I posted a blog last wednesday that was one of those deleted. The gist of it was several days spent at Prawle, with pretty good results. Below is a brief roundup.
7/5; Seawatching produced 4 Black-throated Divers, 557 Manx Shearwaters, 2 Balearic Shearwaters, 19 Whimbrel, Great Skua, Arctic Skua and 2 Puffins. A single Turtle Dove was the only other noteworthy bird.
8/5; Just single Great and Arctic Skuas of note on the sea.
9/5; Yet more seawatching, turning up Great Northern Diver and 2 Balearic Shearwaters. Big surprise today was the reappearance of the Woodchat Shrike. Last seen on 2/5, it was looked for in between times, but had either gone off somewhere else, or had been hiding really well! Equally nice was a Quail flushed from the coastpath near Langerstone Point.
10/5; Best day of the week. First up was a female Serin, feeding beside the road. I was advised not to publicise this bird, with the possibility of breeding, but as it has not been seen since, it's safe to assume it was a migrant. Later, a female Montagu's Harrier flew north over the airfields. This bird carried a wing-tag, so hopefully details of it's origins will be discovered in due course. Completing the line-up of decent birds was a female-type Golden Oriole, this one unfortunately being on private land. A 1st winter Med Gull and Spotted Flycatcher made up the numbers for today.
11/5; Seawatching once more, with 7 Great Northern Divers flying west the highlight. Also of note, a flock of 11 Ringed Plovers flew through, and the Med Gull was still off the Point. Single Spotted Flycatcher and a couple of Willow Warblers were the only migrants of note.
13/5; 2 Sanderlings and a lingering Purple Sandpiper were the highlights of a brief evening visit.
