Black Hole Marsh, Seaton - Mon 11 Oct

After getting the OK from my boss to leave work at 5.00pm I headed down to Seaton and Black Hole Marsh to twitch the Solitary Sandpiper that had, fortunately, remained at the site all day after first being found the previous night. I arrived just after 6.00pm and walked down to the marsh, following some excellent directions supplied by my friend Andy Grinter. As I arrived I bumped in to my mate Steve Crimp who had just seen the bird, and he pointed out where he had last seen it and I had soon got on the bird as it rested on a bank. After ten minutes or so it made a short flight, showing off the distinct dark rump, and started feeding slightly closer. I tried to get a couple of record shots, but the light was dire, this was the best I could manage:

At least you can make out the pale legs, eye ring, and the spots on the flank...and that it is a bird!! A Green Sandpiper was nearby meaning the differences between the two species could be studied. As I had to play in a table tennis match I could not linger too long so I headed back to the car, seeing a Kingfisher as I walked along. A manic trip after work but well worth it for a cracking lifer.

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!

Sutton Bingham - Sun 10 Oct

After dropping Ellie off at church I drove up to Sutton Bingham and spent an hour at the reservoir. There was nothing of note at the northern end so I headed on down to the southern end and sat on a hay bale waiting to see what was about.
On the water, the adult Yellow-legged Gull was again present, and three Teal were seen. A Peregrine was on one of the pylons. But the most interesting thing was the passage of birds overhead, though whether visable migration or simply returning wintering bird I have no idea. During the hour long visit I noted Skylark (6+), Meadow Pipit (10+), Chaffinch (5+), alba Wagtail (4+), Starling (50+), and Mistle Thrush (2) pass overhead, mostly heading north. So all in all, a pretty good passage of birds.
Needing to be in East Coker by 11.00am I had to head on back to collect Ellie after a good hours birding.

Meare Heath NNR - Sat 9 Oct

Ellie and I were at a loss as to where to go for a walk this afternoon so we ended up at Meare Heath as we knew we'd get a good stretch of the legs. Parking at the Ashcott Corner car park we decided on taking the long walk out to the Decoy Lake hide, a walk of nearly three miles!
I would love to say that it was worth the effort, but we only saw twenty or so Coots from the hide!! As we undertook the walk out to the hide the only things of note were five fly-over Stock Doves and three Greylag Geese. Leaving the Decoy Lake hide we had the long walk back to the car, which was equally unproductive though as we neared the car we did see a Marsh Harrier. All in all, a good afternoon out as we got a decent bit of exercise.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 7 Oct

Rather a stressful day at work, so to chill out and get a bit of fresh air I decided on a flying visit to the reservoir on my way home. Arriving at the northern causeway just before 6.00pm the light was already beginning to deteriorate. Having not been up to Sutton Bingham for a week or so I was amazed that it was now full, leaving no muddy fringes for any remaining passage waders, thought to my surprise, a Common Sandpiper was on the nnorthern causeway.

On the reservoir proper there was hundreds of gulls, mainly Herring Gulls, but several Black-headed Gulls too.

There was nothing else of note so after just ten minutes I headed on home, however, the long staying Muscovy Duck was still about in it's endless search for bread:

West Bexington - Wed 6 Oct

After a manic couple of days at work I was looking forward to getting out this afternoon and doing some birding, and as there were no real rarities to chase I decided to head to the coast and try and find something myself, and I chose West Bexington in the hope that there might be something about.

I parked at the beach car park at around 2.45pm and walked west for about a mile. Unfortunately there was a very strong wind coming off the sea when I arrived, so my hopes of actually finding anything interesting quickly evaporated. I did see a Reed Bunting feeding amongst the stones near the reed bed, and a couple of Meadow Pipits were also present, but that was it on the land.

So I set up my scope and tried a bit of seawatching instead. A group of nine Common Scoters flew west and I was hoping they would be a taste of things to come, but they were not, and I saw nothing else of note over the next forty or so minutes.

As I explored the area behind the reed beds I did see a few things flying around, but they were a handful of Speckled Woods and several dragonflies which I think were Common Darters:

Meare Heath NR and Greylake RSPB - Sat 2 Oct

Having been stuck at work all morning, and knowing htat the weather forecast for the weekend was not at all good, I popped up on to the Somerset Levels for a couple of hours in the hope of connecting with a few good scarcities that had been seen.
Arriving at Meare Heath and parking at the Ashcott Corner car park I looked up to see a large flock of Lapwings and a couple of other waders take off and fly south. These other waders looked rather interesting but were too far away to identify, and unfortunately the kept flying south! On the flooded lagoon there were a large number of Black-tailed Godwits and some returning Wigeon, Teal and Shoveler...a sign that winter is on the way, though a female Garganey was a reminder that it's migration time. Also on the lagoon were two Great White Egrets, one of which had been ringed.


Leaving the lagoon I walked out to the hide overlooking Meare Heath proper, but saw nothing of note, but on returning to the drove I picked out two Black Terns, which I had been trying to track down for nearly an hour.
With time ticking by I left Meare Heath and drove the short distance south to the RSPB reserve at Greylake where a Spotted Crake had been seen a day earlier. I walked out to the hide and spent about thirty minutes scanning the area. There was no sign of the crake, or anything else for that matter, though a couple of Snipe were seen. As I was going out for dinner, I could not linger so came on home.