The Wild Goose Chase?

Apologies for the delay - I didn't mean to leave it so long before posting again [[and no, I wasn't just waiting until I'd done something worthy of a humourous blog title, as opposed to 'Yet More Patch Bashing'...]].

Monday through to Thursday saw the Patch being Bashed in a mighty and vigourous fashion. I tried to cover a lot of ground while keeping an eye on Blackball and the berry bushes. It's been good exercise, and not without results here and there.

Monday was chiefly notable, with the aid of hindsight, as being the last day the male Brambling visited the garden. That I know of. Having been caught out already by this bird seemingly going off with half the Chaffinches before sneaking back [ie. becoming more mobile in the area now that the ground's less frozen].

Tuesday had a good Yellow-leg candidate [1w as almost always] on the Harbour pontoon, Purple Sands on the granite boulders, a 1w Razorbill right in the Harbour mouth [it was preening and I naturally worried about oiling, it being right below me, but couldn't see any on it] and 2 BN Grebe and a large diver sp. [probably GN] out in the Bay.

Wednesday saw me walk down to the bottom of my Patch - Paignton Pier. No good gulls to report, but a couple of very welcome groups out to sea! On the way down I was amazed to see 6 Little Grebe together off Corbyn's Head. I've never seen Little Grebes on the sea and never on my Patch either! The nearest habitat for them is either Clennon Ponds, the Dart or the Teign; I suppose they must have been very thoroughly flushed... By the time I was headed back north I'd seen 3 BN Grebe, 16 GC Grebe, the male C Scoter and 14 Razorbill, plus 17 Turnstone [15 of those at Preston]. Looking out from Preston I got another surprise as a pod of Bottlenose Dolphin were coming in from the east and angling towards Broadsands! I counted 7 for sure [including a calf] and there could easily have been twice that number. Brilliant!

Thursday was a day of bashing the posh bits and getting stares from lots of rich old people. I'm always very cheery and ready with a grin and have not had the police called on me. Yet. ;) I managed to get two Patch Yearticks - Green and GS Woodpeckers, and both on sight. The GSW was a showy male, sitting in a bare tree and kicking for almost 5 minutes at quite close range. Very nice.

Today I went up to Curry Moor in zumerzet, having heard tell of a Lesser Snow Goose and wanting to see one that might actually not be an escaped hybrid thingy like the two dinky ones that winter on the Exe..... I arrived to freezing mist [having left the freezing fog around the border] and then had a nice yomp along the Tone to where the Snow Goose and its Barnacley friends had been seen on Thursday and still were. [[If I'd gone straight there then a) they'd have been somewhere else and b) I'd have been unable to park there anyway. These being The Rules.]] It was a nice healthy walk, with those nice gates you have to climb over even when you open them, but enlivened by Stonechats, winter thrushes [no Duskies, of course..] and a tarty Reed Bunting on a withy stem. :)

Finding the right place, the geese had lots of friends with them; Canadas and Mutes of course, but also Pintail, Wigeon, Teal, Lapwing and 14 Dunlin. Said Snow Goose was present [[I was expecting it to have gone - the blog title was always going to be what it is]], albeit at the back, but through the Big Scope I got a good look at it. I'd decided to forfeit any pretense at competence in front of the local birders present and taken Duivendijk along - this turned out to be a good thing as the bird was not the nice clean adult I was expecting!

Size compared to the Barnacles was right for Lesser Snow, as was structure [bill size, shape and grinning patch were right] and most of the plumage, but a few bits were troublesome; it had dark spots on the neck, especially the back of its neck; it had a noticeable brownish tinge to its main body feathers; it had dusky legs [though not black]; and it had a mostly dusky bill [though with some pink]. I shamelessly dug Duivendijk out and discovered that all the 'off' plumage features were right for a 1w. The ID Guide also said having white-fringed black tertials ruled out a hybrid [it had them]. Getting home, I've checked The Font of All Wisdom [that'll be BWPi] and it shows that not only is the amount of white variable [video of Blue morphs show birds with much less than the Curry Moor bird], but also that bare parts start dusky in juveniles and go pink over the first winter and sometimes into the first summer, with near-adult plumage being obtained over the first winter also.

