Tree Pipit

Fewer birds up at Bundle Head this morning but one of the Spotted Flycatchers was still present and showing well. I assumed it was one of the pair from last week as it was favouring exactly the same perches. Overhead a Tree Pipit and two Grey Herons flew south, and the hedgerows held seven Chiffchaffs, a Whitethroat and a loose group of around a dozen Blackcaps.

Spot Flys

I didn't get up to Bundle Head until after 9:00 this morning and initially things were very quiet, but the hedgerows eventually produced a nice little selection of migrants with the pick being a couple of Spotted Flycatchers. Also present were two Garden Warblers, five Whitethroats, 8+ Blackcaps, 10+ Chiffchaffs, a Willow Warbler and a Goldcrest. Two Wheatears were on the fences at Newton Abbot Racecourse at midday.

WeBS

A very disappointing August WeBS yesterday both in terms of numbers and variety. Sometimes I have to remind myself that the estuary is not a well-funded wader scrape on the east coast! Counts of herons and waders in particular were down on what I've come to expect at this time of year, especially at Passage House. Totals from here to Salcombe Dip included just 24 Little Egrets, one Grey Heron, ten Cormorants, five Little Grebes, 30+ Sandwich Terns, 500 Black-headed Gulls, 314 Oystercatchers, 87 Curlew, four Whimbrel, three Dunlin, two Ringed Plovers and two Common Sandpipers. I'm sure there were more waders about, as on Friday there were six each of Ringed Plover and Dunlin as well as two Redshanks at Flow Point.

Seawatching

I watched from Teignmouth from 13:45-16:45 this afternoon with Laurie and we logged 13 Balearic Shearwaters (all south), 150+ Manx Shearwaters (some north, some south, some circling which made counting difficult), three Mediterranean Gulls (ad & 2 juvs), three Common Terns, four commic terns and a female Common Scoter plus a steady trickle of Gannets, Kittiwakes, Fulmars and Sandwich Terns. Yesterday Laurie put in couple of hours early morning and had an Arctic Skua, a distant Arctic/Pom Skua and small numbers of Manx Shearwaters and commic terns passing.

Nocturnal sofa birding

An under-rated form of birding, with relatively little effort Green Sandpiper was added to the year list as it flew noisily over Teignmouth late yesterday.

Flow Point

Signs of wader passage picking up this morning with 10 Dunlin foraging on the beach at Flow Point along with six Common Sandpipers and four Whimbrel (another two Dunlin were at Passage House). Several family parties of Sandwich Terns were making plenty of noise fishing in the middle part of the estuary.

Balearic

The horizon remained hidden by mist and drizzle throughout a seawatch from 15:45 - 17:45, however despite this, a good count of 305 Manx Shearwaters flew south. The highlight came at 17:01, when an obvious dark Balearic Shearwater flew by fairly close. Other counts include four Mediterranean Gulls (1 Ad, 1 1S, 2 juvs), five Fulmars, four Kittiwake, six Sandwich Terns and 40+ Gannet.

Balearic Shearwater (If I photographed the right bird!)