Dawlish Warren Day Out

Thursday 29th October was grey, windy and mizzley but with a Bairds Sandpiper, Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper being reported at Dawlish Warren and a need to get out for the day I decided to tog up in my wet weather gear and head out there for a look.

High tide wasn't until around 5pm so I had a late start, arriving at Dawlish Warren at around 11:30 and I started off by weaving through the half term crowds to the sea wall for a scan offshore.

Viewing was difficult in the murk and large swell but a Great Northern Diver, a Red-throated Diver and a Great Crested Grebe were found close together close off the sea wall before all going their separate ways. The Red-throated Diver was very mobile and spent very little time at the surface between dives as it moved east along the shore before being lost from sight. In contrast the Great Northern Diver showed very well at the surface and was seen with a small flat fish which it struggled to get down its throat, it was some sort of ray or skate with a long tail but it eventually succeeded in getting it down. 

A second Great Northern Diver was found further offshore and there may have been a second Red-throated Diver present too. 

3 adult and a juvenile Gannet were picked up some distance offshore and the only other bird of note was a presumed White Wagtail feeding nearby on the grass by the sea wall.

White Wagtail

White Wagtail

I headed out along the dune ridge to Warren Point with a brief stop at the Main Pond along the way where a male Shoveler and a Little Grebe were seen. A Kestrel and a Skylark were the only birds of note at The Point while out on the water a very smart male Eider was watched diving before moving into the estuary and a Harbour (Common) Seal swam past into the estuary, quite close to the beach and unnoticed by walkers passing by.

Eider

Onwards to the hide ready for the incoming tide and both Dark-bellied and Pale-bellied Brent Geese were feeding on the eel grass out on the mudflats along with Wigeon, Teal, Shelduck, Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, Grey Plover, a Knot, Turnstone, Ringed Plover, 3 Greenshank, Dunlin, Little Egret, 2 Sanderling and a Grey Heron.

Pale-bellied Brent Geese

As the tide flowed in the small waders began to arrive in The Bight and eventually the Little Stint was found amongst them by local birder Lee, my first of the year. There was no sign of the Bairds Sandpiper but by this time the light was horrendous as twilight fell and it was wet and windy although a Curlew Sandpiper was found after I left.

A distant small wader was found out on its own, it looked unwell and was stood in water up to its chest, it eventually flew onto the mud where I lost track of it but local birder Ivan watched it being attacked and killed by a Carrion Crow which then flew off to eat it in the dunes. Another macabre sighting was a dead Short-eared Owl on the beach being pecked at by Carrion Crows.

A female type Merlin flew through spooking all the smaller birds out on the mudflats but it was unsuccessful and flew off towards Cockwood. A second calendar year Yellow-legged Gull was picked out by Lee amongst the roosting gulls, a very smart looking bird with a very pale head with dark eye mask, a large dark bill and a dark grey mantle and keeping itself aloofly apart from the other Gulls. A colour ringed Scandinavian Rock Pipit was seen feeding in The Bight before being chased off by an unringed Rock Pipit. 

With the weather worsening, the light fading and the tide rising it was time to leave along the badly eroded beach before getting cut off by the rising tide and a Water Rail was heard squealing from the reeds around the Main Pond on the walk back to the cafe for a hot cup of tea before heading home. 

Eroded Beach

A very enjoyable day out despite the poor light and weather, no Bairds Sandpiper but very pleased to see my first Little Stint of the year on quite a late date.

A summary of the day can be found here :-

Dawlish Warren Birders

Wind and Rain!

Our Holiday-less Holiday continues and the weather has been pretty vile to say the least with what seems to be constant grey skies, strong winds and heavy rain. No chance of any moth boxing in the back yard either with chilly and wet nights and while the east coast of England enjoys a fantastic autumn of bird migration the South West remains very quiet. Never mind but I had hoped for something more interesting as we are usually on foreign travels at this time of year and I always miss out on UK birding at this time. 