Case closed? Maybe not. This evening, it's been suggested on SOS that the bird may be a 'known hybrid Snow x Barnacle', come up from Dorset with a flock of Barnacles that were on The Fleet until recently. I've not seen any photos of this bird, so can't speculate, but I've not seen any pictures of Snow x Barnacle hybrids online that looked like the Curry Bird. Time will tell. Maybe.

Ducks, geese, frickin' gulls... Why can't they just behave?

Anyway, after a much warmer walk back in the now bright sunshine, I went to have a look for the Cranes, but despite having carefully written-down gen, I managed to not find them... Drat.

On to West Sedgemoor for a late lunch. Not been there before; it's dinky! 8 spaces in the car park... What it lacked in space it made up for in birds, though. As soon as I'd switched off the engine a Nuthatch dropped down in front of my car, and there were plenty more in the way of woodland birds coming to the array of feeders. Time was pressing - well, my grumbling stomach was - so I didn't fully explore and decided to forgo the hide in hope of getting my scope on all the ducks and waders the blurb promised..

I found a bench with a view over the moor and, with only Wigeon and Teal [two big blocks] and Lapwing [everywhere] in sight, I set up the scope with the intent to primarily scan for raptors. After finding 4 Buzzards on 4 posts I scanned past a fifth.. wait a minute, that looks odd! Back to it and I realise its got a lot out the back for a Buzz... Zooming in and giving it a hard going-over I see it's a ringtail! Whole time I was there, this gorgeous Hen Harrier sat on it's post; sometimes doing impressive head gymnastics looking at the ground below it, sometimes preening, sometimes just sitting there. Wow. Gets better. Looking right to the far side of the moor, I see a big white thing beside a ditch - one of the bigger ones with built up brambly banks. Hmm, a Mute Swan? Oh no, its a Great White Egret! :D Talk about long-range birding...

All in all a very interesting day.

[[Edit: No less than 6 GWEs around Ham Wall today! I was watching the West Sedgemoor bird from about 1400 to 1415, and it moved out of sight; I never saw it fly. {Doesn't mean it didn't, of course} Seven Great Whites in somerset? Could be...]]

Even More Seawatching...

Is this blog getting boring or what? All I do is go down to the Nose and stare at passing auks....

For a little variety, today I sat in a slightly different spot, as the wind had some more south in it. Wow. I also counted passage for 5 whole hours! Amazing. I even remembered both my clickers. Stunning.

Ok, enough with the comedy...

Auk passage averaged at 469/hour, but this doesn't tell the whole story as 1269 of them passed in the second hour! It was a huge pulse, with groups of 20's to 40's passing well outside the Ore Stone while groups of 10s to 20s were passing inside it - mayhem! There were more than 300 in one 2 and a half minute surge; very hard to count them accurately as the far groups were often partly hidden by waves and the near ones came through in a few seconds. It had started very quietly, with a weather forecast that just seemed to get worse and worse and not much moving after a brief early flurry I was wondering if I should have bothered bringing a flask. As it turned out, it was a very good move.

Kittiwakes averaged 110.2/hour and Gannets 35.6, with Fulmars at 7.6. All of these started slow, but kicked up in the afternoon [thankfully after the auk rush had abated] while after a 40 minute sea, the auks tailed off to a trickle by the time I stopped counting. Again Razorbills far outnumbered Guillemots, though there were more Guilles later on.

