Sunday 8th February

The first three Egyptian Goose of the year flew across the bay before heading south down the coast c9.10am, passing Teignmouth at 9.22am. Also offshore 11 Great Northern and a Red-throated Diver, 10 Common Scoter and seven Great Crested Grebe. 

Great Northern Diver - Lee Collins

Counts from the estuary, incorporating the WeBS, included 2,061 Dunlin, 649 Black and 105 Bar-tailed Godwit, 515 Oystercatcher, 288 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 175 Redshank, 114 Knot, 101 Grey and 25 Ringed Plover, 27 Sanderling, 20 Curlew, 18 Turnstone, 16 Greenshank, 13 Avocet and 11 Teal.

Elsewhere a Firecrest was on the Golf Course with two Chiffchaff and single Coal Tit and Goldcrest. 

Year List addition:
104. Egyptian Goose

Warren Point 7th February - Kim Summers

View looking east from the seawall 7th February - Kevin Rylands

Dune Ridge looking west by Groyne Nine 4th February - Kevin Rylands

Buffer Zone flooding 6th February - James Marshall

Saturday 7th February

The drake Goldeneye was off Cockwood briefly late afternoon with counts from the estuary including 820 Black and 101 Bar-tailed Godwit, 138 Knot, 85 Grey and 29 Ringed Plover, 21 Sanderling, 18 Avocet, six Greenshank and two Red-breasted Merganser.

Elsewhere the Little Grebe was trilling from the Main Pond, with four Common Scoter, two Great Northern and two Red-throated Diver offshore.

Ringing News: Today turned out to be a big recovery day. Ongoing labour intensive monitoring allows evaluation of both short and long term survivability rates for species like Dunlin, the 64 identified today adding to a burgeoning dataset. Oystercatcher numbers have begun to dwindle, signalling migratory movement, with birds already arriving back on breeding grounds in Scotland. Keeping an eye on those that remain holds added value, one seen and noted today may potentially be found several hundred miles away a few days later, or even the next day as happened in February 2019. Today 27 wintering individuals were noted, one ringed way back in 2004. Adding a bit of glamour and variety, one of the Netherlands ringed Avocet brought sparkle and culminated in a hugely rewarding bout of intensely watching our wintering wader residents.

Other Wildlife: A few more active insects despite the continuing showers. Alexanders continued to attract a few flies including Geomyza tripunctata, Tephritis vespertina and new for the Recording Area, the common Suillia affinis.

Suillia affinis - Alan Keatley

Beetles included Trechus quadristriatus, the weevil Hypera conmaculata and Rosemary Beetle with Buff-tailed Bumblebee and the moth Common Flat-body Agonopterix heracliana on the wing.

Trechus quadristriatus - Alan Keatley

Hypera conmaculata - Alan Keatley

Common Flat-body Agonopterix heracliana - Alan Keatley

Friday 6th February

An adult Little Gull, eight Great Northern and four Red-throated Diver were offshore, with single 1CY Caspian Gull and the 4CY Yellow-legged Gull amongst the large feeding flocks of Herring Gull along the beach and sandbars.

Lesser Black-backed Gull - Dave Jewell

Grey Plover - Lee Collins

Great Northern Diver - Jim Summers

Thursday 5th February

A 4CY Yellow-legged Gull was on Finger Point with at least 45 Great Black-backed Gull, with 290 Black-tailed Godwit and seven Avocet in the estuary corner. 

Yellow-legged Gull - Lee Collins

Wednesday 4th February

Counts from the high tide included 1,100 Dunlin, 840 Black and 120 Bar-tailed Godwit, 139 Grey and eight Ringed Plover, 118 Knot, 67 Common Gull, 27 Turnstone, 20 Greenshank and 10 Avocet.

Elsewhere the Cetti's Warbler was singing in the Entrance Bushes.