Undettered we headed down to Looe by train on Saturday 3rd October with friends Julie and Matt for an overnight stay but the weather was horrid and we actually returned earlier than planned on the Sunday as it really was quite foul. Nothing too exciting was seen on the bird front but there were 3 Eider just off the main beach, a male, a female and an juvenile/eclipse male, and I also had a very brief view of a Great Northern Diver further out just as it dived but I couldn't relocate it. 

Eider, Looe

Looe Signage

Tuesday 6th October was very windy with heavy showers but there was something unusual in the skies too - the sun! - and so we drove up to Stover Park for a walk before heading to The Brookside Cafe at Bovey Tracy for a late lunch. 

It has been a while since we last visited Stover Park and there have been some interesting changes. The footpath around the lake has been improved and is now wider and gravel covered so much less muddy and easier to walk along. Also dogs now have to be kept on a lead at all times around the Lake - I love dogs but am not so keen on dog owners who often ignore the needs of wildlife and the enjoyment of other users of the countryside so this is quite an interesting and welcome development. The construction of the reed bed to help filter the polluted water entering the lake is also now completed and the water quality does look a little better which will hopefully improve and increase the biodiversity of the lake which has notably declined over recent years. 

There were good numbers of wildfowl out on the lake, the most I have seen here before, and amongst the Mallard and Moorhen and Canada Geese were a male Pochard, 2 Mute Swan with 2 grown Cygnets, Coot including 5 juveniles, Black-headed Gulls, 2 Great-crested Grebe (an adult attending to a juvenile), at least 24 active and mobile Tufted Duck (11 females), a Cormorant and a very tame small duck that appeared to be a Mallard x Teal hybrid. 

Teal, Stover Park

Teal x Mallard?

Teal - green speculum but with a hint of blue

Crossbills and Siskins were seen and heard overhead and a Great Spotted Woodpecker chipped away in the pine trees. Nuthatch, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Blue Tit and Great Tit were seen on the bird feeders with 3 Grey Squirrels scavenging the scraps beneath them. 

Bees and Flys were buzzing around the Ivy blossom and included 2 massive Hornets. Common Darters were flying around too in sheltered spots when the sun appeared and included mating pairs.

Hornet

Hornet

Hornet

Common Darter

Common Darter

Thursday 7th October was bright and sunny and calm but with rain and wind forecasted for late afternoon I headed off in the morning for a walk along the River Plym and around Saltram Park.

It was a very high tide and Blaxton Meadow was again almost totally water covered but roosting out on the Meadow were 8 Greenshank, 38 Curlew, 6 Oystercatcher, 3 Redshank, 2 Shelduck, 1 Grey Heron and 11 Little Egret along with Canada Geese, Herring Gull and Black-headed Gull.

A roosting flock of around 140 Redshank were along the river embankment by the A374 with 12 Grey Heron while out on the water were a few Cormorant and Mallard. A Kingfisher dashed past over the water calling noisily but was never to be seen again.

In the Park both Green- and Great-spotted Woodpecker and Nuthatch were heard but not seen while Ring-necked Parakeets noisily flew around overhead. Stock Dove, 2 Goldcrest, Coal Tit, Buzzard and Jay were also seen. A worn Speckled Wood, a Large White and a Small White were also noted.

Speckled wood, Saltram

The grass on Chelson Meadow had been cut, I'm not sure why but maybe it gets cut every year at this time and I have never noticed, but mobile and flighty Meadow Pipits were very much enjoying feeding amongst the grass cuttings.

I spent a bit of time looking for Firecrests but with no luck so I headed home via the Plymouth University Campus where 2 Firecrest have been reported and eventually I found them busily feeding in a holly tree along with a Chiffchaff. 2 Speckled Wood flitted about in the nearby tree tops and a Siskin was heard flying over. A Brown Rat rooting around in a nearby hedgerow was a bit of a surprise.