This wasn't a day just notable for tallying, though. 7 divers passed south; 4 Red-throated, 2 Black-throated and a Great Northern, with the immature Great Northern [or one just like it] still on the sea also. 6 Common Scoter, 7 Common Gulls, a Dunlin [just one, with a lot of wingbar showing, it made me look hard to be sure of it] and a GC Grebe also went by south. The Red-necked Grebe popped up late on - I thought I was leaving, but as it was fishing in Hope Cove I had to stay on and look at it for a bit - and the 1w Eider was in the lee of the Ore Stone. None of these crackers [ok, maybe not the scoters, which unlike all the divers went outside the Ore Stone] were able to eclipse the Star of The Show, however.

I must confess to a slight ulterior motive for all this auk-watching. Though primarily I've been in it for the seawatching, and the scientific curiosity [[yes, I know how unscientific this really is]], I have a Patch Yearlist to think of, and I've been quietly hoping for a Little something. Yes, the pun was very intentional. No, I'm not going to apologise; I think it's funny. Yes, really.

Anyway, at the carefully noted time of 1426 I got my reward - Little Auk. Yeeeehaaaa!!

Ahem. Yes, so, I'd been hoping for a Little Auk or Little Gull with all these sustained winds. The Puffin on Thursday was a real surprise [[*]] - they're very regular in spring, often sat on the sea by the Ore Stone [I think they stop off, look at the Ore Stone and go "Hmmm..", then look at all the Geebs and go "Ah."] - though with the huge numbers of auks around maybe not quite such a one? What I did expect was to have picked up a Balearic by now - they're off Gwennap, so why aren't they here?? One of birding's many mysteries.

It was a good day, even though the rain [which had looked so promisingly full of squally goodness] didn't really show up 'til I got home! There were bands of spotty rain and drizzle, and after about 1430 it started on a light rain that eventually picked up as I packed up [of course] but earlier it had started to get dangerously close to sunny. I was thinking about stopping at 2, but as I hadn't finished my coffee and as the 'Constant Friend' had been by [I almost always see something good on days when I see her] I decided I might as well make it a 5 hour count. So very glad I did! :D

[[Edit: I'd originally noted the absence of January records in the DBRs, but having now looked at my own records, there was one on the sea by the Ore Stone on 19/1/08, so not quite such an unprecedented sighting after all.**]]

[[[**Interestingly, that day in similar conditions I also watched for 5 hours and saw 9 Balearics pass, plus a Little Gull, all 3 divers and a couple of GC Grebes. I didn't take proper passage rate counts {amateur} but did note a moderate auk passage of primarily Guillemots.]]]

PYL:72

Lots of Counting

Due to my brainlessly forgetting to take a clicker along this morning. I'd managed to oversleep somewhat, grabbed the essentials in a rush and well, bugger. So it was timed counts to gauge passage at the Nose.

The wind had picked up a bit, things seemed to be moving a bit, too. Not that much, it turns out, but still not too bad - auks averaged 555 an hour, Gannets a mere 56 and Kittiwakes 168. I didn't need a timed count for the 2 Fulmar an hour going by..! A lone female Common Scoter, 3 Red-throated Divers [including one sneaky one that came through high and dropped to join another flying into the Bay after they'd passed the Ore Stone] and a nice close Black-throated Diver were the only other southerly movers. A subadult Lesser Black-backed Gull flew past north - nice dark one, getting on for intermedius - and a Red-necked Grebe showed up on the sea by the Ore Stone. If you think that's strange [I certainly did - a Red-neck swimming around determinedly and diving in that sea?!?]; as I was going, there was a chap kitting up to do some swimming and diving himself. There wasn't anything on the local news, so I assume he was ok..

This afternoon I went for a spot of leg-stretching with the folks to Ideford Common, which proved to be quite eventful. We met a stag. Very close. Made Tilly's week.... Marsh Tits at the car park again. Lovely.

Yesterday afternoon, Torquay harbour had a 1w LBB and a Moorhen, plus usual reprobates. The Real Living Coast had a Turnstone as well as roosting Purple Sands, but the Bay was too choppy to pick out more than a Razorbill. After once more failing to find a Treeecreeeper in a long tour of the woody bits, the sea off Blackball had just the right height of chop, combined with low sun, to make counting let alone IDing birds very tricky. I got a mere 19 GC Grebes and 5 Razorbills, plus several hundred gulls resting well out, which were probably Kittiwake.

