Sunday 10 October 2010

Dawlish Warren NNR - Sun 10 Oct

After getting back from church we grabbed our kit and lunch and drove down to Dawlish Warren for the afternoon. I was hoping for a couple of good birds and Ellie was looking forward to a decent walk. We arrived at about 12.30pm and the first thing I had to do was go and buy a can of Coke so that we had enough change for the car park!
We started the walk out to the hide on The Bight but stopped half way to have out picnic lunch, Ellie's home made pasties...delicious! Whilst eating I did a bit of seawatching, but other than a solitary Gannet and a couple of "commic" Terns there was nothing happening out to see.
After our lunch we continued to the hide and spent a while looking across the estuary, there were a good number of common waders about, but nothing unusual. I had hoped to connect with a Red-breasted Goose that had been present with the Brent Geese earlier in the weekend, but the geese were on the far side of the water, making it all but impossible to pick out anything. So we returned to the car, a couple of Skylarks flying over, and near the car we saw a couple of Small Coppers.
On the way back home, we stopped just outside Cockwood so that I could try and get a better view of the geese, which I managed, but to my dismay there was no sign of the Red-breasted Goose and my recent run of missing quality birds continues. There were several Bar-tailed Godwits and a Greenshank feeding on the mud, and a Slavonian Grebe was in the channel. With a few things to do at home we continued homeward bound.
Then to top the day off, news broke (after dark) of a Solitary Sandpiper at Seaton late in the day...another one slips away!

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