Friday 29 December 2017

Xmas Tits (and other prezzies) Christmas 2017

 On Christmas Eve we took a trip with Olive to Stover Country Park. I was quickly on to Marsh tit, and even managed a decent shot.


We also saw one again from the raised walkway feeders so there's obviously not bad numbers here. I also managed to get a couple of nice snaps of the long tailed tits. With a bit of time and patience this would be a great spot to get some good photos. Mental note - one for 2018. 


Christmas Day saw a report of the Wally, the Yankee Widge, back in Exeter. So early Boxing Day I took another trip to Matford Marsh, parking in the layby we identified on the last trip. It was a cold morning, and I wrapped up against the chill. I had a quick scan of the group of wigeon on the main pool, but was pretty sure the wigeon hadn't moved overnight. I walked around to the back pool where it had been reported. There were lots of ducks over there, and one of the first I saw was a female mandarin, which was quickly lost from sight. There was an absolute scrum of wigeon feeding and bathing, and I waited for a few moments, eye down the scope to see if the American Wigeon was there. After a few minutes searching I tried the back field, but shortly returned. This time, after a few minutes I was rewarded with a fairly short view as it emerged from behind reeds to the left of the group, and it was out long enough to get a few poor digiscope record shots.


On 28th Dec we took  a trip to Broadsands so that I could try for a BNG. There didn't seem to be any on view, but after I scanned from the right of the beach I could see two divers from the cliffs. We walked Olive up to the top, and a gent informed us there were lots of Dolphin out in the Bay. I swung the scope out, and immediately found a pod over towards Brixham Harbour, and managed to show Jess them in the scope. I had some great views of some jumping out of the water too. The two divers typically moved over towards the other side of the Bay, but we could see them quite well in the scope. There were many cormorants and shags feeding in the bay, and we also saw a guillemot out past the main cormorant hang out point.



So, no black-necked grebes for me this year, but a nice last outing over Christmas all the same.

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