The overdue first Black Redstart of the winter, a smart male, was on roofs around the Point carpark and pier in Teignmouth.
Male Black Redstart high up on roofs between point car park and pier at Teignmouth 4.40pm. pic.twitter.com/GVvvlhjx0S
— Chris Gladman (@AnchorBirder) January 27, 2022
A somewhat frustrating count yesterday with many birds scattered about the estuary and not in the usual high tide roosts - perhaps a sign of disturbance the previous day. Nevertheless, totals included 260 Oystercatchers, 73 Curlew, 20 Redshanks (almost certainly an undercount), 10 Greenshanks (on south side east of Coombe Cellars), 17 Turnstones, two Common Sandpipers, 62 Shelducks, 18 Red-breasted Mergansers, 10 Mallards, eight Mute Swans, five Little Grebes, four Wigeon, eight Cormorants, four Shags and singles of Avocet, Kingfisher and Great Crested Grebe.
An afternoon visit to Passage House saw the regular Common Sandpiper and Kingfisher with four Greenshank, three Wigeon and most surprisingly two female Pintail, a rare visitor to the estuary.
A look at Decoy Lake saw a pair of Mandarin outcompeting the Mallard for bread but no Tufted Duck or grebes.
On Saturday the immature Spoonbill around Teignmouth with all three regular divers off the mouth of the estuary and a Firecrest at Shaldon. On Friday a Cattle Egret was reported in Bishopsteignton, with 23 Avocet, Common Sandpiper, c30 Curlew, 10+ Snipe, c10 Redshank and a Kingfisher were at Passage House on the afternoon high tide.
Great Northern Diver was the most abundant species off Teignmouth mid-morning today, even though numbers were down compared with New Year's Day, with seven present along with five Guillemots, a Razorbill and a male Common Scoter. From Polly Steps a huddle of Turnstones on the port quay numbered at least 41 birds, a particularly high count, but more unusual was a Razorbill diving just a few metres away from the quay. Finally a check of the railway wall between Flow Point and Salcombe Dip revealed the roost of the estuary's tiny wintering population of Ringed Plover and Dunlin, with six and five present respectively.
A four hour (10:30 - 14:30), 10km walk from home in Kingsteignton produced a below-par 57 species, although the late start and low tide conditions combined with the absurdly mild weather did not help the total. Hackney Marshes was pretty quiet bird-wise although it was nice to hear two Song Thrushes in full voice and a Nuthatch showed well. Passage House produced three Lapwings, two Wigeon, a Kingfisher, a Common Sandpiper and a distant group of Red-breasted Mergansers. Waterfowl at Rackerhayes included singles of Gadwall and Shoveler, four Great Crested Grebes but just 10 Tufted Ducks, and the surrounding woodland held Chiffchaff, Redwing, Jay and Great Spotted Woodpecker.
At the other end of the patch, Keith Birchall recorded an impressive 18 Great Northern Divers off Teignmouth along with two Red-throated Divers, a single Brent Goose and small numbers of Gannets, Guillemots and Common Gulls.
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| Great Northern Diver (Alan Ford) |
Feeling a bit under the weather following a Covid booster jab, I managed a short walk around Hackney Marshes yesterday morning and was stopped in my tracks when an Otter lumbered across the path near the screen. It then proceeded to fish in the channel between the railway and the racecourse for about ten minutes, swimming right up to the edge of the cycle path and giving memorable views just a few metres away. I cursed the fact that I didn't have my proper camera with me, although not trying to get the perfect shot allowed me to enjoy the experience more. There was no sign this morning unfortunately, although a couple of passers-by commented that they had seen recently an Otter in the same area.
After no patch records at all so far this year, the sudden appearance of 14 Cattle Egrets at Passage House this morning was something of a surprise; see video here. There was no sign of them there or at Teigngrace at lunchtime, although a Goosander on the estuary was the first in almost exactly four years.
On Sunday the Spoonbill was still present east of Passage House, joining a group of Little Egrets and Cormorants foraging along the falling tide; estuary-wide counts of the latter were 35 and 16 respectively. Other WeBS totals comprised 330 Oystercatchers, 71 Redshanks, seven Greenshanks, just 37 Curlew, 23 Turnstones, six Dunlin, five Ringed Plovers, two Common Sandpipers, 300 Black-headed Gulls, 120 Herring Gulls, 34 Greater Black-backed Gulls, 16 Cormorants, 23 Mallards, 19 Shelducks, 17 Mute Swans, 12 Red-breasted Mergansers, four Little Grebes, two Wigeon, two Kingfishers and singles of Lapwing, Teal, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Common Gull and Canada Goose.
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| Spoonbill (Laurie Allnatt) |
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| Spoonbill (fourth from right) with Little Egrets (Laurie Allnatt) |
Spoonbill mid channel from Shaldon bridge 10.45. pic.twitter.com/is364nudPn
— Chris Gladman (@AnchorBirder) November 11, 2021
..of sorts. A sign of the changing seasons with a Snow Bunting west over Teignmouth this afternoon, a great patch, let alone garden, bird. Hopefully it has pitched down somewhere around the estuary...
Late news includes the first Red-breasted Merganser of the winter on 20 Oct when two Balearic Shearwater and two Arctic Skua flew south off Teignmouth, two Mediterranean Gull were on The Salty and a Golden Plover flew over calling at 23.20pm.
