Gotcha..

I was rather shocked to learn that today's visit to Dawlish Warren was my first since the Great Day of The Rosey Terns and only the second this year... What has been going on??!!??


Also shocked was that dratted White-fronted Goose, who didn't expect me to pop up on the Dune Ridge and nail it while it was stuffing its face on the golf course fairway!

All it could do was waddle away muttering "No comment";

Lovely view of the tertials, there.

Not wanting to waste any more time on that git, I pressed on and spent a merry while in the hide as the tide went down. There were Dunlin,

Lots of Dunlin. Quite close, sometimes..

As I have said many times before, I'm quite fond of them. There were other waders, too. A flock of about 130 Grey Plover were quite a sight as they flew about, a feeding group of BHGs in the estuary were accompanied by a 2w Med Gull, oh and this little bugger - dainty but feisty!

Bonaparte's Gull*

Ok, enough piccies.

I spent far too much time watching the Dunlin doing Dunlinny things, but in the moments my attention was elsewhere I noticed a few of the other waders and wildfowl, too. Of note - when LC pointed it out to me, anyway so I could check the reading with the Big Scope** - was a nice male Shelduck with a yellow darvic 'SL'; one of the Axe birds!

The DW blog has bigger totals [though I did find all of the Ringed Plover, which was heartening], though they did miss the 15 Barwits, 9 Teal, and a Water Pipit, which was messing about the spartina in front of the hide! To be fair, I would have missed it as well, were it not for having a close look at a 1w Skylark. It was eating a big insect when I first noticed it, making the bill look huge.. Through the big scope it was just a Skylark, but then this Water Pipit wanders right through my field of view! It was a really good one, too. None of this Rockit-a-like nonsense. :)


When the Slav showed up to fish around the wreck, I knew it was time to move, so over to John's Watch I toddled. From there, and then by the Wood and finally by the lifeguard's hut, I counted a whole heap of scoters! Final score was 176 Common Scoter! Plus 2 Velvets. Not bad...

It was getting on by this time, and I only found 9 GC Grebes and 2 RT Divers [a nearly full w/pl adult and a juvenile] among the Shags and Cormorants, with at least 8 Gannets fishing and a small party of Kittiwakes heading by south. Also heading south was a lovely pod of Bottlenose Dolphins; I reckon there were 13, with at least 2 small calves, coming up in two close but distinct groups.

Yesterday.

In the Garden, a Robin has started taking the sunflower hearts  - for use as offensive weapons?!? Also, a good sized flock of Starlings showed up in the early afternoon - at least 700 of them! - and lurked in the trees near the Garden for a while. As it started to get dusky, I made my first check on Blackball of the winter; nada. Oh well... 

[[*Now, the next time any of you with blogs put up a 'dodgy record shot' that doesn't look this bad, relabel it!! ;) ]]

[[** I would have noticed it eventually, honest. I did see three CR'd Oyks - which he already knew about.***]]
[[***LC has set himself a mission to read 100 rings - that's optically, not in the hand - this year. This is different birds, btw, so not at all easy! Now this is seriously impressive birding and even more respect is due {which is saying something}]]