Guided Bird Watching Cruise – 18th March 2026

Today saw the final birdwatching cruise of the 2025-26 season. It was a beautiful, spring-like day, although the stiff easterly wind made holding binoculars steady rather difficult. Many of the estuary’s wintering birds have taken advantage of recent fine weather and headed off towards their northern or eastern breeding grounds, so birds were sparse in some parts of the cruise.

As usual, there were a few Oystercatchers and Curlews on Pole Sands, together with gulls and Carrion Crows. The first Shag was a sleepy individual on a buoy near the quay; later we had a nice comparison with a Cormorant on a sandbank; quite a few of the Cormorants were sporting white head plumes as well as the white thigh patch of breeding plumage. The first of a few hundred Brent Geese were around Bull Hill sandbank and a drake Red-breasted Merganser was off Cockwood. At least two more pairs of the latter were seen further up the estuary, where other duck interest included a small flock of Wigeon and, most surprisingly, three Tufted Ducks that landed off Lympstone.

A Greenshank was seen against the harsh sunlight at Powderham. We scanned the white blobs in the Clyst Estuary in the hope of finding yesterday’s Spoonbill or at least an Avocet, but to no avail. Near Turf we saw a group of 11 Stock Doves in flight (not normal cruise fodder!) and a few pairs of Teal. Beyond Turf there was a Harbour Seal out on the mud and two groups of Grey Plovers and Knot; further on there were several dozen Bar-tailed Godwits, but strangely no Black-tails. Finally, we saw a few Black-headed Gulls: nearly all of these have recently departed for their Baltic breeding grounds.

Returning toward Exmouth, some tiny white birds feeding at the edge of a distant sandbank were Sanderlings, and a final wader species for the day came in the form of Turnstones feeding near the roosting Oystercatchers at Dawlish Warren.

Dave Smallshire