Tuesday
12th January Fresh to strong NW Showers and rainbows
Sun-arise
early in the morning at Bowling Green RSPB reserve and the high tide
on the Exe Estuary brings in masses of avocet and black-tailed
godwits; around six hundred and possibly over a thousand.
The two greenshank from
yesterday are still parading the margins, this time they are
accompanied by over forty redshank. It seems the spotted redshank out
on the river last night is now in front of me close enough to
photograph.
Two
birders come into the hide. The first is Dean Reeves who immediately
tells me that last year he was second on the Surfbirds year list
list; being second to Lee Evans. He looks at me and remembers where
we met before five years ago. Dean it was that woke me up as I slept
in the hide at Shapwick, Somerset. Together we remember the birds we
saw on that day; sand martins and a long-tailed duck, winter and
summer.
The
next birder, Martin Elcoate, comes in resplendent in cycling gear
which is a good job as he has a Specialised bicycle with him. Martin
is a Green Birder! With his patch being the three kilometre square
around Bowling Green reserve and Topsham, Martin says that he comes
here regularly on his way to work. With a desire to be more
environmentally friendly, he and his wife decided that one car would
be better than two and so Martin now travels to work by bicycle. So
far this year Martin has eighty seven on his Green year list; last
year he saw one hundred and thirty five.
Brilliant
to meet both birders, the conversation is sharp and interesting.
Once
the wader flocks had settled after fly pasts en masse, I set off
through Topsham to the other, the west side of the River Exe and head
downstream along the Exe Estuary cycle path. Flowering daffodils! It is January isn't it?
A
female red-breasted merganser
is swimming lone on the river and there are stonechat and cetti's
warblers calling along the way. Before reaching Powderham large
flocks of brent geese
are feeding in the flooded meadows, especially on the RSPB Exminster
Marshes.
Just
before reaching Dawlish Warren a farmer named Richard stops me to ask
whether I could look on one of his stubble fields for cirl buntings.
I look but find none, just a large flock of linnets, a few
chaffinches and a lone buzzard.
Down
to Dawlish Warren nature reserve, I search the sea for grebes but
only find great crested. A rock pipit
is close by at the foot of a groyne stanchion. Two shags
are out on the sea jumping as they dive beneath the waves. Linnets and stonechats are near the dunes.
The
weather makes the walk along the beach bracing with a strong north
westerly gale blowing sand into my face. I am here to look for the
Bonaparte's gull but although it has been around Dawlish and Exmouth
for over a year I cannot find it.
I
go all around the Warren, following the sea around to the hide on the
north side. Here there is a lone grey plover
and a couple of curlew. The tide is extremely low and with the gale
birds are well spread throughout the estuary and not here.
I
head back to the small woodland near to the visitor's centre and look
unsuccessfully for the reported firecrest. There are a couple of
goldcrests here and a chiff chaff.
Another
search over the sea gives just half a dozen or so great crested
grebes.
A
day of strong wind, showers and rainbows ends with a lovely sunset.
The
Green Year list now stands at 112.
20.51
miles 588 feet elevation up 511 feet elevation down
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