It was decided the previous evening that the variety of birds being reported at Bowling Green Marsh was better than at Seaton Wetlands, so we moved the meeting point to Topsham for those who had signed up on Doodle, thereby abandoning three other members who hadn’t let us know that they planned to join the trip. Anyway, they had a nice day at Black Hole Marsh at Seaton Wetlands watching Greenshank and gulls – a warning for those choosing not to book via Doodle!
The official trip left our cars at Darts Farm and walked through Goosemoor towards Bowling Green Marsh. A bird blind en route produced Teal, a Knot, two Common Sandpipers and a roost of 30 Greenshank. With the tide high, the marsh at Bowling Green was loaded with Wigeon and Teal, Curlew, Redshanks and Black-tailed Godwits. Counting 20 roosting Little Egrets, we soon noticed the bigger bird with thicker black legs – an adult Spoonbill which slept for most of the morning but did show its extraordinary bill from time to time. Amongst the ducks were smaller numbers of Mallard, Shoveler and Pintails, but no diving ducks – just a Little Grebe. We struggled to see a sleeping Ruff in long grass but got everyone onto a Whimbrel, a single Dunlin, a few Lapwing and a good scattering of Bar-tailed Godwits amongst the larger Black-tails. A Kingfisher flashed blue across the back of the pool and stopped in view, balancing on bending reeds. House Martin and a reported Sand Martin swooped over the water. After a rewarding couple of hours we walked on to the river platform but the water was still too high for waders there. A pair of Black Swans out on the estuary (strays from the collection at Dawlish?) looked well out of place, and apart from those we saw only gulls.
We moved on in hot sunshine to Aylesbeare Common. Afternoons aren’t the best time for birding, but we picked out a Stonechat, a Kestrel, a Swallow and a few fly-over Linnet as we wandered around the gorse and heather covered hillside. Down by the woods at the bottom of the hill we watched a family of Siskin. A loop back up to the top produced Coal Tit, Spotted Flycatcher and a lot more Stonechat. The final total was 43 species. Many thanks to Gordon for leading us around some of his favourite sites in East Devon. Jane Cumming