I also had a look around Drakes Reservoir where a Kingfisher has been reported and I easily found it resting on the stone wall of the reservoir. It occassionally flew over the water calling noisily, hovering at times over the water and diving in to catch small fish.

Kingfisher, Drakes Reservoir

A Grey Wagtail was also feeding along the waters edge while a large and stunning Golden Carp swam around in the water amongst its black relatives.

Grey Wagtail

Golden Carp

Golden Carp

Golden Carp

Orcas in Iceland

Thursday 8th November and it was off to Ipswich on the train for a few days away visiting family before heading off to Iceland. The train journey up to Ipswich went smoothly with the highlight being at least 15 red kites seen between Westbury and Paddington but the only sighting of note while in Suffolk was a red legged partridge flying across the road as we drove  home from a visit to Lavenham.

Our trip to Iceland was arranged back in March this year, our friend Julie's niece Kizzy wanted to visit Iceland for her 30th birthday and we were asked if we would like to come along too. However after arranging the trip the Icelandic government decided to allow whaling again this summer but we had already agreed that we would not patronize a restaurant that served whale meat and had booked up a whale watching trip on Kizzy's birthday although I expected the trip to probably be cancelled due to bad weather and if it went ahead I wasn't expecting to see anything - how wrong I was!

Whaling is a very controversial issue and the resumption of whaling in Iceland has caused quite a furore but vetoing visiting Iceland is not the answer, naturalists need to visit Iceland and go whale watching and avoid whale meat selling restaurants to show the Icelandic government that more money can be raised by watching whales rather than killing them.

While the issue is not that simple it would appear that the majority of whale meat consumed in Iceland is minke whale meat and is eaten by tourists (up to 98%!) while fin whale meat is exported to Japan - so if tourists visiting Iceland stopped eating whale meat it would be a big step towards whaling in Iceland coming to an end.

Tourists - Look for this sign in Icelandic Restaurants!

We flew to Iceland on Monday 12th November and I was suffering with a cold which had started the night before but it didn't stop me enjoying my time away. Iceland is a beautiful country and having enjoyed my previous visit back in 2015 I was really looking forward to my visit this time and I wasn't to be disappointed. The weather was much better this time, it was mild and calm and dry with only a little snow on the mountain tops which made for a very pleasant trip but it was much more expensive this time too, I guess the Icelandic economy has bucked up again after the crash (and dare I mention it but Brexit has probably had an effect too).

We were based in Reykjavik and hired a van for the length of our stay which gave us a bit of flexibility and saved some money too. We did the Golden Circle Drive (Pingvellir, Geysir and Gulfoss) but spent the rest of the time in Reykjavik and while the others visited the Blue Lagoon one morning for a staggering £88 each we stayed behind and visited the Vesturbaejarlaug thermal pool in Reykjavik for the more reasonable sum of £6.50 each.

I was hoping to see a few birds during my stay and managed to see a total of 30 species which I was quite pleased about and the first birds I saw were ravens, starlings and a few distant gulls on the drive from the airport to our hotel before it got dark at around 5pm. The next morning with first light being around 9.45am we drove off on the Golden Circle Drive where I saw more ravens, mallards, a grey goose flying over and a single whopper swan.

Iceland

Pingvellir

Raven at Geysir

Stroker at Geysir

Gulfoss Waterfall

Gulfoss Waterfall

Wednesday 14th November was Kizzy's birthday and before our whale watching trip at 1pm we had a wander around Reykjavik and visited Lake Tjornin in the city centre where there was a good selection of wildfowl including the very lovely Crinkly, a whopper swan with a deformed neck that we first saw here in 2015.

Crinkly at Lake Tjornin

Crinkly

Crinkly with Whopper Swans

Crinkly and Whopper Swans with Greylag Geese

Other birds seen here at the Lake were a lone pink footed goose (the same one we saw here in 2015?), greylag geese, wigeon, mallard, tufted duck, red breasted merganser, black headed gull, common gull and a single adult glaucous gull.

