Saturday 26th August

A beautiful day; on the mid-morning high tide only 926 Oystercatcher, 416 Curlew, 201 Dunlin, 147 Canada Goose flew west in flocks to farmland from their overnight roost on the estuary; 135+ Redshank, 130 Ringed Plover, 26 Mute Swan, 24 Cormorant, some Bar-tailed Godwit, 10 Little Egret, seven Whimbrel, three Greenshank, three Sanderling, two juv Knot, two Grey Heron, the resident Slavonian Grebe, a Teal and a Common Snipe flew in off and into the saltmarsh.  A juv Peregrine stooped into small waders flocks, unsuccessfully.  Also seen, two Kingfisher. 

Sanderling (Alan Keatley)

Of the c.250 Black-headed Gull, one with a white Darvic 'T7VE' was ringed in Poland as a pullus in 2012; it was seen at Dawlish Warren from Jun to Sep 2014, in Aug 2016 and now again in Aug 2017.  Of the 112 Sandwich Tern, some familiar ringed individuals.  Yellow 'T87', a pullus ringed in Holland in 2015 was regular here that autumn, then at Salcombe in Sep 2015 and then in Namibia in Nov 2016.  Remarkably, it was back here at Dawlish Warren in Jun and Aug 2017, but during the intervening period was twice seen in Texel, Holland; gosh!  Another interesting bird, red 'KAH' was ringed in mid west Wales in 2013 and since has been recorded annually (except 2014)  here at Dawlish Warren in autumn, so far this August it has stayed for 3 weeks.

ringed Sandwich Tern (Lee Collins)

Also in the estuary 14 Common Tern, nine Mediterranean Gull (mixed ages). nine Common Gull and highlights were single juv Yellow-legged Gull, Little Tern and a juv Roseate Tern flew out to sea.

juv Mediterranean Gull (Dave Jewell)

Among small gull flocks anting, c.40 Swallow, four Swift and a House Martin; at higher elevation two Sparrowhawk and a Buzzard soared around. A flock of four Raven flew north, only the fourth record of the year. Passage overhead, seven Yellow Wagtail, two Grey Wagtail and two Meadow Pipit.
A thorough search of the bushes, dunes and ponds revealed 16 Chiffchaff, six Blackcap, five Whitethroat, three Wheatear, three Reed Warbler in the reedbeds, two Sedge Warbler on Warren Point, two Willow Warbler and a again this year's max of nine Stonechat.  Counts of nine Long-tailed Tit, eight Blue Tit and five Great Tit were unremarkable.   Finch flocks in the Buffer Zone and Greenland Lake were made up of 36 Goldfinch and a similar number of Linnet. 

Wildlife news: a few Migrant Hawker, Southern Hawker, Common Darter and an Emperor were widely distributed today. A Jersey Tiger was in the woods.