Germany, Great Northern Divers and Goosanders

A trip to Cologne in Germany for a few days away to enjoy the Christmas Markets was a haze of food, drink and shopping, we even had snow when we arrived on Monday 4th December but it had melted away by the next morning. It has been 5 years since our last visit to what is one of my favourite places and it was comforting to find that not much has changed although it was much, much busier than I remember before.

Cologne

Cologne

I didn't take my binoculars or my camera with me this time but I managed a few wildlife sightings during our visit despite the very urban setting and Christmas themed activities.

The usual Ring-necked Parakeets were seen and heard screeching overhead and perched up in trees, early each morning flocks of them would appear outside our hotel room window to drink and bath in the puddles on the nearby flat roofs before dispersing for the day. Amongst them were at least 3 Alexandrine Parakeets, larger and with a louder and deeper screeching call. Also from the window I managed a few brief and distant views of totally black Red Squirrels as they dashed about in the nearby gardens.

A very noisy Peregrine was a nice sighting near the Cathedral as it gave an incredibly white looking Buzzard flying over a very hard time before being hassled itself by a very brave Carrion Crow. A Shag feeding on The Rhine near The Chocolate Museum was a surprise so far inland but the occassional Cormorant flying over was more expected. Very distant flocks of Geese were seen flying over fields as we whizzed by on the train on a visit to nearby Aachen, probably Grey Geese but also maybe just Canadas.

Aachen

All in all a very enjoyable trip and a nice start to the Christmas festivities, it's not my most favourite time of the year but maybe this year I might actually start to regain some of my previous Christmas spirit.

With the River Plym Great Northern Diver still being reported as present during our time away I was keen to go and look for it on our return to the UK and so I headed out on Saturday 9th December to see if I could find it. I caught the bus to Laira Bridge to start my search and quickly found it downriver heading towards me on the incoming tide, unfortunately a passing dinghy spooked it and it headed back down towards The Cattewater busily decimating the local crab population along the way. I then had a look upriver from the Bridge and was surprised to find a second bird floating about on the water just off Blagdon Meadow.

(Distant) Great Northern Diver, The Cattewater

Low tide was at 8:45am and on arriving at Laira Bridge at around 11:45am I was expecting to see some exposed mud along the estuary but the tide was already quite high with no mud on show at all and so I headed up along The Ride to have a look at Blaxton Meadow.

Very little was seen along the way in the strong breeze and the footpaths were incredibly muddy following all the recent heavy rain but I saw 2 Jay, a male Pheasant, a flock of 16 Redwings flying over with skulking birds later seen in the Holly bushes, a Stock Dove, at least 4 Ring-necked Parakeets and 3 Grey Squirrels.

Redwing

Ring-necked Parakeet - one of an introduced population competing for nest holes with native species 

Blaxton Meadow wasn't flooded but the water was rushing in through the sluice gates and out on the mud the usual birds were present - 40 Shelduck, 37 Curlew, 34 Wigeon, at least 28 Snipe, 16 Oystercatcher, 8 Greenshank, a Black-tailed Godwit, 3 adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, 2 adult Common Gull, an adult Mediterranean Gull, an adult Great Black-backed Gull, 8 Heron and a Little Egret along with Redshank, Mallard, Herring Gulls and Black-headed Gulls and surprisingly only 3 Dunlin.

I continued onwards towards Marsh Mills to catch the bus home and on the way there I found 3 male and 4 female Goosander resting and preening near the gas pipe with a single male seen further upriver near the railway bridge, a nice finish to my walk.

Goosander

Goosander

Chilly!

It was freezing cold (literally) as I set off in the dark on the 7am bus to Wembury on Friday 1st December. The first proper cold spell of the winter is here and it became a beautiful day when dawn arrived, all blue skies, still air and chilly temperatures and I had a very pleasant walk.

Wembury at first light - and no one else there! (But not for long)

After stepping off the bus I walked down the road to the beach and despite the poor light had some good views of 2 Firecrests feeding in village gardens, they were keeping together but were constantly getting into skirmishes with each other. Sadly there was no sign of them on my return walk when the light was better.

It was high tide and unusually the Oystercatchers were roosting on the rocks below the horse field. I was pleased to find 3 Knot amongst them but even better was finding 2 Purple Sandpiper amongst the 30+ Turnstones feeding on the seaweed mass on the beach nearby.

Knot with Oystercatchers

Purple Sandpipers

Purple Sandpiper

Purple Sandpiper

Also along the beach were 5 Little Egret, a Curlew and an adult Mediterranean Gull plus the usual Rock and Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails, I had a quick look for the Water Pipit but with no luck although a Grey Wagtail was a nice find.

Offshore Gannets were diving for fish and further out small flocks of Auks were flying around low to the water but too far out to ID. 2 Stock Doves heading out to sea was a surprise and at least another 3 were seen flying around the fields above the wheatfield.

Cirl Buntings, Stonechats, Skylarks and Meadow Pipits were showy but flighty, not helped by 2 female Sparrowhawks passing by in a low to the ground parallel flight which seemed to be some sort of stylised display. A Chiffchaff was seen at The Point with another later in the village gardens on the walk back to the bus stop, a male Blackcap was seen in the Valley to the Beach where the Cettis Warbler was heard calling briefly and a male Bullfinch was seen at the Church. A pair of Roe Deer and 4 Rabbits also added some non-avian interest to an enjoyable morning.

Stonechat

Stonechat

Roe Deer

It was even colder the next morning (Saturday 2nd December) as I headed off in the dark again but this time for a visit to The River Plym and Saltram. It was just getting light as I stepped off the bus at Long Bridge and it became another beautiful winters day with a lovely heavy frost everywhere.

It was high tide and Blaxton Meadow held the usual roosting birds with counts of 23 Snipe, 40 Curlew, 16 Oystercatcher, 9 Greenshank, a Turnstone, a Black-tailed Godwit, a male and 2 female Teal and 51 Wigeon amongst the Redshank, Dunlin, Shelduck, Canada Geese, Mallard and Gulls.

Blaxton Meadow at dawn

Oystercatchers

Around The Park a male Stonechat, Redwings, 2 Goldcrest, 2 Coal Tit and a Green Woodpecker were the highlights along with a distant flock of around 30 Golden Plover which I viewed from above The Amphitheatre as they wheeled around in the sky above Boringdon before heading north towards the Moors.

Frozen Teasel

Frozen Nettle

Out on the river there were 12 Goosander (4 males), 5 Little Grebes and a scruffy looking presumed 1st winter male Red-breasted Merganser which was happily displaying to itself (as you do!). A Common Sandpiper, a Kingfisher and a Grey Wagtail were also seen.

I failed to find a reported Great Northern Diver but hopefully it will stick around and reappear and maybe the current cold snap will bring in some more birds too, here's hoping.