A nearby square with areas of grass and a few trees held a few starlings, feral pigeons, blackbirds and redwing (Icelandic race corburni) which were all quite tame along with 3 redpoll species which were much more skittish and quickly flew off (presumably the islandica race or possibly the rostrata race from Greenland).

Redwing

Redwing

We then boarded our whale watching boat Andrea operated by Special Tours and headed out to sea as the skies darkened with clouds. It did stay dry apart from a brief spell of drizzle and the sun did reappear a few times but it was cold in the gentle wind with a bit of swell on the sea. I wasn't expecting to see any whales or dolphins but the scenery was stunning and there were plenty of birds around to keep me occupied - Iceland, glaucous, common, great black backed and black headed gulls, kittiwake, a single gannet, razorbills, guillemots, eiders, a great northern diver and surprisingly a few sooty shearwaters (I had seen on the Special Tours sightings pages that sooty shearwaters were being seen but it was very strange to actually see them in November in Iceland).

Sooty Shearwater

Sooty Shearwater

I was enjoying the birds when a shout went up that a minke whale had been spotted and I managed to get a few good but brief views as it passed by the boat before disappearing and I was pleased that the others also managed to see it too. A short time later another shout went out but this time it was for orca which had been spotted ahead of us and we managed to get some wonderful views of 3 orcas (a male, a female and a calf) as they swam around the boat.

Killer Whales

Killer Whale

Killer Whales

Killer Whales 

Killer Whale

Killer Whale

Killer Whale 

It was soon time to leave them be and head back to the harbour and on the cruise back we were joined by a pod of white beaked dolphins, around 10 of them, which came in to bow ride and play in the boats wake before moving away and which were being trailed by at least 3 sooty shearwaters. They were surprisingly large and chunky looking and a new species for me and again the others all managed to see them too - a fantastic end to a very exciting and productive trip and not what I was expecting at all.

White Beaked Dolphin

White Beaked Dolphin with Guillemots

Thursday 15th November and we had the day to ourselves while the others went to the Blue Lagoon so we spent it around Reykjavik and on a walk around the harbour and waterfront I added purple sandpiper, black guillemot, a single adult herring gull and shag to the trip list.

Eiders

Eiders

Purple Sandpipers

Black Guillemot - juvenile

Black Guillemot - adult

Unfortunately the large upwellings of water that I had observed along the waterfront back in 2015 were no longer present and so there were no congregations of feeding gulls to scan through but I did get a few decent views of Iceland and glaucous gulls fairly close to shore.

Iceland Gull

Glaucous Gull with Iceland Gull

Glaucous Gull with crab pinched from a Eider

We revisited Tjornin Lake on our walk to the Vesturbaejarlaug thermal pool where Crinkly was still present along with his/her mate in tow and giving grief to any other whopper swans that came to close.

Crinkly with Mate

Crinkly

Crinkly

Juvenile Whopper Swan

Pink Footed Goose with Mallard

Pink Footed Goose 

Friday 16th November and it was time to fly back to the UK and a last look along the waterfront before our drive to the airport added a cormorant to the trip list while on the drive to the airport I managed to see a few whopper swans on small lakes by the roadside and looking a little more naturalistic than they did on Lake Tjornin.

And so the trip was a great success. No Northern Lights this time but a fantastic whale watching trip more than made up for it (for me anyway) and we were very lucky with the weather too. The light was pretty poor though for photography and my little automatic camera struggled in the low light levels resulting in some grainy looking snaps.

And go to Iceland - go whale watching and support the local people running the trips, don't eat in any restaurants with whale meat on the menus and show the Icelandic government that there is a viable economic alternative to whaling - tourists are sustaining the minke whale hunt and it needs to stop.

Raven, Reykjavik

Bee Eater Mural, Reykjavik

Sun Voyager, Reykjavik

Reykjavik Waterfront

Tourists - Don't Eat Whales!!!!