Guided Bird Watching Cruises
Guided Bird Watching Review – Tuesday 9th February
Guided Bird Watching Review – Tuesday 9th February 2016 Another much improved day, with lovely afternoon light for the cruise. The highlights were a Great Northern Diver at Exmouth, 2 Slavonian Grebes off Cockwood and an adult Mediterranean Gull with hundreds of other gulls gathering to bathe and preen on the river between Topsham…
Read MoreGuided Bird Watching Review – Sunday 7th February
Guided Bird Watching Review – Sunday 7th February 2016 What a difference a day makes! We travelled up to Topsham in bright conditions with occasional sunshine, though a strengthening wind on the return brought some showers. We saw our old friends like the Harbour (Common) Seal on Bull Hill sandbank and the Slavonian Grebe off…
Read MoreGuided Bird Watching Review – Saturday 6th February
A combination of high water, strong wind and rain meant there were very few birds seen on this trip. Small waders were nowhere to be seen with the most common species being Avocet and Bar-tailed Godwits, there were good close views of these birds. Just a few Brent Geese on the water, the rest were…
Read MoreGuided Bird Watching Review – Friday 22nd, Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th January.
Guided Bird Watching Review – Friday 22nd January 2016 The old adage “rain at 7, fine by 11” held true today and we left Exmouth in sunshine, which made for very pleasant conditions! There were 2 Great Northern Divers in the channel off Exmouth, with 2 others more distant. Shags were plentiful, maybe over…
Read MoreGuided Bird Watching Review – Friday 8th, Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th January
Three consecutive trips with variable weather conditions but excellent birding every day. Saturday, despite wind and rain proved the day of surprises. A Sandwich Tern, which would normally have migrated south months ago was seen fishing at Cockwood and also a Guillemot drifting down river near Turf. Recent flooding has caused a change in feeding…
Read MoreBird Watching Cruise Review- Thursday 10th December
Today’s cruise was simply brilliant! The weather forecast seemed to put some people off coming, but apart from a bit of light drizzle, everything was fine. So often the weather is much better in the estuary than in surrounding areas: please don’t be put off by a bad forecast! That said, wind surfers were taking…
Read MoreBonaparte’s Gull sighting 24th November 2015
My first trip of the year was a real treat. At least forty species seen with some surprises amongst them. As we headed out towards the Mouth there were many Brent Geese feeding on the vegetation at the edges of the shore the first of the many hundreds that we saw throughout the trip but…
Read MoreSunday 8th November 2015 – our first cruise of the season
It was good to be back for the first bird watching cruise of the winter. Although breezy with drizzle at first, it proved to be a good one. In the estuary mouth, just off the seaward side of Dawlish Warren, was a female or immature Long-tailed Duck – let’s hope it stays for the winter!…
Read MoreBird Watching with Dave Smallshire, Saturday 7th March
We had a lovely afternoon for the last birdwatching cruise of the season, with the early spring sunshine showing up the colours of many birds to good effect. The inevitable human activity off Exmouth meant rather few birds there, although a couple of Turnstones were sat on rocks near the marina. We couldn’t find the…
Read MoreBird Watching with Ian Waite, 5th March 2015
My last trip of the winter featured a couple of smaller birds. At Topsham a Kingfisher posed for photographs, and at Powderham on our return sitting on a wall was the Snow Bunting. A very confiding bird which fortunately for us chose the closest location possible to the boat, which Jake had stopped for us..…
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