Curlew Drive - Charleton Marsh

Living in West Charleton I count myself as extremely fortunate to live in a place where I can walk to a great birding location like West Charleton Marsh in under 5 minutes and then out on to the main Kingsbridge Estuary if I wish and the tide allows. In truth I do not check it out as much as I should, spring and autumn I head for the coast and if I get some time in the winter often neglect it for Slapton. This winter I am going to make an early New Year resolution and try to make time to spend a bit more time there. There are a couple of estuary walks I stick to in the winter one,  which I did today, is Curlew Drive to Charleton Marsh ( obviously it could be the other way around ). I walked down Curlew Drive and onto the foreshore just as the tide had receded enough for me to walk around towards Charleton Point and on to the marsh. A kingfisher was busy flying around and posing on the boats. This route was fairly sheltered from the cold fresh ESE wind. There was pretty normal winter fayre on view eg 73 Brent Geese, 290 Wigeons, 3 Pintails, 5 Red-breasted Mergansers and a couple of hundred Golden Plovers in Widegates. The light was very changeable, one minute pristine and the next a scope full of sun glare off the mudflats. Out in the channel there was no Surf Scoter as was found 40 years ago this month, just 4 Great Crested Grebes, 4 Little Grebes and the highlight of the morning a couple of Slavonian Grebes swimming together.


Fallen Tree, probably a victim of the heavy rain a fortnight ago

Charleton Bay was busy with a couple hundred Dunlins and a dozen or so Grey Plover. Also a lone Bar-tailed Godwit. Got into the hide and checked the log book to see a Bittern had been seen a few days previously. I stayed for the best part of an hour hoping but nothing more than a Greenshank and another Pintail. As always a pleasant walk with plenty to see.                  




  

The route I walked today. Takes about 3 hours if you are birding. A scope is very handy as a lot of birds are distant. Probably best not to attempt for about 3 hours either side of high tide. Usually ample parking at the bottom of Marsh Lane.