There are birds and there are birds.
When yearlisting, you tend to split them into categories. Gimme species are those you don't have to think about; they'll pop up at some point [you know, Blue Tit, Sparrowhawk, Cirl Bunting*], Expected species should do, unless things go wrong, though you may need the right time or place, and Grab 'ems need to be jumped on when they appear [or if...].
Scaup has wandered down that list over the years.
It used to be a gimme 'just goto Slapton in winter and there'll be a few around', but this year in my need for Scaup I found myself twitching to Beesands - for what turned out to be Tufties and a probable Lesser Scaup [whodathunkit??] - and then finally...
Mudbank, north side of Exmouth, and a nice if rather exposed lookout over the lower Exe estuary;
Devout and Humble prayers are
answered by the Goddess of Birding,
"She's over there, you muppet!"
Ok, bit of a spoiler.
:)
A long way around the Exe, but it did at least offer the prospect of having another sift of the duckies et al at Exminster on the way home. You only see GWT or AmWig [Sociable Plover? ;) ] if someone's gone through vast numbers of the regular flavour to find them. And you can't moan about them not if you aren't prepared to put hours in yourself, can you?
Anyways, a frisky SW blasted right into the nice viewpoint [the saner less willing to suffer for their birds view from the road] but that didn't stop me. Made me mutter a bit but it didn't stop me. I had warm clothing and a nice flask of coffee, after all. And I seawatch in winter, this wasn't much different? [Ok, more birds and mostly just trolling about in front of you instead of passing by once, blink for 5 seconds and they're gone]
Ahem.
Anyways, I had a good look about and saw many nice birds, notably a gorgeous male Goldeneye - lit by the sunshine - and a bevy of surprisingly close [lack of anyone else about and me sitting still may have helped, there] waders tootling around on the falling tide.
No Scaup, though.
Brents!
Dunlin
After a good hour of this I'm a bit on the cold side and I've looked everywhere. Oh well, dipped again..
Cue rainbow.
Oh, might as well check riiiiiight over towards Starcross, there is a channel a Scaup could be in,
Right, you see that channel,
right there in the distance..?
She is in that shot, about 2 o'clock from the big yellow buoy. No, you can't see her, not even a blob. 75x needed and a good angle against the sunshine.
Gotcha and other comments.
Exminster... Was slightly flooded. At low tide. Eek.
But.. Birds.
A few Wigeon
Just a couple of Golden Plover
There's always one
An adult female Marsh Harrier kept the birds alert, and there were quite a few, notably a lot of Golden Plover, and more Lapwing than I've seen on there for a long while [though fancier ducks such as Shoveler and Pintail were thinner on the water].
"Alarm!"
Golden Plover
[and photobombing Starling]
Sprawk raid
It's a lovely spot, and good birding, though that Teal up there is the closest I got to a vagrant.! Late lunch and a session of heavy sifting later, I moved to somewhere I didn't have to worry about my car's fording depth to see if anything was feeling showy on the rising tide [and as the Scaup had been reported to move upriver late in the day]
Powderham Bend was its usual exposed [to the elements and would-be time trialists..] self, but there were benefits;
Avocets and Shelduck,
[with a Barwit doing a fair dowitcher impression!]
Bad pic of a lot of Knot
Tiny compared to the Wash, but a fair number for the Exe, a flock of 68 flew in from upriver and plonked down opposite me :D Also of interest, a GND was terrorising the poor ickle crabs off the Yacht Club in what was very shallow muddy water for the species [nope, no usable pic, alas].
I didn't see the Scaup again.
It was a good day's birding and I'll definitely be swinging by Mudbank in future when I'm over that way :)
Be Seeing You...
[[* Ok, that's a Devon thing ;) ]]