Edit: I've just realised I haven't actually said what the times I've been watching have been! Very remiss of me... 1005-1235

PYL: 70

Watching the Sea

Lots of looking at the sea these past three days, sometimes there were birds in the way.

Tuesday's sunny[ish] nor'westerlies kept me away from the Nose, instead bashing other bits of the Patch. I finally caught up with LBB - not one but two 1w birds sitting on the harbour pontoon with various dodgy-looking Herrings and Geebs. The tide was up and the Sandpipers Purple were roosting down the end of the Real Living Coast. Due to their position and not wanting to disturb them I only counted 6 - there were probably more. A somewhat choppy Tor Bay had 2 BN Grebes and singles of RT Diver, GC Grebe and what was probably a Slavonian. Late afternoon saw 138 GC Grebes with a RT Diver and 5+ Razorbill off Blackball.

The last two days I've been seawatching from the Nose in the mornings and looking off Blackball late afternoons - the same times on both days. With pretty much the same weather, including sustained WSW winds, I wondered what differences would there be?

Weds.

Hope's Nose; Auks ~210/hr__Gannets 8/hr__Kittiwakes ~13/hr__6 Fulmar

+ Yellow-legged Gull [1w] + Common Gull [ad].

1w male Eider on sea near Lead Stone. ~370 Guillemots on Ore Stone first thing.

Blackball; 63 GC Grebe__8 Razorbill___~240 Kittiwake + RN Grebe*

Thurs.

Hope's Nose; Auks ~301/hr__Gannets ~25/hr__Kittiwakes ~33/hr__8 Fulmar

+ Puffin [very distant] + 3 C Scoter + 5 GC Grebe [N] + 2 GND [subadult on sea, 1w S].

1w male Eider flew in from N, then on sea near Ore Stone. ~300 Guillemots on Ore Stone first thing, also Grey Seal hauled out on peninsula! Feeding frenzy of large gulls for about 25 minutes, close in to the Nose.

Blackball; 78 GC Grebe__5 Razorbill__~360 Kittiwake

[[On Monday, the average auk passage rate projected from timed counts was ~1230/hr]]

Interesting if not mind-blowing, it's clear that there was a lot of passage going on further offshore than the the drizzle let me see, judging by the figures [Famous Devon Birder] got from Berry Head today at a similar time. I blame the tanker! There were 4 distinct lines of auk passage noticeable; far out [not always visible due to rain / drizzle etc], outside the Ore Stone ['usual line'], around the Ore Stone [including 'to the Ore Stone' for Guilles, which I didn't count] and just outside the Lead Stone [used almost exclusively by young Razorbills]. Most of the passage was small groups, but there was the occasional rush of bigger groups, including a few of 40 and more; all of these were in the outer two lines.

*This was a bugger, as I picked it up from the Downs, feeding very close in to Babbacombe beach - around the outer buoys. You don't get them in so close often, and as it was nice and calm I went hightailing it down the cliff path to get a good look. After many a slip and skid I was 3/4 of the way down when I heard shouting and laughing... Yes, a family had decided to go onto the beach and start throwing stones into the sea. Just having fun, [[they weren't throwing stones at the grebe or anything!]] I can't blame them - just one of those annoying things. The grebe naturally skedaddled. Drat and double drat, muttered the Backward Birder as he trudged back up....

Unfortunately I have Things To Do Which Cannot Be Avoided tomorrow morning, so I can't extend my little study to a third day. Oh well.

PYL: 68

Deja-vu. Also, the Importance of Lunch.

Lunch is important, especially when you're up on't Moor. Finding the right place to have it is usually a matter of balancing competing factors. Can you sit down without getting wet / smelly / bitten / prickled / harassed? Can you all sit down? Can you see anything when you do? Are you in / out of the sun / rain and / or the wind? Can Tilbury Dog see... well, almost anything that moves? Or find something to jump into / get tangled up in? We had fun answering these questions yesterday.

