Countess Wear Old Sludge Beds

Close but fairly brief views of a pale grey probable Siberian Chiffchaff today. Its constant straight monosyllabic "Bullfinch-like" call made me fairly sure it was tristis rather than abietinus. Only one collybita Chiffchaff here. For such a great bit of habitat wonder why this place is almost birdless?!

Seaton

The two Snow Buntings still present along beach between Yacht Club and rivermouth this afternoon. Also a Wheatear of the common-or-garden variety, maybe not rare, but still nice this late :o)

Also a Black Redstart about 4 houses along Harbour Road from the Yacht Club [Phil Abbott]

Beesands Ley

November WeBS count, nothing exciting like Paul had doing his at Man Sands.
Teal, 8 Shoveler, 36 Mallard, 27 Gadwall, 18 Tufted Duck, Water Rail and Cetti's Warbler. Black Swan still present.
re Matt's comment about peoples fickle attitude towards the Red-breasted Goose i was certainly in the escape camp for the last bird, it being an adult a big negative for me, surely adult wildfowl are less prone to this type of vagrancy than most birds and there are undeniably shedloads in captivity. I did go and see this one, mainly because i had to give someone a lift to Teignmouth and had a few hours to spare so had a look around the Exe, might not have bothered else. Personally i would not be anything other than 50/50 with this one being wild or not. Now feel thoroughly ashamed. Like Mr. Doidge said, i'll be going into photoshop and airbrushing the wing tag off the Great Bustard photos next !

exminster marshes

Watched the marshes from 08:00 till 11:00

29 golden plover, 3 knot, 2 dunlin, 300+ lapwing , 2 shoveler, 7 reed bunting, Good to hear 4 cetti's warbler calling from 4 locations around the marsh, 800+ wigeon amongst the canada geese, 600+ black tailed godwits, 2 snipe, 5 fieldfare, 30+ redwing, 2 great spotted woodpeckers .

Between 9 and 10 watched the estuary from turf

1 Water Pipit was a nice find in with a group of meadow pipits, 3 red breasted merganser and  1 avocet close in and 20+ distant lots more avocet were  over on the clyst but too distant to count, 2500+ dunlin , 30+ grey plover.

East Devon Commons - Uphams & Crooks Plantations

Saturday midday: Hen Harrier - ringtail - flying over south eastwards from Colaton Raleigh Common. Magnificent flock of 20+ Yellowhammers very active over the open heathland and preening in trees.

Exmouth

Mudbank - 0800 - 61 turnstone, c150+ dunlin, 1 bar-tailed godwit, 3 grey plover, c50+ redshank, 3 greenshank, female scaup, 2 goldeneye, 11 teal, 5 pale-bellied brent goose, 10+ great crested grebe and 2 peregrine.
Exmouth Docks - fem/juv black redstart.
Maer Rocks - 2 purple sandpiper and 10+ turnstone.
Yesterday - Exmouth Seafront - c30+ common scoter, 2 female eider, 1 great northern diver, c40+ kittiwake and 1 merlin making slow progress across Dawlish Bay towards Orcombe Point.
I have to say I'm astonished at the number of people who 'slammed' the 2009 red-breasted goose as an escape, going to see this one. Can't see much difference in timing and behaviour of the two. To say the 2009 bird didn't turn up with brents is just speculation, as is ticking the current bird on the assumption it came from Russia!

Lower Tamar Lake

A pleasant walk at Lower Tamar Lake from late morning onwards.  Warm, bright sunshine - more like April than Nov.  Very muddy conditions underfoot, but a pleasing array of birds:-

 

52 Coot; 49 Teal; 76 Wigeon; 7 Shoveler including 3 males; 11+ Gadwall; 1 female Pintail; 27 Mallard; 24 Tufted Ducks;  12 Moorhens; 10 Mute Swans; 227 Herring Gulls; 46 Black headed Gulls; I Grey Heron; 25 Canada Geese; 1 Jay; 1 Grey Wagtail;  5 Snipe. 2 Buzzards indulging in almost display-like aerobatics; 1 male Bullfinch and 1 Willow Tit heard.   Several Blue and Great Tits at the feeding station.

