The cold and dry weather continues and so I am trying to make the most of it and get out and about as much as possible before the rain and wind returns as it undoubtedly will.
Monday 15th January was another beautiful day with frosty cold air, blue skies and no breeze as I headed off on the bus to Wembury. The tide was starting to ebb by the time I arrived and there was a lot of disturbance along the beach from dog walkers but I did find a Redshank, 18 Turnstone, a Curlew, 10 Little Egrets and the usual Oystercatchers despite this.
Wembury
Redshank
There was no sign of the Water Pipit along the beach but there were plenty of Rock Pipit present with at least 2 Meadow Pipit. A Chiffchaff was also seen here flitting about along the cliff edge.
A pair of Sparrowhawks were busily displaying away overhead and were a joy to watch and the flock of 40+ Stock Doves were again present in the fields above the sewage farm, only viewable when they frequently took to the air. A male Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Green Woodpecker and Redwings were seen in the woods above the valley to the beach and 2 male Cirl Buntings were seen along the coastpath with 1 of them busily singing away.
Cirl Bunting
A Razorbill close in off the main beach, 2 female Blackcaps (1 at The Point, 1 in village gardens), Fulmars around The Mewstone and Gannets offshore were the other highlights on what was a very enjoyable walk in the sunshine and fresh, cold air (and I didn't slip over in the mud this time!).
Tuesday 16th January was a similarly sunny, cold and still day and so I headed off to Torpoint again for a look about. The sun was again lovely to see but did hamper viewing from Marine Drive on the outgoing tide. I did eventually find the wintering Black-necked Grebe although it sadly remained distant and there were at least 19 Great Crested Grebes present too plus 3 Little Grebes but there was no sign of the Red-necked or Slavonian Grebes - looks like another visit is on the cards, preferably on a cloudy day!
A Great Northern Diver, a Greenshank, 3 adult Common Gulls and 8 Ringed Plover were also of note along with 2 Peregrines flying over in an aggressive, noisy interaction involving physical contact before they flew off in opposite directions.
I was pleased to see the pale-bellied Brent Geese on this visit, there were 17 present with a lone dark-bellied bird and they were feeding close in to the shore before being flushed off by dog walkers. A further 10 Brent Geese were roosting together on the opposite shore at the same time too, probably dark-bellied but too far away to assign to race.
Pale-bellied and Dark-bellied Brent Geese - Branta bernicla hrota and Branta bernicla bernicla
Dark and Pale-bellied Brent Geese
Two of the pale-bellied birds were sporting leg rings - a white L on red on the left leg and a black C on white on the right leg (LC) was a bird I saw here a year ago but a white 4 on red on the left leg and a black C on white on the right leg (4C) was a new bird for me. I never had any response from reporting the bird LC I saw last year but it seems to be from an Irish ringing scheme involving birds from Greenland and Canada, I'll report todays sightings and see if I get any details this time.
Pale-bellied Brent Geese -Branta bernicla hrota
Brent Geese
Brent Geese
Brent Geese
Three guesses what the weather was like on Thursday 18th January? - that's right, cold, clear and still! And with an invite from Mavis and her friends Kay and Sheila for a birdy day out at Slapton Ley I leapt at the chance to join them, we ended up having a really great day out on what was my first visit to Slapton in over a year.
I caught the bus out to Plympton for my pick up and had a quick look along the stream running through the town where I found 2 Dipper, one was a ringed bird and the same one that I saw this time last year. There was some singing and calling going on between them despite the below zero temperatures and they allowed some close views, presumably used to all the people and traffic passing by.
Dipper, Plympton
The journey to Slapton was a bit tortuous along narrow country lanes due to the road at Modbury currently being closed but with some excellent driving from Kay we arrived at the bridge over the Ley to start our walk around Ireland Bay to the viewing screen and back. It was a beautiful day, cold in the breeze but warm in the sunshine, the sun was lovely to see and feel but viewing the birds out on the water was challenging. Despite this we still managed to get some good views and sightings of the waterfowl out on the Ley and also of the small birds feeding in the Leyside vegetation.
