Trip reports
Dawlish Warren - Tuesday 17 January 2012
Thursday, 19 January 2012
From the top of the dunes, the sea was scanned and a few distant gannets and great crested grebes were visible. Towards the hide, a number of birds were seen on the mudflat including brent geese and dunlin with some redshank.
The tide had pushed many waders onto the gravel banks in front of the hide and dunlin and oystercatchers predominated. Groups of knot, bar-tailed godwit, sanderling together with redshank, curlew, turnstone, grey plover, great black-backed and herring gulls plus wigeon were all visible. Out on the water more cormorants, some shag and several red-breasted mergansers were picked out.
As the tide rose, more groups of waders continued to fly in to boost the numbers. As the birds settled, the tranquillity was broken by the sudden appearance of first one and then another peregrine falcon which dived repeatedly at the swarming flocks until eventually they separated a single bird and forced it onto the water. The female, amazingly, lifted the bird from the surface and flew off shortly to be followed by the male.
Walking back along the top of the dunes, some good birds were seen including a couple of Slavonian grebes, a few red-throated divers, one or two black-throated divers and large numbers of great-crested grebe. Further down the beach, a couple of razorbills were spotted and a large duck turned out to be the much sought-after long-staying surf scoter.
A visit to the Exminster Marshes reserve seeking a reported long-eared owl was successful as, sure enough, the bird was soon spotted in a bush just seven feet off the ground. A short walk along the road towards the canal revealed another very special bird in the form of a glossy ibis which is normally found in Southern Europe. Several canada and greylag geese, shoveler, pintail, teal plus buzzard and kestrel were all new birds for the day.