Whenever I go away something rare always turns up locally and this time it was a Lesser Crested Tern that pitched up on the River Exe while I was on holiday in Denmark.
On my return to Plymouth I headed out to look for it on Saturday 6th December, it was a blustery and showery day and with the Tern having spent most of the previous day around Dawlish Warren I decided to begin my day there and see how it panned out.
There was a mass of twitchers at Warren Point when I arrived on site at around 9:45am but after an early morning sighting the Tern hadn't been seen again and the general mood was low. However news came through that the Tern had been seen upriver at Turf resulting in a mass exodus of the twitchers present but I decided to stay put in the hope it would move downriver as the tide receeded.
I eventually had a brief and very distant sighting of the Tern resting on Cockle Sands off Exmouth before it flew off back upriver and was lost to sight. It later reappeared off Cockwood Steps and I had some more distant views of it resting and preening on the mud in amongst the Gulls also present but by the time I had walked to the Steps from Warren Point it had flown off again and as the light began to fade it never reappeared. At least I had seen it though, they weren't the views I had wanted but it was more than some of the birders present had had.
I also had some interesting bird sightings during the day while waiting around for the Tern to appear and these included 2 Great Northern Diver offshore, Red-breasted Merganser, Pintail and Sanderling in the estuary and an Egyptian Goose flying downriver over Starcross.
The weather the next day was foul but the Tern was still around The Exe and favouring the upper reaches around Turf again and with the weather a little better on Monday 8th December I decided to give it another go in the hope of getting some better views. It was still showing well at Turf that morning but by the time I had arrived off the train at Starcross and walked to Turf it had flown off. I searched for it on the dropping tide as I walked back downriver from Turf to Cockwood Steps but I never refound it and I had to head home in the fading light without any sighting of it at all.
Again I had some interesting bird sightings along the way though and including more Red-breasted Mergansers and Pintail out on the estuary along with Avocets and Golden Plovers, a large flock of Brent Geese feeding out on Powderham Marshes, a Green Woodpecker in Powderham Park and best of all 2 Slavonian Grebes off Cockwood Steps.
Storm Bram arrived that night with some heavy rain and gales but the Tern was again present at Turf the next morning despite the lousy conditions. I stayed local though and had a walk around Plymouth Hoe where I was pleased to find a 1st winter Little Gull feeding with a Black-headed Gull over a mass of floating seaweed just off The Wet Wok before it flew off and disappeared from sight.
Wednesday 10th December was the calm after the storm with a sunny and dry day forecasted and so I decided to try one last time for better views of the Tern. I was better prepared this time and caught an early, more expensive train (£19.60) and I arrived at Starcross at around 8am just as it was starting to get light.
I had a brief pause at the flooded field just outside the village where 7 Cattle Egret were feeding together before they flew off inland.
I walked along the road by the railway line between Starcross and Powderham Church but my way was thwarted by flood water from yesterday's Storm which was covering around 30 metres of the road. With no other feasible route available to me there was nothing for it but to take off my socks and shoes, roll up my jeans and wade through it. The water was cold, muddy and smelly and reached up to my knees resulting in wet jeans but I was soon through it and back on track towards Turf.
Reports started coming through that the Tern was present at Turf and on arriving there I finally had some wonderful views of it perched on a buoy just off the Turf Hotel and in the lovely sunshine - third time's the charm I guess!
After watching the Tern for a while I wandered along the canal to the viewing platform for a scan of Exminster Marsh, the Lapwing, Teal and Starling present were very unsettled and flighty and eventually I found the reason why as a female type Marsh Harrier drifted by. I had a scan of the wildfowl present out on the lagoon too and amongst the Coot and Wigeon present were a few Shoveler, Gadwall, Pintail and Tufted Duck along with an immature male Scaup which was a bit of a surprise.
The Tern was still showing very well on the buoy off Turf when I returned from the viewing platform and I enjoyed more excellent views of it but it was soon time to head back to Starcross for the train journey home. The road from Turf to Exminster was also flooded so I had no choice but to go back the way I had came, the flood water was now covering a longer stretch of road than earlier in the morning and it was also deeper too but I managed to wade through it again without getting my jeans too wet (although it would probably have been better to have taken them off!).
The journey home had the usual delays with my connecting train from Newton Abbot being cancelled but I was very pleased to have finally gotten some good views of the Lesser Crested Tern after it had given me a bit of a run around along The Exe. I'm very lucky to live so close to the Exe and to have had the opportunity to keep trying to see it as quite a few birders who had travelled from much further afield than me had ended up dipping it.
While I loved finally seeing the Tern so well (and it is a cracking bird to see) I really don't enjoy twitches with their large crowds of birders and toggers. I always keep myself on the periphery of the crowds at twitches but I did meet and chat to some very nice people on my 3 visits to The Exe although I also had to endure the usual Knobbers as well. I really hate the stress and frustration of twitching too and all its potential disappointments but I suppose the joy and relief you feel on seeing the bird you've come to twitch is the flip side.
However wading through cold and smelly flood water in December to see a bird is a new one for me but I have to say it was worth it although I really have to question my sanity, birding can be such a strange hobby at times.
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