MOROCCO - DAY 8 - MARCH 13TH 2014

SOUSS MASSA NATIONAL PARK ALL DAY

We had a fabulous day in the Souss Massa National Park, the weather was just perfect with overcast conditions until lunchtime when the sun burnt the cloud off, There was a nice cooling breeze all day.

Souss Massa is one of my favourite places in Morocco you are always guaranteed a good range of species and some lovely scenery. We arrived at about 8am after driving from AGADIR and stopping to watch Little Owls along the way.

The walk began outside the reserve on a track that was placed some way above the river and the meadows that surround it. We started listing with a Moussier's Redstart, a male posed well for the cameras.





 

MOUSSIER'S REDSTART

Birds came thick and fast, we saw our first Stonechat of the trip, then a pair of House Buntings showed well. The hedgerows were full of warblers and another new sighting was a Reed Warbler, we also saw Zitting Cisticola  lots of Chiffchaff and several Blackcap.

Back on the walk we stopped to look for a Wryneck that was calling, it eventually showed well across the river as did another sought after species the Black-crowned Tchagra. A little further on we found Olivaceous Warbler, Orphean Warbler, Kingfisher, Laughing Dove, more Stonechats and another pair of Moussier's Redstart.


CIRL BUNTING

The Cirl Bunting is always nice to see, we had good views of them as well as House Bunting. As qe entered the reserve the farming reduced and scrubland appeared.

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LITTLE OWL - SUB-SPECIES

The bird numbers thinned out, we did see a couple of harriers fly over, one each of Montague's and Marsh. Los of Serins and Linnets buzzed around us but generally it was quiet.

 

SERIN

SERIN

Birds on the water were few and far between, a bunch of Common Coots were joined by a single Northern Pintail and few Great Cormorants flew or perched on logs.

LOOKING RIVER TO SOUSS MASSA VILLAGE

At the mouth of the river a huge sand-bar covers the exit to the sea and on it sat hundred sod gulls and terms and few waders. We listed four of the gulls seen yesterday and only Sandwich Tern. Waders included a flock of four Avocets, Sanderling, Kentish Plover and Eurasian Curlew.

SPANISH SPARROW

It was now very warm but the sea breeze kept us cool as we watched Balearic Shearwaters, Arctic Skua and Northern Gannet out at sea.

 

BLACK CROWNED TCHAGRA

We ate lunch on a terrace of a hotel overlooking the sea where we added Great Skuas to our list.

YELLOW WAGTAIL - iberiae

The rest of the afternoon was spent looking in the cultivated fields and open farmland areas near the river a little further inland. We were hoping for Plain Martin but never saw one. A huge bonus was the finding of a Black-winged Kite. This bird was roosting so we kept very quiet and got some decent pictures of, lovely.

watching the Black-winged Kite

 

We set off home a little early because everyone was very tired after our epic walk this morning, our list was now approaching 170, very good for just 8 days in the field.



HOUSE BUNTING

MOROCCO - DAY 7 - MARCH 12th 2014

TRANSFER FROM TALIOUINE TO AGADIR WITH STOPS AT AOULOUEZ GORGE -SOUS VALLEY ARGANA FOREST - OUED SOUS NATIONAL PARK.

WEATHER:  lovely sunshine all day, windy late afternoon.

We started our day's birding at 6:45am by walking in the cultivated area behind the Auberge where we  were staying. It was alive with birds, we added a few mew species to the list, the first of which was Woodchat Shrike. Lots of finches were singing, we saw both of the African sub-species of Greenfinch and Goldfinch as well as African Chaffinch.

Woodchat Shrike

The area where we walked consisted of small fields of Alfalfa and lots of olive and almond trees, with ditches and streams of water. There were also some areas of open scrub which held, Cirl & Corn Bunting, Sardinian Warbler, more shrikes and Spanish Sparrows, a Hoopoe was a nice bonus.

Aoulouez Gorge

After breakfast we drove some 30 kilometres towards AGADIR and stopped at a bridge over the river Sous and although the water level was quite low there were a lot of species there. A couple of Black Storks joined a throng of Little  & Cattle Egrets, there was also Grey Heron, Yellow, Grey, White and Moroccan Wagtails. A Common Kingfisher dashed by and was seen by a few of the group and a Common Cuckoo sat on a power line showing extremely well for all of us.



