DAWLISH WARREN - LABRADOR BAY - STOVER COUNTRY PARK. - BOVEY TRACEY (PARKE)
Yes our final day was a very wet one and what a contrast to yesterday's beautiful sunshine. We checked out of the hotel at 8am and set off for Dawlish. We logged a Song Thrush singing in the car park of the hotel before we left. Along the route to Dawlish we saw Brent Geese, Canada Geese, Little Grebe and lots of gulls.
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| Great-crested Grebe |
We scanned the sea from a wet and windy sea wall at Dawlish, it surprisingly quiet but we saw: Great Northern Diver, Common Scooter, Northern Gannet, Mediterranean Gull, European Shag, Great-crested Grebe and a few auks that were too far out to identify.
We made a quick stop in Dawlish to look at the results of the storm damage which looks as though repairs are well under way, whilst there we added Rock Pipit to our list.
Next we wade a very wet and windy stop at Labrador Bay, it was quite bad we got very wet, however we did find shelter behind a hedgerow and scanner a stubble-field. In the field we saw a small group of Pheasants feeding in one corner, as we watched the Pheasants we saw a few Dunnocks and a to our great delight a small flock of Cirl Bunting - our target species.
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| saw these swans in Dawlish - may be Mute Swans drenched in tar?? |
One of the group saw a Eurasian Sparrowhawk from the car park. We followed the coast road for a few miles before turning inland and passing through Newton Abbot and onto our next destination, Stover Country Park. It was far less windy at the ark and the rain eased off. We found our target bird almost straight away, there were 10 Goosander on the main pool, at least 4 of them were gorgeous males. Also on the pond were a selection of ducks, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Common Pochard, Common Coot and Common Moorhen.
Our walk around the pool found us on a raised walkway where a bird feeder attracted a good number of birds, there we saw Eurasian Nuthatch, Siskin, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Common Chaffinch and a Bullfinch.
As we completed our walk we watched Eurasian Tree-creeper, Wren, Goldcrest and many common species.
Finally we visited Bovey Tracey to view the River Bovey looking for Dipper. We found one almost straight away sitting on a ledge near a small bridge, we watched the bird as it collect moos and lichen for nest building, lovely find. Our final walk was through the park called Parked along the river. Not much was about in the wet conditions but we did see Mistle Thrush, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Pied Wagtail and I was the only one to see Grey Wagtail.
Well that ended our birding for the weekend, we had one put of three dry days and found several of our target species. We ended up with only 85 species on the list, a somewhat reduced figure because of the weather.
We drove back to Honiton with plenty of time for a coffee St before the train arrived to whisk the group back to London.
It was a really nice and relaxed weekend with a lovely bunch of people all of which enjoyed their birding break despite the weather.
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