Mostly Hirundines

Goldcrest - one of at least 3 on Orcombe Point this morning.

 

It has been a 'hirundine' day today with a number moving east shortly after dawn this morning, and a pretty much continuous presence of birds over the house and river all day, totalling hundreds of birds. Totals from Orcombe this morning - 0640 - 0800'ish - c100+ Meadow Pipit (just a rough estimate), 15+ Chiffchaff, 1 Song Thrush, 1 Sparrowhawk, 5 Grey Wagtail, 3 Goldcrest, c60+ Swallow, c180+ House Martin, c200+ hirundine sp, 1 Starling, 11+ 'alba' wagtail, c20+ Goldfinch, 1 Wheatear, 3 Blackcap and 6+ Greenfinch.

At least 5 Common Tern and a Mediterranean Gull were on Maer Rocks early on.

Good to see Glyn today. We spent some time watching Mudbank as the tide came in, and recorded 2 Snipe, 1 Mediterranean Gull, 9 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Turnstone, 2 Ringed Plover, 5 Dunlin, 12 Common Gull, 1 juvenile Arctic Tern, 1 Grey Plover, c40/50+ Sandwich Tern, 1+ Common Tern, 18 Pintail, 11 Shelduck, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Grey Wagtail, 2 Raven, 32+ Little Egret and 1 Bar-tailed Godwit.

I nipped over to Budleigh this afternoon to see the Grey Phalarope which was a little more distant than I'd hoped but good to see all the same. The only other sighting of note today was 1 or 2 Siskin west over the house.

First-winter Mediterranean Gull - Maer Rocks

Common and Sandwich Terns - Maer Rocks

Grey Phalarope - Budleigh

Green-ringed Cackling Goose - Budleigh

Kingfisher - Mudbank

Juvenile Arctic Tern - Mudbank - probably best to click on image to enlarge. It's a novelty for me to photograph this species in Exmouth as they're invariably way too distant. This one was too but at least it's identifiable!

Eighteen Pintail. They flew in and attempted to land off Mudbank but were prevented from doing so by paddle-boarders.