We walked into the Aoulouez Gorge and found more species; Meadow Pipit, House Bunting, Blackcap, Common Bulbul, Green Sandpiper, Peregrine Falcon, Common Kestrel and we also started noticing a small raptor passage overhead. A few Booted Eagles drifted over as did a another Black Stork, the two other Black Storks flew up to join it.

Common Cuckoo

Further into the gorge a small section of farmland held more birds, we found several Series , Common Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and we heard a Common Nightingale, but our best find was a small colony of roosting Black-crowned Night Herons.

Back on the bus we drove for another hour before stopping next to a large expanse of open scrub and farmland. We search for Black-winged Kite without success but we did find Bonelli's Warbler, Spectacled Warbler, Great-grey Shrike, Crested and Thekla Larks, Barbary Partridge and a few other species.

Further into the journey we stopped for lunch and then made a short stop at Touradant to look for Pallid Swifts, we never saw any swifts but we did see our first Spotless Starlings.

House Bunting

We finally arrived at AGADIR where we drove straight to the Owed Sous estuary, by now the wind had pocked and the temperature had dropped. However there were  ally of birds to see. We found six species of gulls including Slender-billed and Audouin's Gulls, lots of waders and a nice  flock of Greater Flamingos. Further down the estuary we saw Sandwich and Gull-billed Terns and another Peregrine Falcon. But our sightings were well down on previous visits because access was restricted to most of the area die to a Royal Golfing Tournament next to the King's Palace, the whole area was crawling with security guards who didn't like scopes, cameras and bins.



Lastly we drove round ro an area of open heath where found our last bird of the day, Stone Curlew, two birds were seen. It was now after 6pm and it was getting dark, so we hopped onto the bus and drove to our hotel just 5 minutes away.

 

 

 

 

MOROCCO - DAY 6 - MARCH 11TH 2014

TRANFER FROM THE DESERT REGION TO TALIOUINE IN THE SOUS VALLEY.

The day started nicely with little cloud but it was very chilly, as the day wore on it clouded over and we drove through rain and some snow, the temperature dropped to 5C by the time we reached our destination.

It was a day of very little birding, we set off from Merzouga at 8am and made a short stop for birding in Rossini. We were hoping to catch up with the sub-species of Olivaceous Warbler that is only found in this desert region of Morocco, called appropriately, the Saharan Olivaceous Warbler. But none showed up, we did find our first Little Owl and we saw several Subalpine Warblers, a Chiffchaff, a couple of Serin and several other species.

From Rossini we drove out onto the Alnif road and for the next couple of hours we only stopped to look at passing raptors, sightings included Common Raven, Long-legged Buzzard, Black Kite, Marsh Harrier and a single Montagu's Harrier.

a 'first' for Wingspan - a group of all men!

We ate lunch sitting out in the sunshine at Agdz before driving off for our second birding excursion. Wearied in an area of dry woodland with scattered Acacias, a few Palms and a few Almond trees.
Our sighting including a couple of very nice warblers which were new for our list. First a amle Western Orphean Warbler was found which was quickly followed by a sighting of Western Olivaceous Warbler. After a little more searching we returned to the bus and on the way back we found our second Isabelline  Wheatear of the trip, how fantastic, a very rare and unusual sighting for Morocco, now seen twice.

scenery en-route

More excitement followed about 2 hours later when drove through the town of Tazenakt, it had been raining extremely heavily and it looked like we had just missed it. Large puddles were everywhere and flash flooding could be seen in the fields. We came across about 100 Black Kites sitting by the side of the road and another 50 or so were feeding on a carcass in the fields, it was a great sight and was probably due to the heavy rain, the birds had been grounded. A short distance further on we saw an Osprey on a telegraph pole by the side of the road, again this bird was probably brought down by the weather.

Isabelline Wheatears - our second of the trip

For the last 50 kilometres we passed through some high passes that had wring of snow and the rain continued all the way to Taliouine. We arrived just as it was getting dark, we had enough time for a shower before eating another lovely evening meal.

 

 

 

MOROCCO - DAY 5 - MARCH 10TH 2014

ERG CHEBBI SAND DUNE SYSTEM  and AREAS AROUND RISSANI

The weather was fantastic today, clear blue sky, a lovely breeze and about 22C.

We were all up and out at 6:30am walking the grounds and gardens of our new hotel. The hotel backs onto the huge dune system in a small town called Merzouga, we are now in the far south-eastern region of Morocco. Plenty of Subalpine Warblers were seen as well as a few Eurasian Chiffchaff in tamarisk and the sun rise was very beautiful.