The idea was to go to Princetown and follow the tramways, on account of the Moor being a trifle soggy. Unfortunately, a large sheet of black ice on the Ponsworthy road just after the bit where the Great Grey Shrike had been put paid to that. Fortunately, it was the car in front which found the ice and pirouetted back down the granite-lined lane... One careful turn later, being unwilling to risk more minor roads or make a huge detour, we bailed out at Cold East Cross and had a wander around the vicinity instead. The sun shone and though the wind was a bit cold it was very pleasant going. The very wet moor had flash-frozen, giving unusual conditions underfoot - a bit like blancmange with a crunchy crust...

Running out of not-too-busy moor, and unwilling to brave the hordes further off, we moved to Venford reservoir mid-afternoon and were treated to 3 redhead Goosander swimming around on the mirror-smooth water. Bird-wise there were the usual winter moorland bits and pieces, notable was a very dark Buzzard hunting around Seven Lords' Lands and the first Fieldfare I've seen this year [which alarmed and flew off...].

Important Business this morning precluded birding and the continuing sunshine deterred me from a full-on seawatch, so I instead bashed the Patch; taking in Waxwing site [no dice] and the Downs [for sheltering seabirds in the strong wind] en route to the Nose [to see if the Eider [Devon Birder] got the day before was still around...]. There were 94 GC Grebe, 1 RT Diver, at least 15 Razorbill and 60 Kittiwake on the sea off Blackball, with a Fulmar and a dozen Gannets overhead. Getting to the Nose the wind was at an impressive level, and even with the little scope I saw a pretty impressive stream of auks passing. I went right down the The Wall and huddled in it's lee to do a timed count [the wind vying with TCCT's chainsaws as backing track!]. 305 in 10 minutes is a lot, if not apocalyptic, but about 150 of those were in the first 2 minutes and at 5 minutes the rain arrived like a frickin' express train...

Most of the auks appeared to be Razorbills, but with only the little scope and in the wind and rain I'm not going to even guess at a ratio. Kittiwake and Gannets were also passing south, as did a RT Diver, and the smart w/pl adult GND was still on the sea between the Lead and Ore Stones, seemingly unfussed by the weather. Realising I was definitely going to get soggy again, I figured I'd better check thoroughly for this Eider, and I eventually found it - a 1w male, I reckon - in the more sheltered water of Hope Cove with a score of Razorbills. Despite getting even wetter than on Friday, I was cheerful all the way home. [[Mad, mad I tell you...]]

PYL: 64

Showers and Surprises

I had Something To Do on Friday, but I couldn't resist being slightly naughty and taking a scenic route to get there. A very scenic route..

Started by pulling up at Preston sea front, to see if I could be extremely naughty and scope the Eider off Broadsands / Berry Head from there [thus making them a very bent-ruled Patch Year Tick]. I failed, but it was well worth the go, as the male Common Scoter was really close in and showing cripplingly well.. :D Two Slavonian Grebes were off Hollicombe, and a Black-necked Grebe and Mrs. Long-tailed Duck were off Paignton. A couple of Turnstones were a Patch Year Tick, and the sight of no less than 52 Oyks huddled on the cliff from the high tide was a pleasing one [the number, not so much the huddling].

Then I went on to Berry Head, where I could find no Blackstarts. I did find three rather smug-looking Eider, close in near the blockhouse. I also found [Famous Devon Birder], who had almost suffered clicker combustion due to vast numbers of auks streaming by! I caught the tail end of this monumental passage, which was still impressive, despite being a tiny fraction of what went before [about 5800 in an hour, I think it was...]. Unfortunately, I also caught a whole heap of rain. I was not prepared for this, due to the weather forecast lying through it's shiny white teeth [Grr..]. I got extremely soggy, but didn't let that stop me taking a quick half hour or so at the sea before I had to go and behave.

