The Ness

Eight Chiffchaff, nine Goldcrest and four Blackcap at The Ness this morning, with five Swallows and 40+ Meadow Pipits overhead.

Greenshank

A good count of 17 Greenshank were at Passage House over high tide, together with 50 Curlew, two Bar-tailed Godwit, one Dunlin, two Common Sandpipers, 18 Redshank, 41 Little Egret, two Wigeon and two Common Gulls. Just five Ringed Plover were at Flow Point, distantly on the railway wall.

Avocets

It is rare to see Avocets on the Teign outside of the winter months, so two at Flow Point this evening were noteworthy. On a relatively low high tide other waders included six Ringed Plovers, five Dunlin and two Common Sandpipers.

Commic Terns

Seawatching this evening from 17:30 - 19:30: One Great Skua, one Manx Shearwater, one auk sp., seven Common Tern, 48 "commic" terns (including a flock of 35), 273 Kittiwakes and a possible distant Little Gull.

WeBS

No sign of the Green Sandpiper this morning but counts between Passage House and Salcombe Dip included 376 Oystercatchers, 84 Curlew, 27 Redshanks, 11 Greenshanks, 10 Common Sandpipers, three Dunlin, just two Ringed Plovers, 41 Little Egrets, 31 Mute Swans, 16 Cormorants, five Little Grebes, two Shelducks and a Kingfisher. The Oystercatchers roosting by the railway were all put up by what I was hoping would be an Osprey but turned out to be one of the local Peregrines.

Dusk at Passage

The first Green Sandpiper of the year was at Passage House on the rising tide this evening with at least eight very vocal Common Sandpiper and six Greenshank, other waders were noticeable by their absence. Also present a Kingfisher, four Little Grebe, several squealing Water Rail and a couple of Sedge Warbler.

Whinchats

Two Whinchats were on the central railings on the racecource this afternoon with two Wheatears. Two Common Sandpipers were at Passage House and three White Wagtails dropped in with a group of Pied Wagtails.

Stormies and possible Long-tailed Skuas

Seawatching today from 06:40 - 14:00 in south-easterlies didn't produce a great quantity of birds with much of the time spent staring at a birdless sea. There was however a nice mix of species including good numbers of skuas and two European Storm Petrels, one of which passed within a couple of hundred metres. Totals below:

Arctic Skua - 9
Great Skua - 1
Pomarine Skua - 2
Skua sp. - 7 (Including two possible Long-tailed Skuas. One flew north at 08:45, the other went south at 13:00 a minute after three Arctics, and was noticablly smaller with a bouyant tern-like flight. The timing would have matched perfectly with a pale juvenile Long-tailed Skua which passed Berry Head at 13:55, but for the fact that I couldn't pick out any pale on my bird!)
Balearic Shearwater - 5 (all passing relitively close)
Common Tern - 2
Sandwich Tern - 20
Kittiwake - 100
Common Scoter - 138

Later in the afternoon at Flow Point, there were four Dunlin, 16 Ringed Plover, 10 Redshank, five Common Sandpiper (one at Passage House) and a Wheatear. A Common Tern was on one of the buoys with a dozen Sandwich Terns also present.