WALKING THE WADI

 

After a really lovely breakfast we set off for the Cafe Yasmina which is found at the far eastern edge of the dunes, but first we stopped to search for a few birds. We stopped at the side of a huge expanse dry vegetation in a wadi, we spread out and began to walk. We hadn't walked far when we found an African Desert Warbler, what a little stunner, it showed really well for all of us. Our walk continued through the wadi and we listed another new bird almost straight away when a Bar-tailed Desert Lark appeared in front of us. We also listed: Hoopoe Lark, two of them were seen singing from low perches, Trumpeter Finch, Black-eared, Desert and White-crowned Wheatears were also seen.

We got back onto the bus and continued our journey, at s we approached Café Yasmina we saw several Brown-necked Ravens on the open sandy areas and another Great-grey Shrike.

Bar-tailed Lark

It was a mixed bag of results at Café Yasmina as the seasonal lake usually found there up until late March had completely dried up and to make things worse the ringing group that usually spend some time there in March had not arrived. As a consequence very birds were seen, including one of our target birds the Desert Sparrow. We all walked across the dried out pool area to check the tamarisk bushes for warblers and as we did so we had a tremendous stroke of luck when one of the group tripped up and inadvertently 'kicked' up an Egyptian Nightjar, how cool was that? The bird flew a short distance but was quickly relocated and we all had superb views.

Egyptian Nightjar

From Yasmina we hired a couple of large 4*4 trucks to tale us into the desert to look for Desert Sparrow, the drivers took us straight to a couple of breeding pairs. Then a second stroke of luck happened when a very pale Martin flew over us several times, we got good pictures of it and from them we identified it as a Rock Martin, this was incredible and such a great find.

On the way back we found a small flock of Thick-billed Larks, also some more Bar-tailed Larks and several other species.

Great-grey Shrike - subspecies elegans

The rest of the afternoon was spent in the hills and rocky gorges around Rissani, it was there that we found Pharaoh Eagle Owl and later a couple of small flocks of Spotted Sandgrouse, we also saw other sandgrouse in flight but we never saw them well enough to confirm their ID.

Pharaoh Eagle Owl roosting

We drove back in the dark and arrived at the hotel at 7:15pm, it had been another long day but our new sightings were well worth getting a little tired for.

 

 

MOROCCO - DAY 4 - MARCH 9TH 2014

TRANSFER DAY - BOUMALNE DADES TO MERZOUGA WITH STOPS NEAR GOULMINA AND RISSANI

The nice weather broke today as we were faced with heavy cloud, light rain and a very cold wind, it was just 3C as we boarded the bus after another delicious and filling breakfast. I cannot praise the Hotel enough, the rooms are lovely, the food great and the staff are so nice and friendly.

We left around 6:45am and drove to the new Tagdilt track first, we walked for quite a while in the very cold and wet conditions hoping to see sandgrouse but failed, I am not surprised considering the weather. A little further we visited the small farm holding which is a bit of an oasis, again we were hoping for migrants as we did yesterday. We thought the weather may have dropped some new birds in but not a lot extra was found. A Spanish Sparrow was a nice find but we also saw Black Redstart,
Common Chiffchaff, Meadow Pipit, Common Bubul, Thekla Lark, Long-legged Buzzard, Serine and several other common birds.

THEKLA LARK

Now we set off for the desert region on the Southeast of the country, but we had two quick stops in succession after only a few kilometres. The first was to look for Pharaoh Eagle Owl which failed to show in the rain and second was look for Lanner Falcon at its' neat but that bird also failed to turn up, how annoying! Just minutes later a superb consolation prize after missing the owl was the sighting of a Magreb Wheatears, two of us saw it from the bus and after some searching a couple more the group found the bird, however it quickly disappeared before the rest of the group got to see it.


We then drove for a couple of hours before shopping for a lunch at a roadside restaurant, it was only 11:45am but we had heathen our breakfast at 6am. Within an hour we were on the road again noting Common Raven, Long-legged Buzzard, Great-grey Shrike, Common Kestrel and several larks along the way.

TRISTRAM'S WARBLER

After an hour we stopped once more just passed Goulmima where we set off on foot into a large wade, a Great Grey Shrike was the first bird to be seen followed by a Desert Wheatears and we found a Common Chiffchaff and our prized target species the Scrub Warbler. After showing for a short while the bird disappeared, it gave us the run around for a while. In the meantime a group of Fulvous Babblers grabbed our attention. Then we relocated the Scrub Warbler and ended up with some smashing views.

