Year listing.. Thurlestone, Slapton, Broadsands, Topsham Rec - 27 and 28/01/2017

I came home from work on Friday night feeling like I was coming down with flu, but I knew that we were off down to Exeter. News had also just broken about the Red flanked blue tail not ten minutes from my house, and I couldn't believe that I wasn't going to be around to try for it! So it was, that Saturday morning, full of cold and feeling rotten I layered up and headed out at first light down to Thurlestone to try for the desert wheatear. I parked up on the clifftop car park, and took in the view, before setting off for Leasfoot beach. Upon arrival I was quickly on to the wheatear, at the top of the dunes, and I watched him move off down a gap to the beach. Not ten seconds later I had crept along to where I saw him, only he had vanished! I jumped down onto the beach, and walked back to the start to see if I could find him again. Another ten minutes went by before I spied movement about half way out on the beach, and sure enough it was the wheatear. I made sure to keep eyes on it, as it was easy enough to lose, blending in so well. I sat down in the small dune and it sat up on a sign, and evidently had favourite perches around the beach. 

It was a lovely half hour or so, punctuated only by golfers on the course behind me, and  an old chap who came along and went skinny dipping!

I went back up to the car park, and got speaking to the chap who had found it. Whilst I was getting in the car a black redstart blew up over the cliff and landed a couple of meters away on the fence before flying up onto the top of the nearby building. 

I decided to make a move, and headed off to Slapton. The weather had started to change, and a cold wind had whipped up. The sea was choppy, and there were no divers or grebes in sight. The squalls had brought in a few gannets however, the first of my 2017 year list. There were lots of wildfowl on the lagoon, but I decided not to hang around too much in favour of trying for the cirl buntings at Broadsands. When I arrived, the first thing I heard was greenfinch, a species which was elusive for nearly the whole of January! I got speaking to birder on the beach front who pointed me in the right direction for the cirls.  

I made my way back via Dartmouth, and caught a ferry to save myself a fair trip back.


After a rough night sleeping, there was certainly no way I was going to be up for an early morning again, but I knew I wanted to try for the YBW at Topsham Rec given the sunny weather mid morning. There hadn't been a report of it for over a week, and with it having been around for ages now I  thought it likely to have moved on. Upong arriving, I noticed a small duck in the distance with several others, and my mind instantly went to long tailed duck. I wasn't wrong - and the others were goldeneye, with 3 females and 1 male keeping the LTD company.

 There were also teal feeding in the shallows, and lots of black headed gulls, though no meds.

I decided to walk through the play area just to check the YBW wasn't there. The entire time I  was there I had kept a ear out, and hadn't heard anything, but was all of a sudden noticed a small warbler like bird in the little tree ahead of me, though silhouetted so I couldn't clinch the ID. It flew up into the large tree above me, and I felt sure it was a YBW, but as I reached down to grab my camera I lost it!! Suddenly there were lots of other species around me, but I decided to make the most of the goldfinch.

Luckily, I spied the YBW again in another of the smaller trees, and it was behaving quite strangely, almost landing on the ground. I snapped a few photos and confirmed it, before it flew off over into the large tree near where I had parked up. I followed it over, and managed a few shots before it flew off into a nearby garden (imagine that on the BGBW list!).

Speaking of BGBW - it included green woodpecker, another addition to the year list! It also included a red admiral which had obviously been awakened by the warm sun.