 

[Harvey Kendall.]

R.Taw off Pottington Ind Est and Ashford Sewage Works

13:40 - 14:25

Juvenile Goosander just off Bradiford Reserve and 9 Greylag Geese in mid river. The geese finally came ashore at 14:15; just off Ashford Sewage Works.

Desert Wheatear & Red Breasted Goose

Mansands

The Desert Wheatear was showing really well on the coastgaurd cottages down at Mansands, about 9:00-10:00.

Darts Farm

The Red breasted goose was also showing fairly well close to the hide at Darts farm with about 150+ brent geese.

Sharkham Area

2 Firecrest in scrub in field at rear of St Marys Bay. 1 very close but manged to run my battery out at Mansands!

Mansands

Desert Wheatear still showing very well on coastguard cottages up until midday at least. Also Black Redstart
The bird was showing as close as 20 ft at times from the public footpath which gives no reason for persons to enter the private gardens to photograph and disturb the bird where it was spending time feeding.

Plymouth

Probably nothing, but I had a brief glimpse from the bus this morning of a Jackdaw on Cattedown roundabout with a pale hood and very obvious white patches around the collar (mostly toward the front). Probably just at the extreme end of what juv British Jackdaw can show but way beyond anything I have seen before. Looking at pics on the internet there seem to be monedula with much less striking patches....... The bird was not dissimilar to the top pic here but I only saw it for a couple of seconds. Might be worth a look if anyone is passing.

Desert Wheatear (again!)

A fantastic bird. Hopefully it will stick around and get the audience it deserves!

Darts Farm

The Red-breasted Goose present midday with c150 Brent Geese.

Seaton

The two Snow Buntings were still on the beach this morning. There was also a Water Pipit in the stubble field next to the sewage works at Colyford. No sign though of the Temminck's Stint but a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at Blagdon more than made up for that dip. Roger

Otter Estuary / Budleigh

Sadly, nothing as exciting as a Desert Wheater today, but the 2 Snow Buntings remain faithful to the beach. Wigeon numbers are at around 150+, Common Scoter flock off Otter Head is at least 120+ birds but too far out and choppy to give them the attention they deserve.
Yesterday - Following news of the 3 Pink-footed Geese at nearby Otterton, I optimistically had a very late look at the scrapes yesterday evening which produced 1 European White-fronted Goose and another bird roosting (probably the same species) but the light was terrible as it was 16.55hrs! Wish I got there earlier! No sign first thing or last thing today.
Also belated news from the weekend when a group of 9 Grey Partridge were in fields between Otter Head and Brandy Head. Not sure of their origins and the first time I have seen them here.

Broadsands and Mansands

Just a Slavonian Grebe (photo) and 4 Great Crested Grebes off Broadsands.

However, a note on my car window had me heading to Mansands to see this cracking Desert Wheatear found by Paul while doing his WeBS count! A few photos, showing the nice black tail etc. At times the wheatear was chasing or being chased by a Black Redstart (photo).

Thurlestone Bay

F5/6 SSE wind with cery clear conditions - Bay watched 09.30-12.30 produced :-

2 Common Scoter , 5 Razorbill, 6 razormotts, 14 Kittiwake, Great N Diver east and Red T Diver on sea , At 10.40 a single Manx Shearwater flew east .

No afternoon report went to see the very nice Desert Wheatear at Mansands

Turf Lock

Found this solitary Red Breasted Merganser tucking into the fish menu on the Exe this morning

This morning I was doing my WeBS count, (don't get weekends off) when I saw a flash of a Wheatear from a distant on the coastguard cottages, it looked abit unusual. So went to have a closer look, which I thought was a Black-eared Wheatear, so took some photos, and when I could, phoned Mike Langman, who came down and said it was a DESERT WHEATEAR. We (Mike, Bill McDonald and myself) had some great views of it as it flew around the rook of the cottages.