female Mallard, 4 Little Egret and a Grey Heron were seen. Amongst the Gulls roosting on the rocks were 8 adult Mediterranean Gulls including a ringed bird (3EXH in black on a white ring on the left leg, ringed in 2013 in Belgium).
The sea weed mass along the beach was very busy with feeding birds and amongst the Robin, Wren, Dunnock, Blackbird, Pied Wagtail, Rock Pipit and Meadow Pipit present were 2 Grey Wagtail, a pair of Stonechat and a flitty and mobile Water Pipit, presumably last months bird which hopefully will now overwinter.
It was soon time to catch the bus home and get back into the warm but it had been a very enjoyable and productive walk, a perfect antedote to the ongoing Christmas nonsense.
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