It was the day after Jess’s birthday, and whilst Jess was
out with her mum, I made the most of the nice weather and spent a day birding. My
first stop was Topsham, where I popped by RSPB Goosemoor, and then the hide at
Bowling Green Marsh. As I walked up the lane a sparrowhawk came through over
the field and startled some of the wildfowl. I managed to pick up the usual
suspects for the year list, and a pair of Egyptian geese came in shortly before
I was due to leave. It was unusually quiet for waders, and even though it was
an hour or so before high tide, I made the decision to leave and chance missing
the long-staying LB dowitcher. It later turned out that was the right decision
because I don’t think it was seen.
After popping by Clyst End again for a quick pit stop, I
headed down to Man Sands to try for the Blue-winged Teal. It was to be a lifer for me, and one that I
didn’t want to pass up considering it’s been there for a few weeks, and from
the reports online it was coming into proper plumage. I picked up a buzzard and
kestrel on the way down from the car, and that took it up to a three raptor
day. On arrival I realised it was a fair
walk down to the pool where the teal has been staying, but I saw my first red
admiral of the year.
On arrival at the far pool I got speaking to a gent who
pointed out the area by the reeds where the teal had apparently disappeared
into to sleep. I picked up gadwall and tufty as year ticks, and with the teal
not on show I went up through the gate along the coastal path to see if I could
see the reported female black redstart. I went up and around the white building
and saw my first chiffies of the year, and the black redstart bumbled around
the rooftop, along with a pied and grey wagtail. Happy with the redstart as a
year tick, I moved off to try for the teal, and prepared to dig-in and wait it
out. I had my sausage sandwich, which went down nicely, and wrapped up warm.
After a time, Lee Evans and a crew of birders turned up. One of them ended up spotting
the teal, near the reeds. It was surprisingly difficult to see, and potentially
I had failed to spot it, because it was unassumingly grubbing though the
vegetation. A great looking bird however! I picked up snipe as another year tick,
and with my first lifer of 2020 in the bag I made the walk back up the hill to
the carpark.
On the way home I picked up Cirl Bunting with my bins from
the car at Broadsands, but didn’t hang around as a guy was there with his car
right by them, evidently looking to use his car as a hide. Firecrest and Sibe
chiffy had been reported in the reedbed area, but with both already on the year
list I left for Clyst End, and the remains of a Denley’s curry for lunch.
In terms of other birds so far this year, I went to see the
great northern diver at Mwyndy Pool on a
sunny Sunday, and duly peered over the fence to see it. At the time of
writing it’s still there, but people are concerned that it doesn’t have enough
clearance to take off again. The RSPCA have been called, and hopefully they get
out to rescue it. I also went to pay my
annual respects to the hawfinches at Fforest Ganol whilst walking the dog, and
two firecrests turned up near the entrance ramp to Bute Park from North Road.
They’ve been feeding along the canal feeder stream, and we went over from the
office and had great views at times.
