We decided to take the southerly route home to try for a bird that we missed out on seeing when driving down at the beginning of our trip. First stop was Portpean where we eventually picked up a Velvet Scoter (White-winged Scoter to my American friends) in amongst some Common Scoter. After a brief stop at Sibleyback lake to tick off Lesser Scaup, we then made our way eastwards into south Devon to a place called Ernesettle just north of Plymouth. On our previous visit here we apparently missed seeing the Lesser Yellowlegs (an American wader) by just 5 minutes as it disappeared down a gully at low tide on the estuary. This time we were successful, but only after some wait. It's always nice to see your target bird after having had to work for it! It was too far away for a photo unfortunately.
Next stop was Broadsands near Peignton. This is a reliable site for the locally scarce Cirl Bunting. We soon heard one male singing, but keeping out of sight low down in the hedgerow. After giving it some time though I caught up with a more obliging male singing at the top of the hedge. The sun was not in the best position, but I managed a couple of ok shots.
From there we headed north to Topsham and a date with an American Wigeon. He's here in the photo below hiding in amongst hundreds of our Eurasian Wigeon (on the right hand side, click photo to enlarge if you want to try and find him). (-:
It was then time to head further north and home. It had been a successful end to a wonderful winter trip to Devon and Cornwall.
4 comments:
Its been an interesting series Jen.
Rounded off by a Cirl Bunting, which you got some good shots of.
Cirl Bunting is a sweet little bird! Nice trip Jenny!
You certainly had a vey rewarding trip Jenny. I found I had missed 'day 3' so have just enjoyed a double helping. You got some great photos of the Cirl Bunting, it really is very similar to its cousin the Yellowhammer. I was very pleased to see a Lesser Yellowlegs (which I have proudly displayed on my sidebar) fairly local to me a couple of years ago :-)
You also had some great sightings on 'day 3'. As you say, what a success story the Chough is, amazing that it reintroduced itself just at the right moment! Lovely to see the seal colony too. I thoroughly enjoyed your visit to Cornwall Jenny and you have some lovely photos to remember it.
Thanks Roy, I missed seeing Cirl Bunting last year so it was nice to get to see it early on this year.
Hi Pix, They are lovely birds and only found down in that part of Devon. They used to be a bit more widespread in southern Britain. They are just about hanging on in Devon and have recently been re-introduced into parts of Cornwall.
Hi Jan, what is also nice about the Chough story is that the Chough is part of the Cornish coat of arms, so it's great that it is making a come back there.
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