The grey skies stayed dry for today’s cruise, which was as exciting as ever! The highlight was finding not one, but two, Great Northern Divers. We had close views of the first, off Starcross. The second was more distant, but images showed that they were both immature birds. We had distant views of a young Marsh Harrier over Topsham reedbed, where up to 5 have been roosting recently.
The harrier might have been the reason for some panic among flocks of Lapwings and Golden Plover at Topsham, although they settled down on the mud later and gave us good views. Never to be outdone, hundreds of Avocets were in the shallows and on the muds in the top part of the estuary, along with maybe a thousand or more Black-tailed Godwits.
Elsewhere, hundreds of Brent Geese were grazing algae in several intertidal areas. As to be expected on a calm day, Grey Herons and Little Egrets were well in evidence, although we struggled to confirm distant Cattle Egrets in the pastures behind Cockwood!
Returning to Exmouth, the Grey Seal population on a pontoon off Starcross had doubled … to two! And finally, a Harbour Seal on Bull Hill got into the water and swam past us.
Dave Smallshire
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