Exminster marshes

A visit between 09.00 and 10.30 coincided with the high tide. There should have been lots of black-tailed godwits but there were none. I guess they moved south during the cold weather. There were however 120 lapwings, 13 golden plovers and lots of waterfowl including the main brent goose flock near Turf. Yesterday afternoon this flock included one, possibly two, red-breasted geese but today the flock was too distant to identify individual birds. The 8 white-fronted geese performed a few circuits of the marsh before settling just north-west of the lagoon. At about 9.30 a bittern flew , from the southern end, into the main drain immediately to the north of the lagoon. The only other bird of note was a female bullfinch on the canal bank. The smew had been seen earlier in the morning flying over the estuary by James Diamond.