Rose-coloured Starling

The long range weather forecast for Thursday 21st October had been looking promising for a Berry Head Seawatch but as the day drew nearer the forecast kept changing and eventually a storm blew threw overnight on the 20th and the 21st was clear with a North West wind. I had considered heading down to St.Ives again but after working a night shift I didn't fancy a very early start and a long (and more expensive) train journey so headed to Berry Head anyway for a look around, more in hope than expectation.

It was a breezey morning with a cool North Westerly wind but the sun was shining and it was nice to finally get to Berry Head on what is my first and now probably my only visit of this year.

I arrived down in the quarry at around 09:30am and a lone birder was perched up on the rocks at the usual seawatching platform. It was too exposed and cold for me in the wind and so I hunkered down on the rocks below a nearby cliff. 

Trawler heading in to Brixham Harbour

I scanned around offshore with my scope and found a large and strung out mass of feeding birds consisting of Gannets, Kittiwakes and Herring Gulls with a few Mediterranean Gulls, Black-headed Gulls, Great Black-backed Gulls, Common Gulls and a Lesser Black-backed Gull amongst them. Guillemots were whizzing across the waves in small groups and pitching down on the sea and a few Shag were also picked up amongst the waves. 

The light was harsh and the birds distant but I did eventually pick up a pale phase Arctic Skua which flew in to attack a group of feeding Kittiwakes, scattering birds everywhere including the Kittiwakes resting on the sea, but it quickly disappeared around the headland and was lost from sight. I also picked up a Great Skua which came quite close in, it was chasing Kittiwakes as it moved closer to shore before seeming to change its mind and heading back out to sea. 

The only other birds of note offshore were a Swallow flying west and 5 Common Scoter (3 male flying east, 1 male flying east and a female flying west) while in the quarry itself a Raven, a pair of Stonechat and a few calling Chiffchaff were noted. 

I decided to call it a day on the seawatching front and walked back to Brixham to catch the bus back to Paignton but on arriving back in Paignton I decided to have a look for the juvenile Rose-coloured Starling being seen on a nearby Paignton housing estate. I had bought a day rider bus ticket anyway and there was a bus stop right at the spot where the bird was mostly being seen and so off I headed. 

Armed with Google Maps on my phone and the information gleaned from bird news on the internet I soon found the right place and immediately saw the Rose-coloured Starling perched on a roof with some Starlings. They were hanging out on the roof of a house near a garden with bird feeders full of fat balls and I was pleased at how quickly I had found it.

Rose-coloured Starling

I watched it for a few minutes and even got my scope out for a better look but a noisey car drove past and spooked all the birds and off it flew. I then spent the next hour and a half wandering around the area checking out all the small groups of Starlings that were flying around, perching up on wires and roofs or feeding on the fat balls but unfortunately I never refound the Rose-coloured Starling.

It was soon time to catch the bus back to the railway station but while waiting for the bus a small looking falcon flying high overhead caught my attention and on checking it out I  realised it was a female/juvenile Merlin, a very smart looking bird and a complete surprise as it headed off inland.

Two trips to Wembury

With 2 night shifts looming I headed off to Wembury on the bus on Sunday 2nd November for a quick walk. It was the last day of the half term holiday and very breezey but sunny so I expected it to be busy but it wasn't too bad.

With the strong breeze viewing birds was difficult and the highlights were a feeding flock of gannets offshore, a pair of stonechats and a female kestrel along the coastpath and a feeding flock of black headed gulls hovering over the surf as it crashed onto the beach, picking at items of food disturbed by the waves. The best though was a merlin flying low over the water along the beach before swooping up over the cliff by the wheatfield before it was lost from sight. I couldn't refind it but there were small groups of meadow pipits flying around the wheatfield in complete panic so it must have still been in the area. It was very fast, looking small and dark in the sunshine, and is my third merlin of the year and third for Wembury.

After getting through my night shifts I headed off to Wembury again by bus on Wednesday 5th November and the weather was a total contrast - sunny, cold and calm, although the breeze did pick up later and it soon warmed up. The sunshine and warmth coaxed out a few butterflys and I had some nice views of red admirals and at least 3 clouded yellows including an helice type. A common darter was also seen flying along the stream in the valley to the beach.