Other Wildlife: The promise of dry weather didn't materialise, with the water level on the Main Pond still rising over topping the floor of viewing platform. Avoiding the floods, the ground beetle Bluish Plate-jaw Leistus fulvibarbis in the Entrance Bushes and on the emerging Alexanders, the fruit fly Tephritis vespertina; although very invasive, this plant is an important nectar source for a range of insects now emerging earlier in late winter/early spring.

Bluish Plate-jaw Leistus fulvibarbis - Alan Keatley

Tephritis vespertina - Alan Keatley

Tuesday 3rd February

A late afternoon visit saw 385 Dark and a Pale-bellied Brent Goose, 10 Greenshank and six Avocet were in the estuary with the usual mix of waders.

Elsewhere the Dartford Warbler was on the Golf Course, a Firecrest was in Dead Dolphin Wood and 730+ Herring Gull, two Great Northern Diver and a Common Scoter were offshore.

Monday 2nd February

Counts from the estuary on the rising evening tide included 88 Redshank, 70+ Common Gull, 28 Shelduck, 27 Greenshank, the highest ever winter count, 22 Teal, five Avocet and four Wigeon.

Elsewhere the Cetti's Warbler was on the Golf Course and an adult Little Gull was offshore with 11 Common Scoter, three Red-throated and three Great Northern Diver. 

Sunday 1st February

A total of 510 Black-tailed Godwit, 34 Sanderling, 17 Greenshank and nine Avocet were in the estuary on the dropping morning tide with the 2CY Little Gull still in main channel and a 2CY Yellow-legged Gull on Bull Hill.  

Elsewhere five Great Northern Diver and five Common Scoter were offshore, 60 Linnet were on Warren Point, 37 Magpie roosted in the Entrance Bushes and a Little Grebe has returned to the Main Pond, where a female Shoveler, several Water Rail and a Cetti's Warbler were present.

Year List additions:
103. Little Grebe
102. Yellow-legged Gull

Other Wildlife: Between showers, the weather wasn't too bad with a few more active invertebrates few including a Gorse Weevil Exapion ulicis on its foodplant with plenty of Gorse Thrips Odontothrips ulicis. On an early flowering Alexanders, a common blowfly Calliphora vicina and a Yellow Dung Fly Scathophaga stercoraria.

Gorse Weevil Exapion ulicis - Alan Keatley

Elsewhere a Bembidion lunulatum amongst Marram and a large sac spider Clubiona corticalis.

Bembidion lunulatum - Alan Keatley

Saturday 31st January

Counts from the estuary on the rising tide included 1,320 Dunlin, 310 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 96 Redshank, 65 Turnstone, 30 Ringed Plover, 28 Sanderling, 22 Avocet, 14 Greenshank and two Red-breasted Merganser with two Mediterranean and a 2CY Little Gull and a Whimbrel also present. The latter presumably the wintering bird from Exmouth. 

Elsewhere 15 Great Crested Grebe, five Common Scoter and four Great Northern Diver were offshore. 

Year List addition:
101. Whimbrel

Ringing News: The flock of Avocet contained a new ringed bird from the Netherlands, with no sign of the two recent birds. Detailed of these revealed one was from Seal Sands, Cleveland that has wintered on the Exe for several winters and a Dutch bird that has not previously been recorded away from the Netherlands. 

 Wildlife News: A Grey Seal was in estuary. 

Friday 30th January

The flood water in the river saw a much higher tide than forecast with most waders packed tightly onto Finger Point and 330 Dark-bellied Brent Geese on the flooded areas of the Golf Course. The Merlin was hunting around the estuary corner with counts including 77 Common, 58 Great Black-backed and a Mediterranean Gull, 37 Ringed Plover, 22 Shelduck, 16 Avocet, seven Greenshank and a Fulmar, which flew down estuary from N of Cockwood.

Elsewhere two Great Northern Diver were offshore, the Cetti's Warbler was singing on the Golf Course, two Siskin flew towards the mainland and a notable flock of 20 Long-tailed Tit were in the Entrance Bushes.