So off we went again towards Erfoud and the desert region, we only got to about 15km. Southeast of Goulmima when we stopped at a bridge over the Oued Gheris, a Moroccan Wagtail (a sub-species of White Wagtail - subpersonata ) was found very close to the road and after a 30 minute search we came up with; Little-ringed Plover, Greenshank, Green Sandpiper, Common Moorhen, Great Cormorant, Little Egret and a few passerines. One excellent little excursion found us watching; Spectacled Warbler, Subalpine Warbler and Tristan's Warbler all in the same bush, fantastic.

walking the wadi

Two more stops were made before we reaches our destination, the first was almost in the centre of Erfoud when a Booted Eagle came down the road towards us. This pale morph individual was very low and decided to circle right above us. The last stop was in Rossini to look for the strange sub-species of the Crested Lark called the Long-billed Crested Lark. As we got off the bus one these Larks flew towards us and landed within 10 metres of us on a dirt mound, click, click! Thank you very much. Whilst there we scanned around and found a Black-eared Wheatears, a Tawny Pipit and a few Linnets.

This is not a photographic tour, is it?

LONG-BILLED CRESTED LARK

Well that ended the day's birding, we had a slow start but finished with a flurry. We arrived at our hotel just as the sun went down, with adequate time, enough for a shower and a short relaxation period before going to dinner. The hotel had a terrific Moroccan feel to it and a lovely peaceful ambience, dinner was the best we had eaten so far

 

 

 

 

 

MOROCCO - DAY 3 - MARCH 8TH 2014

TAGDILT TRACK AND SURROUNDINGS - LATE AFTERNOON TRIP TO DADES GORGE

We were  down for breakfast at 6am and out in the car park at 6:45. It was quite light by then and we had a clear sky with fading stars, there was a chilly wind with a temperature of only 5C, it felt like 2C! You must remember that we are still at over 300 metres altitude.

out of the bus on the Tagdilt track

our hotel on the edge of the stoney plains at Boumalne Dades

We walked to a small area where rubbish had been tipped for the last few years and had a great time watching many birds. Trumpeter Finches numbered in the 20's and Short-toed Larks were seen in small flocks of 10-20 birds. We also listed Desert Wheatears, Desert Lark, Temminck's Horned Lark, Red-rumped Wheatears, Thekla Lark, two Eurasian Hoopoes and a small flock of Cream-coloured Coursers, what a great start to the day.

Trumpeter Finch

We jumped onto the bus and drove a short way to the Tagdilt track about 1\2 mile away. Tagdilt is 'LARK'S VILLE' they were everywhere and several species were listed. As well as those mentioned above we found Skylark, Crested Lark and two rather special ones. After walking for quite away into this huge area of litter strewn rubbish we found our most wanted the Thick-billed Lark, three of them flew a distance away and gibe us the run-around for a while bit we all had superb views in the end. We also found a single Lesser Short-toed Lark and several more Wheatears.

Red-rumped Wheatear

We moved further along the track towards Tagdilt where we got off the bus to walk again. Over the next hour we found a few new echoes and lots more others seen earlier. We added our ninth lark of the day when we found a Hoopoe Lark, we also found Subalpine Warbler, Willow Warbler, Great Grey Shrike (elegans) we then found a great species for Morocco in the shape of an Isabelline Wheatears, what a superb find.

its unbelievable that you cam find such great birds in a rubbish tip
Here we have Thick-billed Lark and Temminck's Horned Lark

As we moved to the next place we saw a flurry of raptor passage, we counted 18 Black Kites, 4 Short-toed Eagles, 3 Marsh Harriers and a couple of Lesser Kestrel were seen out on plains. Our last stop before lunch was at a small oasis where a small holding had a few fields of crops and a little orchard. We only added Meadow Pipit and our fourth Eurasian Hoopoe of the day but there were a few Subalpine Warblers and a Common Redstart there too.

a male Thick-billed Lark

We bought lunch in Boumalne Dade and drove up the gorge to each at a picnic site near the very strange rock formation locally known as "Monkey Fingers". From there we drove right up through the gorge and over the top where we searched for our last two species of the day. First we found air of Bonelli's Eagles and then after some chasing we found a beautiful male Tristram's Warbler, fantastic and a great bird to finish the day off with.

Tristan's Warbler - taken by Terje Kolaas today

After a nice hot shower we ambled down to the restaurant for a lovely dinner and a glass of wine (or beer).

