Dawlish Warren and Exminster - Sat 1 Jan

An early start to the new year as I was picked up from the village by John and Steve at 8.00am for a day out in Devon. After picking up Andy and Dave from Chard we headed straight for Dawlish Warren for our first spot of birding. Seawatching produced the long-staying female Surf Scoter and a few fly-by Red-throated Divers and a Great Skua. A flock of Eider and a couple of Slavonian Grebes were also out to sea. On the land we saw a few bits and pieces, the highlight being a superb male Black Redstart.
Leaving Dawlish Warren we headed back towards Exminster, stopping at Cockwood to look out over the estuary. The tide was not really in our favour, but we saw a few waders, including Greenshank and Turnstone. A couple of Goldeneye were on the estuary.
We then drove up to the fields at the back of Exminster village where after a bit of searching we found a handful of Cirl Buntings. With not a lot else of note we drove back down to Exminster Marshes where we were to spend the rest of the day.
After parking the car we walked out towards Topsham lock where a redhead Smew had been for the last few days, only it had been flushed by dog-walkers minutes before we got there. So we decided instead to walk back down the Exeter Canal to Turf where we had been told of a Red-breasted Goose...but like the Smew it too had vanished by the time we got there!
Thinking that our day was taking a turn for the worse we were even more frustrated when, after being told the Smew had returned, we got back to Topsham lock to find it had again just been flushed. However, after ten minutes we got lucky as the Smew had flown back on to the canal and gave some brilliant views:

After finally getting our target bird we then drove back down to the Swan's Nest pub and parked up before taking a walk out to the new RSPB reserve of Powderham Marshes. It was a fair walk out to the viewpoint, but we were rewarded with a mixed flock of Chaffinches and Bramblings, and a smashing male Merlin. We were hoping to connect with a small flock of Eurasion White-fronted Geese, but we could not locate them. By now it was starting to get dark, so we called it a day and walked back to the car. A pretty long and tiring day but well worth it.
UK list for 2011 now at 82 species.