The Pace Picks Up

A short family break in Devon gave me the opportunity to do a little birding. I was unable to get over to Seaton for the Alpine swifts, but did manage a short excursion to Bowling Green Marsh. Seven greenshanks, four common sandpipers and a lone house martin amongst hundreds of sand martins and swallows were three new year ticks. A few grey plovers and knot were still on the estuary and good numbers of full summer plumage black-tailed godwits were around. At Exmouth, good numbers of common and sandwich terns were passing through, but I was unable to locate any Arctic terns. The bird of the trip of course, was a lifer for me, the Franklin's gull at Northam Burrows CP. This bird has been around for weeks, and was good enough to be the first gull I set my binoculars on as I arrived. A stunning white wagtail also showed well. An afternoon spent searching Coed-y-Bedw this afternoon was only a partial success. Two fine male redstarts were on show singing, but there was no sign of pied flycatchers or wood warblers. I'll try again soon. I also failed to see Dan's lesser spotted woodpecker at Glamorgan Canal.