Redpolls

Thanks to Phil after I had been to Seaton marshes hide I decided to have a quick look for his redpolls and am glad I did.  I struck it lucky immediately for this one appeared reasonably close having just had a bath.  I only saw the one but no doubt the other was there somewhere too.

The water in front of Seaton Marshes hide did not drop that much at low tide today so not much showing apart from the usual redshanks,  common sandpiper and kingfisher.  The grey wagtail was still there and also a nice pair of stonechats.

The following photos were taken in the last 2 days.

Fieldfares,redwings and more golden plovers!

Thrushes and golden plovers

Over the last week there have been huge numbers of thrushes in all the fields plus large numbers of golden plovers

Redwing

Fieldfare

Fieldfare

Song thrush

Golden plover

Golden plover

Golden plovers

On the river there have been 70+ dunlin

Dunlin

Dunlin

 and this lone redshank was in front of Seaton hide

Redshank

A distant snipe also in front of Seaton hide

Snipe

and lastly a rather appealing blue tit on Seaton marshes

Blue tit

Bewicks and Christmas eve distruction

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Could not resist heading for the bewicks opposite Axmouth FC once the sun came out (though I had to be quick)

On Christmas eve Black Hole Marsh had suffered badly yet again from flooding the night before.  This time though it had not just churned up the paths, and flooded the study centre but had also swept through some of the bank near the platform

2 roe deer opposite the tower hide

And one of our regular little grebes

Water rail and snipe

Have finally been able to get out without the rain!  As I thought Black Hole Marsh would probably be flooded at high tide (which apparently it wasn't), I opted for Seaton marshes having not been there for some time.  Am I glad I did for I spent a very pleasant hour watching this water rail close to the hide.

There were also 4 snipe venturing out into the sun

A nice flock of long tailed tits

and this lovely posing blue tit as well as the usual.

Earlier this week there was a nice gadwall on the river

 a rather plump looking redshank from the tower hide

and a common sandpiper also from the tower hide.

A med plus the best around

Not many photos lately due to rather a lot of poor weather and light!

However this med gull was nice to see a couple of times over the last few days

Here it is with a couple of mates.  Sun was in the wrong direction but great to see after the last few weeks

At one stage had to resort to crow photos!

And then of course there is always one of our regulars around (usually in poor light).

Next a very distant, poor photo of some snipe out in the sun early saturday morning up towards Colyford Common.  There were 30 in total.

A buzzard having a hard time

One of many lapwing having a bath

together with a crow 

2 squabbling redshanks

A few black tailed godwits heading for Colyford Common from the river.

Lunchtime

And finally a very windy day!