Later, as I was finally drying out, I saw that the male Brambling was still about. :)

This morning, with some half-decent weather [overnight, at least] I gave Hope's Nose a go. I didn't get long before the sun started shining and passage died right away, though I did see some interesting birds and it was definitely worth the trip. First thing was a passage of auks - more than 90% Razorbills and not connected to the Ore Stone colony - an early rate of about 800/hour [on timed counts] died off quite quickly though. Star bird came in from Lyme Bay, however, [a little south of east] and turned north - a Pom Skua! :D A light morph bird, by the darkness of the underwing it was probably an adult, but it was too far out for spoons to show if it had them [{Famous Devon Birder} had had two spooned w/pl adults past Berry the day before, it could be this was one of them staying in the area?]. It came in high, but eventually dropped low to the sea as it motored on up the coast out of sight. Brilliant.

Other notable birds included a Redshank and a Knot past south [the latter with a small group of Razorbills?!?], 3 Red-throated and a Great Northern Diver [the GND on the sea, the RTs past south] and two dark-bellied Brent Geese which flew south 5 minutes before the Pom arrived. Less good was a Hughes helicopter, which flushed the 260+ Guillemot colony on the Ore Stone by flying incredibly low - less than 50' - seemingly filming the inshore lifeboat. Nice place to do it, chaps....

In the afternoon it was a stroll around Yarner with the folks. As I've burbled on before, I really like Yarner. As we arrived we passed [Devon Birder], who was leaving to look for the SEOs reported at Warren Point [ouch]. He said it was pretty quiet and he hadn't seen a single woodpecker... At that point I was quite glad I'm only after Patch Year Ticks this year, I have to say.

We headed for the hide first, stopping a little short to watch a big tit band [including Marsh Tits and a Nuthatch, with a quickly-vanishing GSW {you know it had to happen - Irishman's law}]. Just as we were moving on I noticed a group of small finches hanging onto catkins in a smallish Birch on the down-slope side of the track... Siskin! I called my parents [towed on by the ever-eager Tilly] back, then looked more closely at the Siskin and realised to my delight that some of them were Redpoll! :D They were very cool, happy to feed away while we watched them, I tried to explain the differences between Lesser, Mealy, Coue's and Hornemann's [these were all Lesser, of course], and Tilly tried to wrap her extendo-lead around as many bits of Holly as she could find... We eventually left the 5 Siskin and 4 Redpoll still happily shredding catkins and went on.

The rest of the afternoon was mostly wandering around the tracks, extracting Tilbury from various bits of greenery [I think there were a few deer around, as she was even more nutty than usual], and seeing a few more tit bands, plus Woodpigs and so on. Near where we saw the Bullfinches last time I heard a few calling, but we didn't get another show. A short while later we did get a flyover, though; one I really wasn't expecting. Flying straight towards us, just over the canopy, was a falcon shaped like a Peregrine but much too small and the wrong colours - a frickin' male Merlin!! Right over us and on towards Haytor Vale it went - wow! Last thing to report was another visit to the hide on the way back - lots of activity, with Blue, Great, Coal, Marsh and Long-tailed Tits in that order of numbers [interesting, as usually Coal are the most numerous]. No Nuthatches, let alone GSWs, but the tits put on quite a show by themselves.

Brambling continues on the shed roof with his Chaffinch friends, but two more days without a single winter thrush.

I'm still grinning about those Redpoll. [And the Merlin, and the Pom, and the drake Scoter.. But I've not seen Redpoll that well for years, especially not so close and so relaxed.]

PYL: 63

Rain

Enough of that posting every day nonsense, it just spoils you.. ;)

These last two days I've been birding in the rain. What? You think I'd cower inside 'til it goes away? Fah! Fah, I say.

Ahem.

