Tuesday 21st February

The light was beautiful for this afternoon’s cruise: nice even light to start with and then the sun came out on our return to show the lovely colours on nearby Shags and Red-breasted Mergansers. It also helped us to locate a total of 23 Sanderlings, which shone as they fed actively along the edges of the estuary’s sandbanks. The tide took its time coming in, causing us to ground for a while off Lympstone, from where we had the unusual sight of a ‘skeleton train’! (Actually, this was later correctly identified as a timber train, returning to load up with fellings from near Heathfield.)


 





But back to birds. Great Crested Grebes totalled at least 16, and we had close views of the ‘resident’ Slavonian Grebe, which has moved upriver to near Turf. The Spotted Redshank was feeding in shallow water at Powderham, near two smart drake Goldeneyes. 
 




After passing a Common (Harbour) Seal near Turf, we soon found our first Avocets. The main flock of Avocets, however, was lined up as we approached Topsham, together with hundreds of Dunlin, maybe 200 Bar-tailed Godwits and then about 900 Black-tailed: ‘waderfest’ indeed! Unfortunately, a large flock of Brent Geese bathing and preening nearby flew off before we could find the Red-breasted Goose amongst them.

Dave Smallshire

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4