Guided Bird Watching – Sunday 30th January

Beautiful calm, sunny conditions today: perfect! Today the Black-necked Grebes had wandered up nearer to Powderham Church. They were almost overshadowed by around 40 Great Crested Grebes (a record total for the Exe, I think), most of which were again off Lympstone Barracks, as were a flock of Pintail. About 25 Red-breasted Mergansers were also mostly in the upper half of the estuary, some of the males displaying to potential partners. A big flock of Golden Plover flew around over Exminster Marshes and today most of the (600+) Avocets were scattered all across the Turf-Topsham mudflats. At Topsham there was a mass of about 1000 Black-tailed and 150 Bar-tailed Godwits, together with about 40 Knot, while the Spotted Redshank remained faithful to ‘its’ patch of mud. At least 10 Greenshanks were between Cockwood and Powderham and two small groups of Sanderlings fed along the central sandbanks. 2 Peregrines were visible on Exmouth Church and a Kingfisher was seen by some near the Marina; later, we paused to look at another sat on one of the wrecks near Powderham.

Dave Smallshire