Today's Stuart Line Cruise was a good one, with much milder conditions and better light than yesterday. 3 Black-necked Grebes off Dawlish Warren ('scoped to confirm), Slavonian Grebe (Cockwood as usual), good numbers of Great Crested Grebes (maybe more than a dozen in the estuary), c40 Shags, only a single Little Egret, Herons at nests (Powderham), Red-breasted Goose (with Brents near Turf), 5 Goldeneye, maybe 80 Mergansers, Peregrine on the mud near Turf, good numbers of Avocets (500 perhaps?), c30 Lapwings (Turf), 2 Greenshank (Powderham), Sanderling (Pole Sands), a few Knot, adult Med Gull (Lympstone - also seen yesterday), Razorbill (Warren), Kingfisher (Ken outlet), several Rooks on the sandbank off Powderham Church, and 2 Ravens keeping the Crows at bay at a bird corpse (gull?) off Exmouth. A Harbour (Common) Seal was seen briefly.
Yesterday we also had a second Razorbill right next to the boat at Exmouth Quay, a Shoveler at Turf, good numbers of Mallard and Teal (presumably because inland waters were frozen), 2 sepearate Tufted Duck drakes in the Turf-Topsham area and 2 Gadwall flying over the middle of the estuary.