I've also had diligent jobseeking to perform, which does tend to get in the way of the birding [with or without rain]. Though not as much as jobhaving, of course. Tuesday morning I had to be in town, so took the chance to give the Harbour and Bay bits of the Patch a good going-over. The tide being well out meant that there were gulls aplenty, quaking in fear of the bashing they would get... I didn't even find a frickin' LBB. Drat. I did find 2 Little Egrets and 3 Grey Herons on the rocks around Corbyn's Head - a very nice tally indeed. Even more surprising was a Raven, picking at something amidst the weed; we get them overhead a lot, but rarely see them land [except on Hope's Nose, but that's another story..]. The afternoon was spent on the phone, so neatly scuppering my plan to re-find the Waxwings. Double drat.

Wednesday saw Patch-bashing around more Things To Be Done. In the morning the overdue Waxwing check drew the expected blank, though a male and female Blackcap were a nice find. Off Blackball, 54 GC Grebe, at least 6 RT Diver and a probable BT Diver, plus 8 Razorbill and 2 Kittiwake made getting rather soggy worth it. In the afternoon I gave the Harbour yet another go, still no gull joy, but I did at last find some Purple Sands! :D With a good swell sending spray flying, at least 11 of the little darlings were looking gorgeous as the sun came out.. ::Sigh::

Today I left the Patch for the first time this year and had a meander around the Exe. Bowling Green had the female Smew, plus Snipe, Avocets, Pintail, Shoveler, Pochard, Lapwing, plenty of Wigeon etc. A Brambling was with the Chaffs and Dunnocks in the lane. It was pretty good, but I didn't tarry too long, as I had other fish to fry.

Exminster was the main aim. I arrived and climbed the bridge for a viewpoint to look for the group of White-fronts [it's been an age since I last saw them in Devon]. They were way off the the north near the Exminster footbridge, with [Devon Birder] looking at them. The rain fell, it was a bit nippy, we had a chat about Smew and the Dark Art of seawatching, while the White-fronts resolutely stayed with the Canadas [[including one with a white head, btw]] far, far away. Then [Devon Birder] arrived and asked if we'd seen the Hen Harrier and wasn't it amazing. [[Yeah, another of those long pauses over with very quickly..]] Triple drat! Apparently said ringtail had been harried by corvids from near the lagoon up to near the M5 bridge; he'd been looking for a reported possible Scaup on the lagoon when it flew through his scope field! Jammy bugger. We went different ways - me in the direction of the canal. Well, you never know, right?

Failing to find the harrier, I had lunch by the Topsham Lock, which gave me a nice view of the south end of the Retreat [albeit into the wind..]. Although there were Avocets feeding, other waders to look at, and a Grey Heron having a spat with a couple of Mute Swans [Mr. Swan took objection to the heron and got pecked for his trouble] I ended up going through the gulls... I found a Common Gull. Woo. On a brighter note, the Spotshank the Terrible Two found the other day put in an appearance; it was lurking in the channel west of the Retreat, where it couldn't be seen from the Topsham side [sneaky thing]. Star bird was a Little Grebe that came right up to and into the lock entrance - so close I was looking right down on it. :)

Then I went down the canal to the lagoon, looking for the other Smew [yes, both still present, as while I was watching the female at Bowling Green, the one I think might be a 1w male was being watched by [Devon Birder] on the canal!] and this possible Scaup. No sign of Smew, but a sleeping duck with a very Scaup-y head shape was on the lagoon.. Hmm, thought I, looking at it. It doesn't look beamy enough for a Scaup, and is very brown on the flanks [wouldn't a 1w female be at least a little mottled by now?], but that head shape is nice. So I wait. And wait. Eventually it moves and is indeed a female Tufty. [[How many drats is that now?]] Time marches on, and I haven't even mentioned all the Wigeon and Lapwing and Blackwits, the Pochard on the lagoon and the Pintail and Shoveler on the marsh.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I've not seen a single winter thrush on my Patch since Tuesday, and no Bramblings either. Not to say they've all gone, of course..

PYL: 55