Around the patch

Yesterday afternoon I counted 13 Tufted Ducks on Decoy Lake, a welcome increase from a month ago but still only around half of the number this time last year. Accompanying them was a male Gadwall. At Teigngrace 14 Little Egrets were in the field by the solar panels along with a large flock of Chaffinches but the Cattle Egrets appear to have left the area.

Today I had a look at Flow Point over the neap high tide and recorded five Common Sandpipers (a sixth was at Passage House later on), 25+ Shags, two Red-breasted Mergansers, two Great Crested Grebes, a Kingfisher and a Grey Wagtail.

First-winter Shags, Flow Point 

 

A third Great-crested Grebe and another Red-breasted Merganser were in the estuary at Teignmouth with six Great Northern Diver offshore (Kev).