One Out Of Three Gives Three.

No, really it does.

Bear with me.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the best laid plans of mice, men, women, birders, and that guy over there, do go astray.

An interesting work week led to me being too knackered to think straight enough to get going on Friday, and my head stopped me on Saturday, but Sunday saw me awaken filled with a vim and vigour unfamiliar to my poor form recently.

So I headed off to try to pick up That Which Had Been Missed.

As you may have guessed by now, I got three lovely yearticks.

Though not one of them was easy, oh frelling frilly fruitcackes no...

We begin bright and quite early at Slapton,

Torcross

Water levels slightly lower than a month ago..

 

Stokeley

A lot of combing of Tufties for someone else lurking among them to no avail, though according to another hopeful, the semi-invisible Lesser Scaup had been off Stokeley early morning.

Much to-ing and fro-ing - you need to be thorough, especially with diving duckies quite capable of flying around - before I shifted north a bit;

Outer Ireland Bay

And on the corner between Ireland Bay and the upper end of The Neck, a popular little patch of water.

Male Scaup,

with female Tufted Duck

Gotcha, you varmint!

[In case you were wondering: Male Greater from Lesser Scaup; G is bigger, and also beamier than a Tufty, L is smaller than Tufty {just} and a compact little duck. L has a darker grey back {coarser vermiculation} than G, and L has a point - NOT a tuft! - at the rear crown, whereas G has a sloping rear crown and steeper forehead. Also, Scaup tend to be less likely found in or next to Tufty flocks than Lesser Scaup and prefer deeper water, in my experience.]

I said it was a popular spot,

Closer than usual Goldeneye

Having succeded and having other business to attend to, I didn't head on into Ireland Bay to the viewing platform; where RND and LS were likely lurking. [I know, terrible of me]

Though before I move on, a few more pics from the area;

Eristalis pertinax

Violet

Snowdrops

Over the way, a quick scan of the Kingsbridge ria gave no gebes of any kind, but I wasn't being thorough as I had something else on my mind.

South Huish marsh

It was.. a little windy on the lee shore. But out of the blast [oh Brain, Brain, when will you tell the truth? Force 6 to 7 is not '15mph'....], it wasn't that bad. Not easy either, looking for pipits. When there's cold weather they are very easy, right up close on the warmest wettest bits, but now they can and do range very widely. So it took a lot of work, and patience, and lots of angles, including well up the valley, but eventually I got a couple of looks at the Water Pipit [ok, technically I can't be sure it was only one, but, well...]. My camera is no way shooty enough to get a flyover - which was the only close view I got - so you'll have to settle for this,

"Got any sammiches?"

I was helped by a couple of these,

Buzzard!

Who kept the birds moving about, however futiley, and to the annoyance of perhaps all

Wigeon and Teal

After connecting with my target, I even tried a seawatch; though the wind was right into me and it was not easy finding somewhere I could see the sea and hold my scope at least slightly steady. But I persisted and munched lunch in a half hour of....

3 Herring Gulls and 3 Common Gulls South, and 1 Med Gull north.

Really.

Not even a Gannet, not even an auk.

Look to the left [Bolt Tail]

Now look to the right

[Burgh Island]

Oh well.

Here's

More Snowdrops

More madness ensued as I relocated again. Far to the north, in search of more birds that have eluded me.

Exminster. Take 3

[No comments on the definition of madness]

Water lower here, too. So I got through all the back way, and have to note that this needs advertising,

The view from the blind.

The raspberries, in their infinite wisdom, took away a nice bench along the railway path that I was quite fond of, and have improved the view from the only place you can sit down and actually look at birds. Isn't it brilliant? And if you're a smaller person - say a child - you literally can't see any birds on the ground at all.  This blind is also down an unmarked and very muddy path, so unless you're very curious or already know it's there, you're not finding it. The calculation it must have taken to get it so totally wrong is impressive.

But you can look out here!

You see them? They see you.

They no be there.

So it is perhaps not entirely surprising that the closest thing to a non-Canada I found was this

I suspect just seeing that head

sticking up in the distance

is the source of a lot of

'Snow Goose on Exminster'

[am I being cynical?]

While I'm ranting,

Viewing platform being

used as campsite by anglers

Let's get back to birds, shall we?

Avocet

Redshank and Greenshank

But no Spotshank.

Or Ruff 'in with Curlew' [there were 2 Blackwits, though].

More Wigeon

[no Americans]

Closest of three

Marsh Harriers

Another long yomp for nowt new, though a few nice moments [largely involving watching that Avocet].

Bugger.

And too windy for a reasonable chance at owls.

I tried Powderham on my way home, despite dying light, well, because you have to.

No Egyptian Geese at any of their haunts, of course.

But.

Now THAT is a Snow Goose.

And before anybody starts going, I should point out that a) no plastic ring and b) they are feral breeders at a couple of sites in the country. So no different to Canada Goose, Mandarin, Little Owl... *

Don't go near the castle...

 

And finally,

"Why do they always

go after me..?"

A long day and far too many miles, but that's the madness of yearlisting! And I'd never have seen that gorgeous thing if I hadn't been out.

Be Seeing You...

[[* You cannot have any claim to scientific rigour and apply different standards to different birds. ]]