GWOs

Very little to report on the migrant front. A lone Swallow on Orcombe after work this evening the best of it. Happy to report the first flowering Green-winged Orchids though.

Yesterday - Mudbank - 8 Sandwich Terns, just 2 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 2 Mallard, 9 Redshank, 2 Red-breasted Mergansers, 50 Curlew, 2 Great Crested Grebes, 1 Peregrine and a Buzzard east and low across the river. Lu and I had a stroll around the Otter estuary with a Red Kite east over at 1350, 13 Redshank, 2 Little Ringed Plovers and 1 Greenshank.

30/3 - Orcombe Point  - 10 Chiffchaffs, 4 Blackcaps, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Yellowhammer and 5 Gannets close off Orcombe Point.

29/3 - Orcombe Point - 3 Blackcaps, 10 Chiffchaffs, 5 Common Scoters, 1 Razorbill, 13 Shags, 1 Sandwich Tern and 1 Red-throated Diver. Mudbank - 6 Sandwich Terns, 9 Grey Plovers and 2 Red-breasted Mergansers.

28/3 - Orcombe Point - 5 Blackcaps, 13 Chiffchaffs, 1 Willow Warbler, 6+ Meadow Pipits and 1 Redwing. Mudbank - 15 Wigeon and 4 Dark-bellied Brent Geese.

Close views of 5 Gannets feeding just off Orcombe Point on 30/3.

Willow Warblers

Best of a quick whiz round Orcombe top fields after work was 2 Willow Warblers feeding quietly in a sunlit stretch of hedgerow. Seven Brent Geese headed high east and my first two Swallows of the year hawked over the far edge of Maer valley. Otherwise about half a dozen Meadow Pipits and 2 Stock Doves were noted.

BTD

Thanks to messages from Kev and Mark I managed to scope a Black-throated Diver off the seafront this evening. It was a little distant but continues a good little run of this species for me in Exmouth, with recent birds on January 28th this year and November 29th last year. Also off there four Eider.

Otherwise quiet today with 50+ Cattle Egrets on wrecks across the river first thing and 20 Wigeon along with 19 Redshank, c90 Black-headed Gulls, 1 Sandwich Tern and 2 Red-breasted Mergansers off Mudbank.

Hoopoe

 Hoopoe - one of very few migrants on Orcombe Point this morning.

An atypically productive spell of birding this mornning in Exmouth. A thirty-five minute sea-watch from the raised beach huts from 0620 produced 7 Sandwich Terns, 4 Red-throated Divers, 10 Common Scoters,  7 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and an 'in off' Kestrel. 

Orcombe Point - 1 Hoopoe, 6 Chiffchaffs, 15+ Meadow Pipits, 20 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 5 Chaffinches, 2 Blackcaps and 1 male Cirl Bunting.

Maer Valley - 2 Black Redstarts (male and female), 1 Redwing, 2 Little Egrets and 8 Ring-necked Parakeets.

Mudbank was  inexplicably good too with a flock of 23 Sandwich Terns, 11 Pale-bellied Brent Geese, 1 Red Kite and a singing Willow Warbler. Also off there - 121 Curlew, 1 Knot, 2 Grey Plovers, 14+ Redshank, 22 Wigeon,  4 Canada Geese, 3 Red-breasted Mergansers, 3 Great Crested Grebes and 1 Peregrine. A steady procession of Lesser Black-backed Gulls headed upriver. I really wish I'd counted them!

This is only the second one I've seen in Exmouth. The first turned up in John and Marie Wilson's garden in Foxholes back in August 2017. It's also only the second one I've found, the first being way back in April 2001 on the Teign estuary. 

Migrants

Sandwich Tern - one of three off Mudbank today. Six birds were off Orcombe Point first thing.

Orcombe Point early doors - 6 Sandwich Terns, 1 Wheatear, 5 Chiffchaffs, 1 Blackcap, 13 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 30+ Meadow Pipits and 1 Stock Dove. Nearby in Maer Valley - c130 Jackdaws, 1 Wheatear, 1 Black Redstart and 2 Little Egrets.

At a local site just outside the Exmouth boundary - 3 Little Ringed Plovers, 3 Little Grebes and 1 Black Redstart.

Mudbank - 3 Sandwich Terns, c250 Dark-bellied Brent Geese,  5 Red-breasted Mergansers, 16 Wigeon and 1 Greenshank.

Male Wheatear - Orcombe Point.

Rock Pipit.

Female Wheatear - Maer Valley.

Male Black Redstart - Maer Valley. The second of two individuals discovered today.

Orcombe Gos

A post work, late afternoon whiz round Orcombe revealed just 4 Meadow Pipits and 2 Chiffchaffs on the migrant front but a Goshawk was a real surprise, presumably drawn into the area by numbers of corvids and pigeons. This is my first ever record on Orcombe Point.

Sandwich Tern

A single Sandwich Tern off Maer Rocks first thing this morning, flying into a freezing cold south-easterly before swinging back towards the Warren. Also off there - a handful of Kittiwakes and Gannets plus a lonesome Guillemot. Just 4 Chiffchaffs on Orcombe Point and off Mudbank - 80+ Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 1 Pale-bellied Brent Goose, 23 Wigeon, 6 Red-breasted Mergansers, 5 Great Crested Grebes, 1 Greenshank and 28 Redshank. Late yesterday afternoon off there - 14 Red-breasted Mergansers, 11 Wigeon and a Pale-bellied Brent Goose.