Guided Bird Watching Review – Tuesday 14th March

Tuesday 14^th March, 2017

The final birdwatching cruise of the winter found a hint of spring in the air, with a Skylark singing its heart out over the dunes at Dawlish Warren. After a few days of summer visitors arriving, clearly some of the winter visitors had also begun departing, including many of the Avocets that normally leave in early March. But there were plenty of birds left for us to see ….

Offshore there were again hordes of Herring Gulls feeding over extensive areas exposed by a very low tide. Groups of Brent Geese were also taking advantage of the algae exposed, while both off Exmouth and inside the estuary small numbers of Shags were still diving for fish. We were able to get the boat reasonably close to the two Slavonian Grebes off Cockwood: one of them showed signs of breeding plumage. Further up the estuary, most of at least 10 Great Crested Grebes were in breeding plumage; at one point, seven of them flew past the boat – quite a sight!

19 Sanderlings foraged along the edge of one sandbank and a wintering Greenshank was near the Kenn outflow as usual. Five Goldeneye, including a nice drake, gave us reasonably good views in the middle of the estuary. Due to the low tide, we got stuck on the mud for a while near Lympstone, but it gave us chance to look at a Harbour (Common) Seal that swam by. Several groups of Pintail, maybe 50 in total, were dabbling on the oozy mudbanks here too.

As usual, most of the waders were feeding busily on the mudbanks between Turf and Topsham, including a roosting flock of maybe 500 Golden Plovers that really glowed in the late afternoon sun. Groups of Knot were also fairly conspicuous amongst the still large numbers of Dunlins and Grey Plovers. The Avocet flock had declined to only a couple of dozen, but as ever they looked stunning amongst the hundreds of Black- and Bar-tailed Godwits. Lots of Teal were still feeding around Topsham and we had great views of Red-breasted Mergansers, showing off their glorious colours and patterns in the sun as the drakes postured in display to the ducks.

After we turned around at Topsham, we were surprised to hear the staccato song of a Cetti’s Warbler drifting on the breeze from the tidal reedbed beside ExeterCanal! Further down the estuary, Little Egrets, which had been quite abundant today, were flying into their woodland roost site near Powderham. At Dawlish Warren, Oystercatchers were in pre-high-tide roost gatherings, Turnstones and Pied Wagtails foraged along the shoreline, and that Skylark was still singing away over the dunes!

What a great end to another season’s exciting bird cruises on the Exe. I can’t wait for November!

Dave Smallshire