A good day's birding at the Warren

Another bright and early start for birdwatching at Dawlish Warren. I arrived for high tide at 0930, with a fairly high-tide today at 4.6m.

Again, the Bullfinches remained near the Visitor Centre. A stunning bird!

Male Bullfinch - By Dean Hall

Bullfinch - By Dean Hall

Other birds seen today: 

Greenfinch

Great Tits

Blue Tits

Dunnock

Wren

Robin

Long Tailed Duck - seen flying in offshore from John's Watch. 

Grey Plovers

Knot

Dunlin

Turnstone

Redshank

Curlew

Skylark

Bonaparte's Gull

Red-Breasted Mergansers

Bar-Tailed Godwits

Long-Tailed Tits

Shellducks, with yellow-rings SL and NJ.

Shellduck - Ring SL 

Shellduck - Ring NJ

Another 'big tick' today, which included my first Water Rail on the main pond. 

A cold and frosty morning's bird watch on the Warren brrrrr!!!

I was up bright and early on this cold and very frosty morning, for a good morning's bird watch at Dawlish Warren Nature Reserve. 

Dawlish Warren covered in Hoar Frost

It was nice to finally see the flood defence completed around the Visitor Centre, it doesn't look as bad as I thought it would to be honest....it take some getting use to on the eye!

New wooden wall - flood defence around the VC at Dawlish Warren

Flood Defence

The highlight of the morning, was seeing the BullFinches in the trees near the VC on arriving on the site. This was another 'big tick' for my list. 

I headed down to the bird hide for high-tide, which was quite high today (4.2m). 

Here is a list of the birds seen today:

Bullfinch

Greenfinch

Goldfinch

Song Thrush

Wren

Robin

Great Tits

Blue Tits

Dunnock

Blackbird

Great Crested Grebe

Cormorants

Wigeon

Shellducks

Dunlin

Grey Plovers

Knot

Knot - by Dean Hall

Brent Geese

Ring Plovers

Curlews

Bar-Tailed Godwits

Turnstone

Oystercatchers

Redshank

Little Egrets

Stonechat

Slav Grebe

Seen on the main pond near VC...

Gadwall

Little Grebe

Mute Swan

Moorhen

Moorhen and Gadwall on the main pond - by Dean Hall

Snow Bunting at Turf Locks

This is a 'lifer' bird for my list. After a lovely lunch at the Anchor Inn in Cockwood with my girlfriend and her parents, we took a steady walk towards the Turf Locks. We were approached at the car park by a birder (a very enthusiastic lady) who told us where to go and see this stunning snow bunting. It didn't take us long to find this bird, as it was sat very still on the wall, resting and feeding on seeds, provided by local people. Not surprising that it's stayed where it is for a few days!

Photo Taken by Dean Hall

Photo Taken by Suzanne Smith

• Snow bunting are large buntings, with striking 'snowy' plumages. Males in summer haave all white heads and under parts contrasting with black mantle and wing tips.

• Females are a more mottled above. In autumn and winter birds develop a sandy/buff wash to their plumage and males have more mottled upperparts. 

• Globally, they breed around the arctic from Scandinavia to Alaska, Canada and Greenland, and migrate south in winter. 

• They are a scarce breeding species in the UK. 

RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch 2015 - January 24/25th

Hello my fellow briders,

Please, take the time and get involved with the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch, which takes place on the weekend of Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th January 2015.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/

More information on the link above....

Thanks

Dean

Lunchtime outing at Dart's Farm, Topsham.

During my lunch break at work, I and John Griffiths headed down to Dart's Farm hoping to see the Penduline Tit, but no such luck!!!

However, we did add more birds to our competitive bird list for 2015 :)

Bird's at Dart's Farm - all spotted in the 30-40 minutes we had on site....

Teal
Wigeon
Black Tailed Godwit
Grey Heron
Greenfinch
Moorhen
Linnet
Mallard
Stonechat
Canada Geese
Little Egret...

I'm heading off to the Midlands now, hopefully continue to add to my expanding list for 2015...

Keep viewing the blog for future posts!

Happy New Year....and its the start of my new bird list for 2015 at Dawlish Warren

The start of 2015 brings a grey, damp and windy day to Dawlish Warren. I headed down to the Nature Reserve with my girlfriend, Lori, where we met up with our good friends John and Rebecca, to begin our new bird list for 2015.

A good start to the year....we arrived at 1300 on site and headed to the bird hide awaiting for high tide, which peaked at 1545.

New Year's Day list....

Wren

Linnets

Oystercatchers

Brent Geese

Wigeon

Shelduck

Great Black Backed Gull

Herring Gull

Lesser Black Backed Gull

Turnstone

Curlew

Ringed Plover

Dunlin

Knot

Sanderling

Grey Plovers

Cormorants

Red Breasted Mergansers

Bar Tailed Godwits

Water pipit

Little Grebe

Skylarks

Gannets

Great Crested Grebe

Carrion Crow

Happy New Year and Happy Birding in 2015....