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.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 13 Nov

My WeBS count was rained off on Sunday, there were three Mute Swans present but it was almost impossible to count what other wildfowl may have been knocking about.

This afternoon the weather turned out to be much better than forecast, so I made a visit to the reservoir on the way home from work, however, the entire site was inaccessible due to tree works, so I made for Water Treatment Works as it was probably the only area where I had any chance of seeing any birds. However, there was nothing on the buildings of note and other than a Chiffchaff I was thinking it was going to be a pretty poor visit, but that all changed when a bit of movement over the outflow stream alerted me to a Yellow-browed Warbler! Always rather mobile I did manage some excellent views as it moved around a few feet above my head for a short while. My fourth patch Yellow-browed Warbler, of which three are self-found.

I then had a quick look of the reservoir from the Fishing Lodge, but other than a few Wigeon and a Common Sandpiper there was nothing else to report.

Sutton Bingham year list for 2025 now at 120 species.

Sutton Bingham - Sat 8 Nov

A message from Pete mid-afternoon meant a quick visit to the reservoir late afternoon to successfully twitch a Black Redstart that was at the water treatment works, with light fading and the bird being really mobile I managed a couple of ropey record shots.

Annoyingly I had spent the best part of half an hour scanning every bird at the water treatment works during my last visit on site and found nothing, but at least I managed to see this one.

Sutton Bingham year list for 2025 now at 119 species.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 6 Nov

My first proper trip to the reservoir for many weeks this afternoon, and water levels have raised considerably since my last visit and presumably as a result there was a decent number of wildfowl present, especially at the southern end.
A fair sized flock of Canada Geese also harboured a lone Mute Swan and whilst the majority of duck were Mallard, there were at least fifty Wigeon, thirty Teal plus three Gadwall and two Shoveler.
A late Common Sandpiper was also at the southern end.