Scaup on Decoy Lake

It's always slightly disheartening to wake up on a morning you've booked off for birding to find the weather forecast was wrong and it's chucking it down. This was the scenario that faced me this morning but I mustered enough enthusiasm to get down to Teignmouth for 08.30 for an hour's seawatching. The rain actually held off most of the time I was there, but precious little was moving offshore - only 7 Common Scoter and a dozen or so Gannets south. However there were two Great Northern Divers on the sea, albeit a fair distance out.

I moved on to Decoy Country Park mid-morning, which proved to be a good move as I found a drake Scaup mingling with the some of the 25 Tufted Ducks on the lake. It's possible that this is the same bird seen here earlier this year, in which case it's clearly fond of the surroundings. Also present were a drake Gadwall, a Great Crested Grebe and our old friend colour-ringed Mute Swan NY9; twenty Redwing and a Siskin flew overhead.

I checked Passage House on the way home and came up with 17 Redshank, 8 Lapwing, 2 Common Sandpiper, a Greenshank and a Common Gull.