....Birding day with Mr Griffiths

Tuesday, 2nd September 2014

Another day birding on Dawlish Warren Nature Reserve, joined by my good friend John Griffiths. We headed down to the Reserve around 10:30am, with high tide due at midday, hoping to get some good birds showing on the tide in front of the hide on the estuary. 

We joined up with local and regular birder Lee Collins, and took a steady stroll through Greenland Lake towards the dune ridge, known as John's Watch. Still no sign of the Rose Colored Starling, but a flock of Starlings still around Greenlake Lake and later in the day, spotted around the sea front near the Pavillion Arcade and the Boathouse Tavern Pub! Wheatear, Whitethroat, and Stonechat seen through Greenland Lake. 

An hour or two spent on John's Watch looking offshore, with plenty of Terns around, especially Sandwich Terns and an Arctic Tern, also a flock of Common Scoter, Gannets....and a Fulmar.

On the beach, Sanderlings and a Turnstone were present. We walked across to Warren Point to observe any Terns that maybe resting there, but it was very quiet, compared to previous visits, only the usual Cormorants, Black Headed Gulls, and a Bar-Tailed Godwit were on the Point. 

Lee Collins left us later in the day, but I received a message saying he spotted 2 Curlew Sandpipers in the Bight...so John and I packed up our gear and headed over. Mixed in with the Ringed Plover, Dunlin and Sanderlings were 2 Juv Curlew Sandpipers :) 

Dunlin (Left) Sanderling (Middle) Curlew Sandpiper (Right)

Juv Curlew Sandpiper - Not a great image!

A quiet first day to September...

Well, despite the early start to the day, I arrived at the Nature Reserve around 9am today. I took a steady stroll through Greenland Lake, hoping to see the flock of Starlings, and to capture a glimpse of the Rose Colored Starling, which has been spotted on the site previous days....but no such luck!

It was disappointing at the hide today, very quiet indeed, just the usual Oystercatchers, Dunlin and Ringed Plovers, with Black Headed Gulls. 

However, looking over to Warren point, there were a flock of Terns hiding behind the Oystercatchers and Cormorants, so I wallked over to Warren Point to join up with regular site birder Lee Colins.

Walking over to Warren Point, spotted 2 Wheatears and a Whitethroat, also 2 Stonechats.

Always a pleasure to see and watch Terns, mainly Sandwich and Common Terns today, with a Bar-Tailed Godwit, near the shoreline. We had the company of a Common Seal sitting up the beach.

It was amazing to watch the Terns diving for whitebait in the Estuary and sharing their food between themselves....in flight...amazing feeding behavior.

Difference between juv Common and Arctic. Source: Collins Bird Guide.

After an hour on Warren Point, it was a trek back up onto the sand dune ridge, or what we regular birders know as 'John's Watch' named after John Fortey.....legend birder of Dawlish Warren. We spotted Arctic Tern offshore....learning to ID these at a distance, takes practice. Arctic has translucent primaries, whereas a Common is much darker, also, the Arctic is a much smaller bird...

Sanderlings and Turnstones were present on the beach at Goyne 9.

Adult Summer Turnstone - By Dean Hall

Walking back towards the VC, I caught with birders Lee Colins and Dave Stone, who spotted the Rose Colored Starling...briefly, but by the time I arrived, it had disappeared. Hopefully a better birding day tomorrow. Watch this space!

......Richard Crossley in the hide?

Thursday 28th August 2014

A quieter day compared to yesterday's Tern-nastic day! It still turned up a Juv Ruff on the estuary, along with usual as Dunlin, Ringed Plover, well as Little Ringed Plover's, Redshanks, Curlew, Great Black Backed Gull's and Lesser Black Backed Gull's.

Another highlight for today, was a brief visit by Richard Crossley to the hide at Dawlish Warren today. He is an international acclaimed birder and photographer and the award-winning author of the Crossley ID guide series, with Dominic Couzens, and coauthor of The Shorebird Guide.

Juv Ruff - by Dean Hall

Grey Lag Goose - By Dean Hall

Sandwich Tern....with blue ring on right-leg N09 - By Dean Hall

Common Tern - Metal Ring on leg - By Dean Hall

...6 Terns in a day!

An amazing morning bird watching on Dawlish Warren. I arrived at the reserve at around 0900, taking a stroll through Greenland Lake, only to see a possible Sparrowhawk, in the woodland, near the VC (Visitor Centre). I walked up to John's Watch (at top of the reserve), to see 6 or 7 Sanderlings on the beach near Goyne 9, with plenty of Terns, including 3 Black Terns offshore. I finally met up with Lee Collins and we headed down to the Bird Hide. 

From the bird hide, we couldn't believe our eyes.... All 6 species of Tern were present....Sandwich Tern, Common Tern, Arctic Tern, Roseate Tern (my favorite), Black Tern and Little Tern. Disappointed that I didn't get a decent picture of an Arctic Tern...but still time I guess! I am very pleased with getting 3 Roseate Terns in the same field of view...amazing!! 

Roseate Tern

2 more Roseate Terns....3 in total today!

Black Tern

Common Tern and Sandwich Tern

Other birds seen on site during the morning were, Sanderlings, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, 3 Turnstones, Redshank, Curlew, Knot and Teal in the estuary, as well as the usual Oystercatchers sitting in front of the hide. So much attention paid on the Terns, I was bound to miss a lots of other species today.

Enjoy the pictures :)

Welcome to my Bird Watching Blog...

Hello,

Welcome to my new Bird Watching Blog....

I've only been birding for a few years now, since moving to Devon in 2012. I am very fortunate to live near Dawlish Warren, which has a fantastic Nature Reserve for me to explore and enjoy the diversity of bird life.

I will be using this blog to document any bird sightings I manage to capture, via digiscoping through my scope, and keeping it has a diary of my sightings, not only at Dawlish Warren, but around the UK and Europe.

Hope you enjoy my blog, please feel free to share the link with friends, or other bidding birders....

Thanks and happy birding :)

Dean