Black Redstart at Dawlish Warren…

When we arrived a nice couple stopped me and told me that there was a Black Redstart about. After having a look at the Surf Scoter we decided to see if we could find it. We actually found two! It was a nightmare trying to get a shot of one of them. At one point (obviously looking as if I had been possessed) I found myself laying down in a dip in the ground (being a dune area). I jumped in and positioned the camera on the edge, ready to capture the shot of the day… then I felt the boggy stagnant water seeping through my jeans; into my thermal under garments and freezing my legs instantly! My thought to myself… “Well, you’re wet now so just stick it out”… Then, yet another family with about four lively children wandered by and the Black Redstart disappeared into the trees in the distance. “Half term is not really the best time for this” was my final thought on the matter!


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14th & 15th February

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We had a lovely weekend; Sunday was the Cruise on the Tamar with Bruce Taggart http://www.tamarwildlife.co.uk/ and for the day I recorded a day list of 58. I shall definitely be doing that again. I really enjoyed it. We headed up to Devon that evening as we had booked a room so as to make an early start in the morning. We did just that, as we hardly slept. Trevor got up in a bad mood, having been cold all night and I was just too excited, as usual! We got off to a dull start. It was misty and raining, but the weather improved eventually and I should like to visit a few of the places again and spend more time wandering around. I had two life ticks for the weekend and quite a few for the year list. The only problem with trying to fit in so many places in one day is that you don't get enough time to have a good look - hint hint :-)

My day list for Monday has beaten my record of 74 and I am now on 78 (provided I identified them all correctly). I dare say I could have added at least 10 more, had Derek, Sam and Ben been there! :-)

No shame...!
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Birdlife Malta

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Sorry, but I’m on the warpath again! Those of you who know me well will know that I do not go in for politics; debates etc. All I care about is the wellbeing of animals/birds/nature. There is a link here to Birdlife Malta and you can sign a Petition against the illegal hunting of birds in Malta if you feel minded to do so. Thanks, Angie.

http://www.birdlifemalta.org/petition/

Spring is on it's way at last; we saw Buzzards mating on Sunday and today the House Sparrows were "at it" in the tree right outside my window at work - shame on them! It is staying light for longer and I've realised I can snatch just under an hour after work if I don't have to go straight to Molly's, and today I didn't. Molly was in day care and I had to collect her at 5.45pm near Porthpean so I decided to have a quick 10 minutes at Porthpean to see what I could ID with the scope. I added a handful to the day list (I just hope my ID'ing skills were positive!)

My day list was 34, including a garden head count on the back doorstep this morning and a quick 10 minutes at lunchtime, namely:-

Black-Throated Diver
Fulmar
Cormorant
Common Scoter
Oystercatcher
Tawny Owl (heard only - Penrice House, Porthpean)
Black-Headed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-Backed Gull
Feral Pigeon
Woodpigeon
Collared Dove
Pied Wagtail
Goldcrest
Wren
Dunnock
Robin
Songthrush
Redwing
Blackbird
Blackcap
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Long-Tailed Tit
Magpie
Jay
Jackdaw
Carrion Crow
Raven
Starling
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Bullfinch

There were two female Blackcaps in the garden at lunchtime and I managed to get some shots of one of them feeding...


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Well, we have spent the whole weekend with Derek and I can honestly say I’ve had more Phalacrocorax aristotelis’ this weekend than I’ve had in the whole time I’ve been bird watching I think :-) We must have had over 200 of them! Well done Derek; you have worked hard! I had another three life ticks today; two of which were with Derek and are Black-Necked Grebe and Cirl Bunting and one, which we decided to look for on the way home at Dozmary Pool, namely the Lesser Scaup. The light was fading fast as we arrived at Dozmary, but I managed to find it quite quickly. I hope it stays around for another visit.

The day list was 72, which I am more than pleased with as my highest is 74 and if I had been able to add a few more wildfowl and a Coot or even the Firecrest and Goldcrest in the garden before I left home this morning, I could have set the record higher, but I mustn’t be greedy! We had great close up views of Loons, Grebes/Seabirds and the Cirl Bunting was a special moment. Also had a very good view of a Peregrine Falcon, which was posing on a ledge.

THANKS again Derek. I do feel I have learnt an awful lot this weekend. Time to do some work now!
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Cirl Bunting (Female)
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Peregrine Falcon
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Red-Breasted Merganser
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Great-Northern Diver
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Red-Breasted Merganser
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Robin...

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I was not supposed to be bird watching today (apart from the garden head count this morning, which I am very pleased to say included Firecrest and Goldcrest, but not at the same time), but as Derek was in the area we ended up going out for what was supposed to be a short session around St Austell Bay! Pentewan, Mevagissey, Porthmellon, Gorran, Porthluney (Caerhays). THANK YOU Derek.

What followed was a day list of 69 species, 3 life ticks for me (Red-Throated Diver, Red-Necked Grebe and Eider) and numerous year ticks; as always a valuable lesson out in the field and a very enjoyable morning! In fact I enjoyed it so much that after I had left Derek and visited my friend Molly I decided to use the last hour or so before the light faded to have a look at Manoa Valley Sewage works, where I spotted the gates to the sewage works had been left open and a couple of South West Water employees were sitting in a van inside the compound. I smiled at Trevor and jumped out of the car. I went in and explained to them why we were there; how the sun is always in a difficult position at that time of day to look into the trees and how nice it would be if we could spend some time inside the sewage works compound (never thought I’d ever find myself saying something like that to anyone!). Anyway, the one chap said to me “you are welcome to come in for a while; we’ll be here for another half an hour, but I doubt you’ll see anything in ere except seagulls love”… to which I replied “where there’s muck, there’s flies and where there’s flies there’s birds”… He smiled, winked at me and said “enjoy!” :-)
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Chiffchaff - Manoa Valley
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Dunnock - Gorran - I got to know the Dunnock better today, thanks to Derek. The female Dunnock is apparently "Polyandrous" - No further comment!
Info. for the Dunnock can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunnock
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Female Eider - Porthmellon
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Razorbill - Mevagissey
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This shows how far away it was, but it was so close in the scope - we had a lovely view!

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Herring Gull - Mevagissey
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Robin - Gorran
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Robin singing at sunset in the sewage works - a lovely end to the day!
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