The start of half term holiday hell meant a return to local birding after all the Ring Ouzel, Snow Bunting, Long-billed Dowitcher and Whooper Swan excitement of last week on my visits further afield.
After some glorious weather over the weekend it was also back to rain on Monday 28th October. The following day did start grey and misty as I headed out to Wembury for a walk but by the time I arrived off the bus at 9:45am the mist had cleared and the cloud was breaking up and it became a pleasantly warm and sunny day.
A Firecrest, a Goldcrest, a Grey Wagtail, 3 Song Thrush, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Meadow Pipit and a pair of Stonechat were seen on the walk from the bus stop up to the church with a Great Spotted Woodpecker heard calling too.
There had been quite the movement of Woodpigeons along the South Devon coast in the previous days but from the high vantage point of the church there were only local Woodpigeons flying around overhead with no sign of any properly migrating birds. However Stock Doves were on the move with 1 seen amongst a flock of Woodpigeon feeding in the field above the sewage farm (where a flock of Stock Doves wintered last year) and another seen flying up the valley to the beach. A further 2 Stock Doves were then seen flying west over The Point and later a flock of 9 flew over heading west too.
A few Skylark were seen flying about and calling but again seemed to be local birds moving around. However I did pick up 2 Siskins flying over the church heading west which were then joined by 2 more, only my second ever Wembury sighting. Later a flock of around 20 Siskins were briefly seen flying west over The Point.
A Curlew, 3 Little Egret, 2 adult Mediterranean Gulls and Oystercatchers were seen along the beach and just a single adult Gannet was seen offshore. A male Dartford Warbler showed very nicely for a change at The Point along with a female Kestrel, a Green Woodpecker and a female Bullfinch while overhead 2 Sparrowhawks were seen. The sunflower field held a feeding flock of around 100 noisey Linnets while a few Red Admiral and Speckled Wood were still flitting about in the warm sunshine.
It was another beautiful sunny day on Friday 1st November as I headed off to Marsh Mills for a Plym and Saltram walk. With no breeze at all it was warm in the sunshine and at least 6 late Speckled Wood were seen flitting about and the Wasp nest was still very much active. The good weather and half term holiday hell meant there were swarms of people and dogs everywhere but I had an enjoyable walk anyway.
It was very quiet on the bird front with the highlights on a low tide being singles of Redwing (flying over), Grey Wagtail, Common Sandpiper, Stock Dove, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard plus 2 Little Grebe, 2 Greenshank, 2 Rook, Mandarin Ducks, Jays and Ring-necked Parakeets. A Great Spotted Woodpecker was also heard "chipping" away.
It was overcast, warm and still as I headed out to Wembury again on Saturday 2nd November, however as the morning wore on an easterly breeze picked up and it noticeably cooled down. Despite this I did see a Red Admiral and a Speckled Wood on the wing and there were a few Wasps and a Black Slip Wasp (Pimpla rufipes) still making the most of the remaining Ivy flowers.
A Pheasant shoot was taking place in the fields above the sewage farm and I watched 2 male and around 15 female Pheasants flushed out by the beaters, all bar 1 female survived the guns. A further skulky male Pheasant was seen at The Point, he was very wisely keeping his head down. All the gun noise regularly spooked the nearby feeding Rooks and Jackdaws and Woodpigeons and amongst the swirling flocks I managed to pick out at least 4 Stock Dove.
The tide was ebbing and out on the rocks were 4 Turnstone, a Curlew, Oystercatchers, 37 Mallard, 2 Little Egret and 9 Mediterranean Gulls (8 adults, 1 1st winter). The highlight though were 3 Wigeon (1 male) briefly seen in flight along the shoreline at The Point before splashing down on the sea, only my second ever sighting at Wembury. They swam around for a bit before coming out of the water and onto the rocks where they promptly went to sleep, if I hadn't have seen them in flight I would have totally overlooked them.
A pair of Kestrel were busily hovering away at The Point and a Green Woodpecker and a Great Spotted Woodpecker were both heard nearby. Stonechats and Cirl Buntings were very showy and other birds of note were a Grey Wagtail, a Bullfinch, 3 Goldcrest, 3 Blackcap (1 male) and 2 Chiffchaff. Another highlight of my walk was a Mistle Thrush in the trees at the back of the now ploughed stubble field, presumably a migrating bird and my first Wembury sighting of one since 2021.
Before catching the bus home I had a walk around the village streets near the bus stop to check out the rooftops for Black Redstarts which had been reported here in the past week, no luck for me today but never mind.
