We headed down on Saturday 17/09 and spent quite a bit of the afternoon at Topsham near Exeter. Em went for a look around the shops there, while I spent my time at Bowling Green Marsh and the Exe estuary...win win!
The weather was stunning and there were plenty of birds to sift through, so a nice start to my time away. The marsh mainly held wildfowl, with lots of Wigeon, Teal and at least 20 Pintail. Most of the waders were out on the estuary, with it being low tide, so I headed to the Exe/Clyst watchpoint.
The highlight from here was the sight of two Osprey showing over the estuary for some time, one of which flew down the river with a pretty hefty fish.
There was also a pretty decent selection of waders including a Whimbrel, a couple of juvenile Knot, plenty of Black Tailed Godwit, 10+ Greenshank and a few Grey Plovers, together with several more common species. Also here was the frankly bizarre and amusing sight of a Grey Squirrel scurrying across the estuary mud and actually swimming the 30 or so feet of the River Clyst channel! A hilarious sight as this bedraggled little critter then stumbled away!
That evening we had the unfortunate situation of a tyre blow-out whilst on the way to our accommodation. Thankfully, it didn't affect the holiday and we just had to drive around on the Sunday, using the spare.
So, on Sunday 18/09, we left our accommodation on the edge of Dartmoor and up to north Cornwall. Tintagel was to be the first destination, via a visit to the nearby Davidstow Airfield, a real autumnal hotspot for rare American waders. This year was no exception with both Buff Breasted Sandpiper and American Golden Plover present in recent days. Buff-Breasted Sand was a bird I was really keen to see and AGP is my no.1 bogey bird. Therefore a visit to Davidstow was a bit of a must!
Being a Sunday, the site was unfortunately highly disturbed with people flying microlights, drones and toy planes. Therefore, both a drive and walk about produced neither of my target birds. A juvenile Grey Plover was the only bird of note, initially mooted as a possible juvenile American Goldie by a local birder. The views of it were not the best, looking into the sun and the bird being at some distance. But allas, it was simply a juv Grey Plover.
We went on to have a nice walk around the ultra touristy Tintagel and the spectacular Castle location, which was really cool. Before we headed on west to Falmouth (where we were due to stay the night), I persuaded Em for a second crack at Davidstow, having seen a report of the BBS at the west end of the airfield. Being only 5 minutes out of our way it was well worth another cheeky look!
We were soon back at a certainly quieter Davistow Airfield and I began slowly driving along the runways. Approaching the western end, I caught sight of a few birds moving around on some short grass closeby. I quickly stopped and raisied the bins and was greeted with a lovely juvenile Buff-Breasted Sandpiper accompanied by 6 juvenile Ringed Plover, milling around. What a welcome sight!!
For the next half an hour or so, I enjoyed some frankly amazing views of the bird, allowing me to manoeuvre the car at will, to get the best light angle as it busily fed by the side of the runway. At one point it ventured within just 15 feet of the car and then just sat completely at ease and had a preen for a few minutes. As lifers go, this one didn't get much better. A truly memorable bird!
Having made it to our accommodation in Falmouth all ok, the next morning (Monday 19/09) was all about getting the tyre fixed up. Thankfully, Falmouth Tyres were super helpful and we were all sorted by quarter to 10. We intended to head a little further on into Cornwall and have an explore of a few places including the impressive-looking St. Michael's Mount. Unfortunately, the cloud originally forecast, had now turned into torrential rain, but despite the conditions, we stopped off en route at Perranuthnoe close to Marazion so I could have a look at the very long-staying Hudsonian Whimbrel. Despite my best efforts, I missed out on the one in Sussex back in 2015 and so this would be a very welcome bird indeed. I donned the waterproof and headed down the short footpath to Boat Cove.
I was amazed how easy it was to find the bird! I reached the point where the path joined the coastal footpath and peered over the edge of the sandy cliff. There below me was the Hudsonian Whimbrel feeding with around 10 Bar Tailed Godwit and a few Turnstones...brilliant!
It went on to show really well, obligingly doing a couple flights, showing off that dark rump. It was also very vocal.
The rain was relentless for sometime, but eventually eased to allow Em & I to enjoy the rest of our day visiting a few places in west Cornwall.
After staying in Mevagissey in south Cornwall overnight, we headed back further east to Plymouth where we spent much of Tuesday 20/09 enjoying a bit of nostalgia, visiting some old uni haunts.
There was also plenty of time to take the short boat journey across Plymouth sound to Mount Batten, to enjoy a bit of a treat...the recently discovered adult Lesser Grey Shrike. It didn't disappoint, initially showing incredibly well by the mount batten car park, before becoming more elusive. But what a beaut! My third lifer of the trip too :)
On Wednesday 21/09, among other places, we visited Start Point in South Devon. The views here are stunning and it's a great place to visit, despite the long, narrow country lanes that lead to it! I had a bit of a short scan of the sea here, late in the afternoon, producing a Sooty Shearwater west, a Common Scoter east and plenty of Gannets. A Wheatear showed briefly here too.
My last bit of birding was on our last morning (Thursday 22/09), again popping into Bowling Green Marsh, near Exeter. It was high tide and so the marsh was jam packed with a huge amount of birds. This included 1 juv Curlew Sand, 3 Whimbrel, at least 4 Med Gulls, 10+ Greenshank, c.20 Barwits and the largest number of Curlew I've seen in a long time!
That concluded a lovely bit of time away, that included some very memorable birds!
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