 A tatty Red Admiral basking in the sun

 Clouded Yellow

Clouded Yellow



Arriving at Wembury at 09:30 and walking down to the main beach I heard skylarks calling overhead and on looking up saw 3 lapwings heading West along with a flock of 200+ woodpigeon and at least 1 stock dove, also heading West - there has been quite a movement of woodpigeons across Devon in the last few days and over the course of the morning I must have seen 1500+ birds moving West. The largest group was this first group I saw with subsequent groups totalling 30-100 birds but by 13:00hrs the movement stopped. I managed to find another stock dove amongst a flock of woodpigeon and also saw a flock of 8 stock doves flying over on their own. A single stock dove was also flying around the pines at Wembury Point before being disturbed by a low flying helicopter.

It was low tide but along the beach were a few oystercatcher, 3+curlew, a little egret, mallards and gulls. A chiffchaff was feeding in reeds at the cliff base near the sewage pipe with another 2 seen at the horse stables. A pair of kestrels showed well with the male bird noisely mobbing a buzzard perched in the pine trees by the horse fields. 2 pairs of cirl buntings were seen with 1 male heard singing briefly, and later 2 males were seen singing at Wembury Point. A male great spotted woodpecker was also noisely knocking on the pine trees at Wembury Point and a coal tit was heard calling but not seen.

 Robin - very noticeable along the walk at Wembury and quite tame at times

Robin, Wembury



With pomarine skuas being reported from Berry Head on the 5th November I thought about taking a trip there on the 6th but the weather was a complete contrast to the 5th with very wet and very windy weather forecast - probably good for sea watching but it is a bit late in the autumn and I was feeling knackered so I gave it a miss and went for a walk around Plymouth Hoe instead. Just 17 mute swans were around Sutton Harbour, usually the numbers are approaching 30, but 2 little grebes were busily diving for food amongst the boats. A few shags and gulls (black headed, great black backed and herring) were seen in the wind and mist and rain but the biggest surprise was a brown rat which ran across the path in front of me near Fishermans Nose.

Semipalmated Sandpiper?

Checking the bird sightings page on Sunday (19th) and news of a semipalmated sandpiper on the River Plym had me missing lunch to leave work early on the 20th to go and have a look for it. I checked Birdguides on arriving home and it had been reported that afternoon and so I caught the bus out to Blagdons boatyard to be met with an assortment of birders with telescopes and cameras and news that the bird had flown upriver 5 minutes earlier - bugger!

There were a few familiar faces in the crowd but it made me realise again how much I hate twitches and so I headed upriver to Blagdons Meadow for a better view of the River where a birder was intently watching the shoreline. A group of birders were heading towards him and as I approached I heard and then saw a ringed plover with a smaller wader heading off downriver - double bugger!

I walked back down to the Boatyard where the bird was roosting with 2 ringed plover and 2 turnstone. It was partly hidden amongst the rocks and only occassionally did it show its head from under its wing but eventually it woke up and ran around before totally disappearing amongst the rocks as the light faded and the rain began to fall.

It was very stint like, appearing quite grey but more rufous when the sun shone through the clouds, and it lacked the white v marks on its back of a little stint. But was it a semipalmated sandpiper? With the poor light, distance and my basic telescope I couldn't make out much plumage detail but I listened intently to the nearby birders with big telescopes as they argued it was a semipalmated and not a western sandpiper. I bowed to their superior knowledge and optics but there was no mention of its webbed feet, something I could not see with my basic telescope, but photos eventually emerged of unwebbed feet indicating it was indeed a little stint and not a semipalmated sandpiper. Never mind, I have seen semipalmated sandpiper at Minsmere in Suffolk in 1986 but I have never seen a little stint in Plymouth! It just goes to show that there is nowt as strange as birding (and nowt as strange as birders!).

The Controversial Little Stint, River Plym - photo courtesy of Devon Birds Website



After all the excitement it was off to Bude for the day with the Outlaws on the 22nd to help put the caravan away for the winter. It was cool and cloudy and breezey but we cracked on and got the jobs done, giving me time for a quick look at nearby Maer Lake. There were 10 lapwings and 2 black tailed godwits around the Lake with curlew, teal, wigeon, mallard, moorhen, a Canada goose and a little egret. The birds were a little twitchy, especially the lapwing and curlew and eventually I saw the cause, a very smart juvenile/female merlin which flew over with a small bird in its talons before it swooped in to a hedgerow and out of sight to eat its catch. The only other bird of note was a hovering kestrel and the toilet blocks at the caravan site held 2 plume moths and a dead lunar underwing.

Dead Lunar Underwing, Bude

And I have got my repaired camera back, luckily it only cost £20 but I must start being more careful with my photographic equipment.