Spot Flys, Tree Pipits, Yellow Wag

A decent scattering of migrants at Bundle Head this morning, the pick being two Spotted Flycatchers (in bushes by the golf course before moving into the valley), five Tree Pipits (including four together in trees by the road) and a Yellow Wagtail (heading north!). Also in the hedgerows at least a dozen Blackcaps, four Chiffchaffs, two Whitethroats and a Willow Warbler, and overhead c.50 House Martins.

Slow seawatching

From Teignmouth yacht club 09:00 - 11:10: Two Arctic Skuas, one Great Skua, one skua sp, seven Manx Shearwaters, eight Common Scoters, c.50 Common Terns (in two flocks of c.30 and 20), 34 Sandwich Terns, 61 Kittiwakes, two Med Gulls and a Whimbrel. The late arrival meant I missed any chance of catching the Velvet Scoter and scarcer terns that passed Dawlish Warren before the rain arrived.

Bar-tailed Godwit, Wheatears

The first Bar-tailed Godwit of the year was with the Curlew flock at Passage House this morning along with a couple of Dunlin and Common Sandpipers. Two Whimbrels remained at Flow Point with a further six Common Sandpipers. Elsewhere two Wheatears were on the central barriers at Newton Abbot Racecourse around midday.

Pom skuas

Short seawatch from Teignmouth yacht club 09:55 - 11:45. On arrival the rain had cleared and the light was was pretty good, and I almost immediately picked up a couple of adult / near-adult Pomarine Skuas powering their way south albeit fairly distantly. Had the skuas passed five minutes later I would have missed them as the low cloud soon rolled back in, dramatically reducing visibility just as news of three large shearwater sp. passing Dawlish Warren came through. At about 10:05 I got very brief views of two large shearwater sp. before they disappeared back into the murk, never to be seen again. Things were pretty quiet thereafter, with just a lone Balearic Shearwater, two Arctic Skuas and a skua sp. lingering offshore and finally a Great Skua through at 11:15 shortly after the visibility had begun to improve. In stark contrast to a fortnight ago, no Med Gulls.

WeBS

Totals between Passage House and Flow Point on a grey and drizzly morning included five Grey Herons, 23 Little Egrets, 25 well-grown juvenile Shelducks, 38 Mute Swans, seven Sandwich Terns, 600+ Black-headed Gulls, two Shags, one Little Grebe, 268 Oystercatchers, 65 Curlew, eight Common Sandpipers, three Redshanks and two each of Ringed Plover, Dunlin and Whimbrel.

Sofa seawatching

A 10 minute look off Teignmouth this evening coincided with two Balearic Shearwater heading south close inshore with 30+ Manx Shearwater and a juvenile Mediterranean Gull doing the same further out. On the Salty two Redshank were amongst the more usual Oystercatcher.

Changing seasons

A vocal juvenile Green Woodpecker on the neighbour's roof in the middle of Kingsteignton was a surprise first thing this morning. Yesterday my first Kingfisher of the autumn flew over Hackney Marshes, and it seems the local Swifts have departed for another year, hopefully having had a successful breeding season.