Sea King The Cirl Bunting !

Date: 21st March 2016

Location: Broadsands > Dawlish Warren > Black Hole Marsh 

Weather: Blue Sky, Little Cloud + Sunny

Other Species: Buzzard, Kestrel, Brent Geese, Great-Crested Grebe, Oystercatcher, Sparrowhawk, Cirl Bunting, Goldcrest, Greater Black-Backed Gull, Herring Gull, Reed Bunting, Curlew, Black-Tailed Godwit, Rock Dove, Shelduck, Linnet, Stonechat, Redshank - Of Note - Total Species 57

Observation: We both finally had a day off, so a visit to Devon was in order. We started at Broadsands to visit the stunning Cirl Buntings. On the beach a lovely group of 11 Great-Crested Grebe along with a group of Brent Geese who were happily feeding on the receding tide.

We were on look-out as the Sea King Helicopter 'Farewell Tour' should have passed overhead the same time, but we didn't see or hear it unfortunately!

Now to find the Cirl Bunting, we spotted a Female in the brambles, after a few minutes the Male started feeding on the floor.

After us snapping away for about 5 minutes we were joined by the Female.

We even managed some with both the Male and Female in one shot!

After about 30 minutes we headed for Dawlish Warren, where the reserve was pretty quiet apart from 26 Dark-Bellied Brent Geese on the estuary, also a few Stonechat and Linnet buzzing about. The highlight of the reserve was seeing our first Speckled Wood of the year!

A very smart Herring Gull back on the sea-front.

On our way home, we popped into Black Hole Marshes, where again it was low-tide so levels were low, but the estuary was full of waders including Oystercatcher, Curlew and Black-Tailed Godwit and also some Shelduck and Teal.

After some fish and chips on the sea-front, we headed home, all in all a lovely day out and nice to be back out birding again together!

Thanks For Looking !

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