WELCOME TO THE BLOG OF WINGSPAN BIRD TOURS



ALL NEWS, BIRD SIGHTINGS AND TOUR UPDATES WILL ALSO BE RECORDED ON MY WEB-SITE BLOG PAGES FOUND HERE


http://www.wingspanbirdtours.com/blog




FURTHER DETAILS OF FUTURE TRIPS CAN BE FOUND ON OUR MAIN WEBSITE:-



http://www.wingspanbirdtours.com/






FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT PARTICIPATED IN A WINGSPAN TOUR DURING 2017, THANK YOU FOR YOUR CUSTOM & YOUR COMPANY AND WE WISH YOU HEALTH AND HAPPINESS FOR 2018.

THE PROGRAMME FOR SPRING 2018 IS NOW ON MY

WEBSITE BUT HERE IS A PREVIEW



Jan 2nd - 5th - Somerset Levels

Jan 7th - 20th. - Sri Lanka. £1850

Feb 16th - March 3rd Costa Rica - full

Mar 20th - 30th Morocco - 10 nights. - full

April 2nd - 9th - Andalucia migration tour. - full

April 10th - 18th - Coto Donana & Extremadura - £950 - 2 places

April 19th - 27th - Coto Donana & Extremadura - £950 - full

April 28th - 5th May. - Lesvos - full

May 6th - 13th - Portugal - £950 - 4 places

May 15th - 22nd - Northern Greece - full

May 23rd - 30th Bulgaria - £850 - 4 places

May 23rd - 30th - Andalucia birds and butterflies - £850

May 31st - June 7th. - Extremadura and Sierra de Gredos - £950

June 12th - 20th - Pyrenees and Picos de Europa - full


FLIGHTS NOT INCLUDED IN THESE PRICES



BOOK NOW TO SECURE YOUR PLACE SEND AN E-MAIL TO:

E-mail: bobbuckler49@hotmail.com





















Red-throated Bee-eater

Red-throated Bee-eater
join us for a fantastic tour of The Gambia this November

Saturday, March 1, 2014

DEVON WEEKEND BREAK - SATURDAY MARCH 1ST 2014

BOWLING GREEN MARSH, TOPSHAM - EXMOUTH, EXE ESTUARY AND 'AVOCET' RIVER CRUISE ON THE EXE.

It really felt like spring had begun, it was a beautiful sunlit morning, not a whiff of air and bird song everywhere. We ate a superb breakfast at 7am - I refused a 'full-English' of course!

So our day started as we left the hotel at 8am and headed for Topsham a short drive away. We parked near the station and set off on foot to the water meadow known as Bowling Green Marsh.

in the hide at Bowling Green Marsh

view from the hide
We viewed the marsh from various gaps in the hedgerow and from hide where we saw a nice section of wildfowl and waders. It was hide tide so many waders were roosting on the edge of the large pool, a few hundred Black-tailed Godwits were joined by fewer numbers of Bar-tailed Godwits, Dunlin, Greenshank, Redshank, Avocet and a few Eurasian Curlew.

Wildfowl were present in good numbers too, Eurasian Wigeon were the most numerous but good numbers of Eurasian Teal and Northern Shoveller were also seen. A few Tufted Duck were diving with Common Pochard and Little Grebes.

 
Common Redshank above Little Egret below


Pandemonium broke loose when a Peregrine Falcon flew into the meadow, it missed all the waders and flew off fast. We found common species in the hedgerows and added Long-tailed Tit, Eurasian Tree-creeper and a Great-spotted Woodpecker drummed in the distance.

We walked round to river Exe and walked along "Goat Walk' which had been partly destroyed by the recent storms. From there we added Ruddy Turnstone and a few gulls.

Our next stop was at the river mouth at Exmouth, we scanned the beach area and the low tide had exposed many sand banks. We saw a Great Northern Diver, European Shag, Oystercatcher and lots of the species seen at Topsham.

looking from Goat Walk to the river Exe


The rest of the afternoon was spent on the river cruise, it clouded over and got quite cold but that didn't lessen our enjoyment, it was fantastic. We had a great time seeing many species at close quarters, we increased our day list up to 61 which additions including: Red-breasted Merganser, Slovenian Grebe, Grey Plover, Spotted Redshank and many more.


on board during the Avocet Cruise

We got off the boat at 4pm, cold but happy with our sightings. A short stop was made on the way back to the hotel to look at a Peregrine Falcon which sat on the tower of the town church, it looked great in the scope.

So we returned to the hotel around 5:15pm in good time for dinner at 7:30pm which was another superb meal.

No comments:

Post a Comment