 

 

 

 

 

MOROCCO - DAY 2 - MARCH 7th 2014

 

OUKAIMEDAN (TOUBKAL NATIONAL PARK) - BOUMALNE FADES VIA AIT OURIR, THE TIZI-N-TICHKA PASS AND QUARZAZATE

We had a fantastic start to the day, the weather was absolutely brilliant with a beautiful clear sky and no wind, perfect for visiting the high Atlas Mountains.

After a 6am breakfast we set off in the dark and headed up steep climb to Oukaimedan, a few species were seen on the way but we never stopped as we intended to get to the top as early as possible. Our efforts paid off as soon as we arrived in the village of Oukaimedan, there were hundreds of birds everywhere. It was amazing, several hundred Red-billed Cough mixed with similar numbers of Alpine Cough as they littered the whole area. Then we found our first group of Crimson-winged Finches they fed by the roadside and allowed very close approach. It got even better as we walked along the main track, we saw Common Raven, Atlas Horned Lark, Black Redstart, Rock Sparrow, Black Wheatears, Mistle Thrush and more finches, lots more.

scenes in the Atlas Mounatins

We climbed back onto the bus and drove up to the radio masts where we found Rock Bunting and another of our target species, the Alpine Accentor. On the way back down we heard the call of the Levaillant's Woodpecker and after a little walk we found the bird stuck to the trunk of a tree. This was a superb find, I have never seen one at this altitude, 3000 metres!

ATLAS HORNED LARK

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the beautiful Crimson-winged Finch

We then spent an hour or so driving back down the mountainside to look for more species, we found several Moussier's Redstarts as well as Barbary Partridge and our first Long-legged Buzzard.

Well by the time we got down to the valley floor it was almost 11am so we had to press on to our next destination. We made several stops throughout the rest of the day finding a lot more species. We added Crested & Thekla Lark, Moroccan Magpie, Great-grey Shrike, more Barbary Partridges and lots more.

Our lunch stop produced three target species in a pine copse, Common Crossbill, Fiercest and Coal Tit. Other journey birds included Desert Lark, White-crowned Wheatears, Desert Wheatears and Short-toed Eagle.

Levaillant's Woodpecker

It was now getting late and our last stop was brief and a little disappointing. We stopped at the huge reservoir at Quarzazate but because of the lack of recent rains the water level was dreadfully low and hence very few birds were seen. A flock of 18 Black Kites was nice, we also saw Ruddy Shelduck, Marsh Harrier, White Stork, White Wagtail and a dozen Grey Herons.

tThe light finally went so we hopped onto the bus and finished the journey to Boumalne Dade where a hot shower and a lovely tajine dinner was awaiting for us.

MOROCCO - DAY 1 - MARCH 6TH 2014

MENARA AIRPORT (MARRAKECH) – OURIKA VALLEY

The weather was beautiful as we landed in Morocco, cloudless skies and a high temperature of 22C.

We all met up at Menara Airport at 4pm. This was unfortunately too late to do much birding before it got dark, so our usually trip up to Oukaimedan was left out of the itinerary until tomorrow.

LOOKING INTO THE OURIKA VALLEY WHILST WAITING FOR THE LITTLE SWIFTS

 

 

 

However, we did manage to see some species at the airport where we were welcomed by a singing House Bunting and outside we saw Common Bubul, Collared Dove and a few House Martins. Our route took us through some lovely countryside as we drove into the Ourika valley. We stopped to look at some raptors circling om the thermals, there were 5 Short-toed Eagles, 3 Common Kestrel and a distant Bonelli’s Eagle. We also saw a Great-grey Shrike (algeriensis) on a telegraph poles well as a couple of White Storks.

Deeper into the valley we logged several Cattle Egrets and a few Little Egrets before we stopped at a regular breeding site for Little Swifts. Whilst we waited for the swifts to appear we logged several nice species; African Chaffinch, African Blue Tit, Great Tit, Blackcap, Cetti’s Warbler (heard), Levaillant’s Woodpecker (heard), House Martin and a few common species. Just as we were about to leave a flock of Little Swifts turned up, they circled over us for a while before diving down to their nests under the eaves of a building.

It was now getting dark so we left and drove the short distance to the hotel, thus ended our first day in sunny Morocco.

DEVON WEEKEND BREAK. - SUNDAY MARCH 2ND 2014

FINAL DAY

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.

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.

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.

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.