Another Yellow Legged Gull at Dawlish, 13th December 2017

After Sundays aborted attempt I decided to head out to Dawlish Warren again on the train for a look around - and what a difference! All my trains ran on time, there were hardly any passengers on them and it still only cost me £7.60 return as I caught the 09:48 train, the first train out of Plymouth after 9am. The weather forecast wasn't great - cold, very breezy and showery - but I headed out anyway for a short walk and despite the odd heavy shower it wasn't too bad.

I alighted at Dawlish and after a quick look at the stream heading down to the beach where I saw a grey wagtail and a pair of black swans with 3 fluffy cygnets I walked off along the coast path to Dawlish Warren. Scanning the sea along the way I managed to find 3 male common scoter diving quite close in to the beach with at least 12 great crested grebes across the Bay and numerous gannets moving around further offshore.

Black Swan with Cygnets, Dawlish

From the lifeguard hut on the seawall at The Warren I managed to find a red throated diver offshore, a bird I hoped to see after my very brief view of one at The Warren back in October. It was a little distant and after a few minutes it dived and despite searching I couldn't refind it. At least 8 great crested grebes were also present but they were flighty and mobile at times, and gannets were still moving around offshore with a few quite close in.

I headed off along the dune ridge towards the hide but got caught in a heavy and blustery shower and so I remained on the ridge in the shelter of the dunes and viewed The Bight from there where brent geese, curlew, redshank, dunlin, a ringed plover, 2 knot, grey plover, oystercatcher, turnstone, shelduck, wigeon, a pair of mallard and a flyover greenshank were seen.

Rainbow over Dawlish Warren Golf Course

Heading back to the Main Pond and a female stonechat was feeding from the bramble tops despite the wind and on the pond a nice male shoveler with 3 females and a little grebe were noted.

Shoveler

I had another quick look offshore from the lifeguard hut but I failed to refind the red throated diver again, however a nice purple sandpiper flying by was a nice compensation.

Walking back to Dawlish along the coast path and I picked up a red throated diver flying in towards the beach before it landed on the sea and promptly dived due to the attentions of an over inquisitive passing gannet. I did manage to refind it at the surface but it didn't hang around for long before it flew back off towards Torbay. 2 guillemots and a common scoter were also picked up flying towards Torbay, an adult Mediterranean gull was feeding offshore with some herring gulls and I had a brief view of a distant great northern diver flapping its wings on the water before it dived and was lost from sight.

A dark backed gull roosting on the jetty amongst herring gulls caught my eye as I arrived at Dawlish, it stood out amongst the other gulls and I managed a few record shots before the flock was disturbed by walkers. My initial thought was an argentatus type herring gull but its head was very white looking in the strong sunshine and I thought there was a hint of red orbital rings despite the distant views - yet another yellow legged gull to add to the years sightings!

 Yellow Legged Gull , Dawlish

Yellow Legged Gull, Dawlish

Yellow Legged Gull, Dawlish

While eating my chips for lunch from the railway platform at Dawlish I noticed a group of gannets were circling around quite close to shore and searching underneath them revealed a pod of at least 5 harbour porpoise - they were very close to the beach and moved even closer, at one point showing just off the jetty before they moved away, but a nice end to my short day out.

Local Birding - Velvet Scoter and Willow Tit

With another week off work to use up my leave allocation for the year ending March 2017 and with no plans to go away due to ongoing family health issues it was time to catch up with general chores and to do a bit of local birding.

Sunday 19th March and it was off to the River Exe for the day on the train and bus on a cool and cloudy day. On arriving at Dawlish railway station I had around 30 minutes to wait for the bus to Exminster and so I had a quick scan offshore from the seafront and picked up a few good bird sightings :- a female eider close in, 3 adult kittiwakes, a few gannets, at least 4 summer plumaged great crested grebes and around 40 common scoter offshore, strung out in a loose group and busily diving and occassionally flying off due to the attentions of herring gulls when they surfaced.

 Black Swan with cygnet, Dawlish

Black Swan with Cygnet

On arriving at Exminster Marshes I had a pleasent wander around but despite checking out all the pools and ditches and scanning through the good numbers of wigeon and teal still present I couldn't find any of the recently reported garganey although I did find 2 pairs of tufted duck and 4 male and a female pintail. Also seen were shelduck, shoveler, mallard, moorhen, Canada geese, mute swan and cormorant with waders represented by lapwings, 2 curlew, 2 oystercatcher, a common sandpiper, 3 green sandpiper and 3 little ringed plover. A pair of stonechat, a kestrel, a singing and 2 non singing chiffchaffs, reed buntings and long tailed tits were the landbird highlights.

I caught the bus back to Dawlish and with 20 minutes spare before the train to Plymouth arrived I scanned offshore again, this time from the station platform, and quickly picked up 4 scoter close to the beach which I was very pleased to find were actually velvet scoters. They gave some very nice views between dives with occassional flashes of white wing patches, an immature male with black plumage and no white eye patch and 3 females or immatures, notably browner toned plumage and with no pale face patches.

Female/Immature Velvet Scoter, Dawlish

Immature Male Velvet Scoter, Dawlish

I also found the common scoter flock again, this time much more further out and tightly packed, and I picked up the female eider again quite close in and with an immature male for company. An immature male common scoter was feeding alone close to the beach and I picked up at least 11 great crested grebes across the Bay, all in summer plumage except for 1 bird. Six Sandwich tern flying together towards Teignmouth were a very welcome sight of Spring on another grey and claggy and cool day. Needless to say I caught a later train home than originally planned as I was having such a good time!

Tuesday 21st and we headed off to Bude to sort out the caravan which is currently in storage on a site near the Tamar Lakes. It was cool and breezey with occassional heavy showers and we started off with a walk at Lower Tamar Lake where at least 4 sand martin were buzzing over the water in the less than spring like conditions while on the Lake were a Canada goose, 2 coot, 2 great crested grebe, 3 male and a female tufted duck, 2 male and a female mallard, 3 moorhen and a female goosander.

I arrived at the bird hide to find the bird feeders were empty and the feeders further along the path past the hide were no longer there so I had to scan through the thick undergrowth for birds but I did find long tailed, great and blue tits, 2 mistle thrush, a singing chiffchaff, a bullfinch and (finally!) at least 2 treecreepers which gave some very good views despite being constantly on the move.

I headed back to the car park where there were some stocked up bird feeders in the trees and I managed to eventually find a willow tit, my target bird, busily feeding low down in the vegetation along a nearby hedgerow. A marsh tit was present on the feeders and as the marsh tit moved away from the feeders along the hedgerow the willow tit ignored it. The willow tit eventually moved off too and was lost from sight but later I heard it give a wood warbler like peu-peu-peu call.

Willow Tit, Lower Tamar Lake - record shot

Also seen on the feeders were house sparrows, a coal tit, goldfinch, chaffinch and greenfinch and a surprise were 2 tawny owls calling in the nearby trees despite the bright sunshine.

We then headed off to the caravan site to sort out the caravan before heading off to Bude for an overnight stay at The Falcon Hotel which was very nice. The next morning on checking the Cornwall bird sightings website I saw that 2 spoonbills had been seen at nearby Maer Lake the previous day and so after breakfast we walked over to the Lake for a look. The water levels were very high and there was no sign of the spoonbills amongst the birds present but I did see teal, 3 juvenile mute swan, a male mallard, 10 moorhen, 3 adult lesser black backed gull, 4 black headed gull, herring gull, great black backed gull and 2 black tailed godwit (1 in summer plumage, 1 in winter plumage).

Black Tailed Godwit, Maer Lake