Guided Bird Watching Cruise- 17th January 2026

We had a beautiful cruise this afternoon with some great numbers of great birds. A Great Northern Diver and a Kingfisher had flown past the Pride of Exmouth before everyone had boarded. We failed to see the diver off Exmouth sea front, but the Kingfisher was refound sitting on rocks by the quay. Probably another Great Northern Diver was seen at distance inside the estuary and then the first of maybe 20 Great Crested Grebes. Shags were shining green in the sun, a few sporting their breeding crests. A second Kingfisher was spotted on the wreck at Cockwood and later a third was perched on a metal structure in shallow water. Two Grey Seals were sunbathing on their favoured pontoon at Starcross.

Two Egyptian Geese were just inside Powderham Park and nearby, the first of many Avocets was feeding. A flock of Pintail was rather distant and a large flock of Golden Plovers circled high over the top end of the estuary, later dropping down onto the mud at their favoured roost site. The river margins and mudflats around Turf and Topsham were plastered in large flocks of Lapwings, Avocets (many feeding in shallow water), Dunlins, Curlews, Redshanks and well over 1000 Black-tailed Godwits; smaller numbers of Grey Plover and Knot were amongst them. A flock of Brent Geese at Turf contained a few juveniles; we had a flypast of them as they returned to feed over the sea wall.

As we turned at Topsham, a Marsh Harrier circled up over Exminster Marshes and a Snipe flew up from the tidal reedbed. A Harbour Seal watched us as we sailed back towards Turf, where we scanned the fields for geese. A flock of Brent Geese was easy to see, but not so the flock of White-fronted Geese with Canada Geese beyond the railway (28 of the Russian race were there in the morning, part of the largest winter invasion in England for some years). As we returned past the sandbanks towards Exmouth there were groups of Sanderlings scurrying along the shorelines and finally a(nother?) Great Northern Diver tantalised us by diving for long periods.

Dave Smallshire