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Thursday 27 February 2014

Exe estuary cruise 16th February 2014

Hi guys,

Went on the Exe estuary cruise a few weeks back had a lot of fun. I'm going to list all the birds I saw on the trip and only will have a full report on the nice birds.

This is hopefully in taxonomic order pretty much...: Herring gull 150 possible argentus; black headed gull; 200; great black backed gull 15; lesser black backed gull 50; 2 little gull I'll explain later; 10 common gulls; wigeon 5+; teal 5+; mallard 2; curlew 150+; avocet 100+; sanderling 5+; Dunlin 1000+; 20+ turnstone; oystercatcher 150+; redshank 20+; greenshank 4; spotted redshank 1; slavonian grebe; red-breasted merganser 30+; little grebe 2; shag 15+; cormorant 10+; peregrine 1; carrion crow 20+; 10 shelduck; pied wagtail 1; sparrow 10;

When on the boat I found myself a little gull fly over the ferry. Next spotted the spotted redshank before the guide and finally saw the next little gull so pretty.

bye,
Alex

Monday 24 February 2014

St just 18th January 2014

Didn't go out to got birdwatching a week ago however... My grandma, while watching tv called me upstairs to look at two birds. So I ran up stairs looked out the window and saw beautiful male bullfinches. Bullfinches are my Grandad's favourite bird so being right on his door step got him rather excited! We were watching them from my Grandma's then they flew off straight in front of our cottage it was simply perfect! Again the next day they were found outside our house at the same time, probably showing off!!!

One other interesting thing was a blue tit that looked like it was leucistic  blue tit further research said it possibly may of been infected by parasites, they'll be a picture of what it looks like below.

WHAT DO YOU THINK'S HAPPENED?

February 15th Stover country park

I went down to Devon last week with my Grandma. We both thought that it would be a great idea to go to Stover country park. From now on I'll only do a brief explanation of what i have seen...

At the start of the walk by the front of the lake we found: 50 black headed gulls; 4 herring gulls; 2 lesser black backed gulls; 5 goosanders; 1 great crested grebe; 2 goldcrests; 2 robin2; 3 tufted ducks; 1 great tit heard calling and a about 10 hybirdized mallards.

We then set up camp with the lake behind us and the woods in front. It started off slowly but soon enough the birds became braver and we found: two black birds; 8 blue tits; 5 great tits; 2 coal tits; 3 beautiful nuthatches; 3 dunnock; 3 robins; 100 black headed gulls behind with a few nearly moulted into summer plumage; 3 goosanders; 4 tufted ducks; 1 different great crested grebe. My granny, Mama as we like to call her thought that it would be a good idea to place parts of a hot cross bun on our table. Sure enough the blue tits great tits and the coal which I don't reguarly see arrived. Then out of the blue this yellow finch landed on the tree in front of us then dorpped on the floor behind a clump of brambles it was a female siskin already a new bird!!! Soon after the nuthatches arrived My granny was very pleased to see them!

We carried along the side of the lake round towards this boardwalk I'm going to list the birds we saw before we got there: 3 robins; 1 marsh tit calling and feeding; 5 goosanders took off; summer plumaged black headed gull; 1 treecreeper which is a first for my grandma; 10 blue tit; 5 great tit; 1 great crested grebe; 4 tufted duck; and a few blackbirds.

Once we arrived at the boardwalk we were stunned by the sheer number of birds using the feeders there. We heard a great spotted woodpecker drumming a tree first then found: 1o chaffinch; 10 great tit; 15 blue tit; 5 coal tit; 1 male bullfinch; 3 nuthatch. While we went to leave i heard a lot of calling in a tree so looked up and found around 20 siskins in a tree it was fantastic.

Anyway had a great day and will be posting more tomorrow!!!