Sutton Bingham - Mon 29 Dec

An early afternoon visit to the reservoir today and I spent the best part of three hours covering just about every area I could and with very little reward. A Great White Egret was on West Pool and a lone Stonechat was observed. On the water there were three Gadwall and at least forty Wigeon, plus a small number of Teal present at the southern end. I also heard a squealing Water Rail but that was that for 2025 on the patch.

All in all a pretty good year, with my final total being 121 species recorded, with a self found Glossy Ibis being the pick, what with it being a patch tick, and a self-found Yellow-browed Warbler being a good find. As is always the case, I missed a number of birds over the course of the year, all of which were very brief visitors or fly-through migrants. And it all starts again on 1 January 2026! Happy New Year!

Sutton Bingham - Sat 27 Dec

In what was to be the penultimate birding visit to the reservoir this year I finally managed to get an addition to the year list, meaning I managed at least one species added to the list each month this year. Today's find was a Jack Snipe flushed from the edge of West Pool along with some thirty or so Snipe.

The only other birds of note today were three Mediterranean Gulls and a Common Gull amongst a small number of Black-headed Gulls. 

Sutton Bingham year list for 2025 now at 121 species.

Sutton Bingham - Mon 22 Dec

I've not spent much time at the reservoir this month, and to be honest I don't think I've missed much. A couple of Tufted Ducks were present briefly one day last week along with two Snipe but there has been very little else, just small numbers of Wigeon and Teal. Today a Great White Egret was on West Pool, so a little bit of interest at last.

Dawlish Warren (Cockwood) - Thu 4 Dec

News broke yesterday of a rare tern off Dawlish Warren which was eventually identified as a Lesser Crested Tern, and as it decided to linger overnight I made the decision late morning to head down on my afternoon off work to try and see it.

A drive of nearly two hours meant I arrived at Cockwood just before 3pm and decided to stop here and check for the bird, this was a good decision as there were a small number of birders present who very kindly got me on to the bird within a minute or two. OK, it was a bit distant, but I got some great views through my scope of it in flight on perched on a distant buoy.

After a while it took flight again and eventually settled a little closer, still too far away for a decent photo though.

Knowing that the light would be against me, I decided to not to drive round to Dawlish Warren and make the thirty minute hike across the dunes to the hide. I might have got closer views, but by the time I got there I knew I wouldn't have long so decided to just enjoy the views from Cockwood, even if they were a little distant.

So, Lesser Crested Tern is the latest addition to my life list, and what a great bird it was.

Obviously, I didn't really spend any time looking for other birds, but there was a good number of Brent Geese present and I did have four Bar-tailed Godwits fly by.