The fine breezy afternoon ensured that plenty of kite surfers were keeping the end of Pole Sands free of waders, but there were lots of gulls and Crows as usual – in fact a quick count of before we left Exmouth came to no less than 250 Carrion Crows. A few Brent Geese were feeding close to the beach walkers and dogs – they’re amazingly fearless (the geese that is!). Moving back into the estuary, a pair of Peregrines sitting on the sandbank known as Great Bull Hill eventually took flight and we were given the thrill of watching them zooming through and stooping down through the Crows!
Highlights in the central section were lots of Great Crested Grebes – it was hard to keep track of them as several took flight, but probably 15 in all – and 2 Goldeneye, plus a good number of Shags and Red-breasted Mergansers and large flocks of Brent Geese and Wigeon. It was nice to see 2 Sanderlings feeding in typical fashion on the edge of a sandbank in mid-estuary, 2 Greenshanks, a dozen Turnstones and about 25 Knot: there aren’t many of any of these around the Exe in winter. It was also a relief to find 20 or so Bar-tailed Godwits, a species which has been hard to find in the last month.
The tide was slow coming in today and unfortunately we ran aground for a while off Lympstone (the sediments in the estuary move around all the time!), but we were treated with two feeding groups of Avocets that moved right up to us. Between Turf and Topsham we had close views of Avocets (getting on for 400 in total) and hundreds of Black-tailed Godwits, Curlews, Redshanks and Dunlin with smaller numbers of Lapwings and Grey Plovers. There were also thousands of gulls arriving to bath and preen before heading out to sea to Dawlish Bay for the night. Finally, the resident Harbour (Common) Seal put in a brief appearance as we heading back to Exmouth, where it was getting dark as we made our tardy return.
Dave Smallshire
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