Slapton Ley
Out on the water we found the usual Tufted Ducks, Gadwalls, Coots, Great Crested Grebes, Little Grebes, Canada Geese, Mute Swans, Wigeons and Mallards but amongst them were a male Pintail, 3 Teal (1 male), 3 Goldeneye (2 male) and the regular wintering male Ring-necked Duck. A Great White Egret was also briefly seen flying down the Ley before disappearing into the reeds, my first sighting of one at Slapton.
Tufted Ducks and a Black-headed Gull
Goldeneye
Water Rails and Cetti's Warblers were heard calling and a Sparrowhawk, at least 2 Buzzards and numerous Redwings were seen overhead. At least 4 Chiffchaffs and a Great Spotted Woodpecker were seen alongside the Ley but Goldcrests and Firecrests were birds of the day, at least 6 Goldcrests and 3 Firecrests were seen and they just seemed to pop up everywhere along our walk.
Robin waiting to swoop down on our cheese scone crumbs (made by Mavis)
We had an enjoyable walk around Stoke Point on Friday 19th January, it was cold and still again and the scenery looked stunning in the sunshine. The paths weren't too muddy after the heavy morning frost and we had a nice lunch in The Ship Inn at Noss Mayo which has been taken over by Youngs Brewery but seems to be much the same at the moment with a very similar menu.
It was quiet birdwise but a swirling flock of around 150 Golden Plover overhead in fields near The Warren car park were a delight to watch in the fading sunshine on our walk back to the car. A hovering Kestrel, 3 pairs of Stonechats, flitty and skittish Redwings, a Greenshank along the estuary, a brief drumming heard from a Woodpecker in the woods and 3 Buzzards overhead were also of note along with 3 Mute Swans flying along the coast at Wembury before flying up the Yealm Estuary. The strangest sight considering the cold weather was a Red Admiral trying to warm itself up in the sunshine, my first butterfly of the year.
Red Admiral
It was milder, cloudier and breezier on Saturday 20th January and with Storm Isha on her way it will soon be wet again but the morning forecast didn't look too bad so I decided to get out birding one more time before the weather keeps me a prisoner indoors again. I headed over to Torpoint again, high tide was due at 12:45pm but it was a high low tide and on arriving at around 09:00am there was no mud on show and very little of the shore uncovered. The cloud cover meant viewing was much easier without looking into the glare of the sun and the light was very good but the stiff breeze and choppy water made conditions difficult in a different way.
I scanned across the water but only found a Great Northern Diver, a Great Crested Grebe and 2 Little Grebes. A few Oystercatcher and Curlew were feeding along the shoreline while on the opposite shore distant Wigeon, Shelduck, Redshank and Turnstone were noted and 8 Avocet were seen flying upriver. Interestingly I found the mucky feral type Greylag Goose from my recent Plym visit feeding in a field with Canada Geese, distant scope views but definitely the same bird and indicating how mobile birds can be around the Plymouth area.
There were also 14 distant Dark-bellied Brent Geese on the opposite shore but I had much better views of 20 Brent Geese which flew in to feed close off Marine Drive, 18 were pale-bellied types which included the two ringed birds seen on Tuesday, 4C and LC. With them were a dark-bellied bird and also a bird that looked like an intermediate type.
Pale-bellied Brent Geese
Pale-bellied Brent Geese
LC
4C
Pale- and Dark-bellied Brent Geese
Dark-bellied Brent Goose
Intermediate Type?
Intermediate Type? with Pale-bellied Type
There was still no sign of the Red-necked Grebe (it was reported as present yesterday along with 2 Black-necked Grebes) and so I called it a day and headed off home after an interesting morning's birding in what has been a very cold and birdy week.
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