Musbury - Sat 30 Apr

A trip down to Devon this afternoon and to Lower Bruckland Ponds just south of the village of Musbury. Although I'd heard about this place by reading Tweets and Blog posts by some of the local Axe Estuary birders I'd never actually been here before. Well more fool me, it was gorgeous. A small nature reserve consisting of a few small ponds and a lovely café come visitor centre...which serves very nice ice cream! So why was I here? Well, a bird of course! A Hoopoe had been showing well in a sheep field opposite the ponds and I was fortunate to bump in to local birder Tim White (who is also an amazing photographer!) when I arrived on site and within a few minutes was watching the bird. The Hoopoe was only a few yards away and good be seen really well through the hedge, and in keeping with tradition I took a few shots with my phone...

 

 

To be honest, there was not much else happening, so after my celebratory ice cream I drove down to Black Hole Marsh, just north of Seaton, for a walk around. But other than some Shelduck and ten Black-tailed Godwits the marsh was devoid of birds!