Beautiful weather post Christmas, hope everyone had a good one. Been down the Kingsbridge Estuary a couple times but it was fairly quiet. Highlights were 750+ Golden Plovers flying above fields west of Charleton Marsh on Boxing Day and the Slavonian Grebe still present off Charleton Point on 28th.
Today went out to Slapton Ley. A walk around Ireland Bay and onto the boardwalk did not produce much new, Little Grebes have gone up to at least 11. Had a look at the sea from the central car park. Looked empty at first except for the Red-throated Diver that has been around for a few weeks ( no Black-necked Grebe this time ). Had a good look farther out and picked up the Velvet Scoters but there are now 3 near the telemetry buoy that looks like a crashed sputnik. Scanning south picked up another Diver, this time with white flank patches, Black-throated ! Was thinking all I needed was a Great Northern for a hat-trick and the commonest one was letting me down when there it was closer in. Earlier on there were 3 Harbour Porpoises swimming south together.
Decided to look at the ley from Stokeley hide and bumped into Andrew and Richard who put me onto the male Scaup and Long-tailed Duck. Also at least 4 Goldeneyes present including a couple displaying males. A good trip out.
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