January 1967
Brief cold snap early in the month. A Whooper Swan was wintering on the River Avon where there was also a Spoonbill on 22nd. Over at Slapton Ley 6 Bewick's Swans flew over on 5th and a Snow Bunting was at Torcross on 14th. Offshore 2 Red-necked Grebes were in Start Bay on 22nd. Interesting that a single Chiffchaff at Slapton Ley on New Years Day was deemed noteworthy and an amazing record was a House Martin at Torcross on 30th. Surely a wintering bird as opposed to late, late departure or early, early arrival. With the amount of airbourne insects around at the moment its not hard to imagine a hirundine able to withstand a winter like the present one in south Devon as long as it had somewhere warm to roost.
January 1977
An unseasonal seabird record was a Manx Shearwater off Prawle Point on 22nd, sadly 2 Puffins found dead during the month at Thurlestone. At Slapton Ley a Whooper Swan and a couple of Long-tailed Ducks were present all month with a Bittern on 22nd. The Surf Scoter found in December 1976 was now wintering on the Kingsbridge Estuary. Of interest concerning the Estuary was the high count of 29 Little Grebes , 32 Goldeneyes ( nowhere near that number now, usually single figures ) and a single Brent Goose deemed noteworthy ( now normally over 100 ). Also of interest a maximum count of 11 Chiffchaffs at Slapton ( cp 1 in January 1967 ).
January 1987
Cold snap nationally early January pushed some good birds into our area. Seabird movement off Prawle Point included 2 Great Skuas west on 1st and 16 Red-throated Divers east on 5th. A Bittern spent the month at Slapton where other highlight included 2 Bewick's Swans from 24th-31st and on the beach a high count of 174 Grey Plover on 31st and 2 Snow Buntings from 11th-31st. Gulls at Slapton ( always big numbers here when there are Easterly winds and prolonged cold weather ) included 2 Glaucous Gulls through the month and an Iceland Gull on 31st. A Glaucous Gull was also seen at Salcombe on 19th. The cold weather meant the Kingsbridge Estuary was a good place to go birding with 4 White-fronted Geese on 8th, an amazing 26 Scaup on 18th and a Smew on 24th. On West Charleton Marsh there were up to 11 Ruff between 18th-31st and 7 Water Pipits on 11th ( the latter used to regularly winter there in small numbers but very rarely seen on the marsh now ). Two other good records were 8 Bewick's Swans at Aveton Gifford from 17th-21st and the fist winter record for our area of a Yellow-browed Warbler in Kingsbridge by the entrance to what is now Tesco's. Found on the 8th it was last seen on 11th when temperatures dropped markedly.
January 1997
Another cold month for the UK so more interesting January records locally. 2 Bewick's Swans flew over West Charleton Marsh on 19th and on the estuary itself 6 Scaup were wintering and a Smew was present from 19th-20th. Additional Smew records came from Slapton with 3 on 17th and Beesands with 5 from 17th-26th. The best gull sightings were 3 Little Gulls off Beesands on 1st and a Glaucous Gull there on 13th. At Slapton 4 Firecrests were counted on the 4th and there was a brilliant Starling roost during the month with a peak of 225000 birds on 5th. Rarity of the month was the Little Bunting ringed at South Milton Ley on 27th and present into February.
January 2007
A fairly quiet month, Bitterns at Slapton and West Charleton Marsh on 1st, Balearic Shearwater off Prawle Point on 8th, Red Kite at West Charleton on 21st and Iceland Gulls on Kingsbridge Estuary from 14th and at Slapton Ley on 26th. A Barnacle Goose with Canadas at South Huish on 15th was very likely an escape. Grey Partridges were just about hanging on, but not for long, with 10 seen at Aveton Gifford on 10th.
Fair play, it's a poor photo but it's a great memory for me. New years Eve into New Years Day 2006/7 was very stormy but had calmed down a little by the afternoon. I went down the bird hide at Charleton Marsh to blow away the cobwebs and it was quiet so I was about to head back home when there was an almighty flash of lightning and clap of thunder and the heavens opened. As I had no coat I had to stay put. In the corner of my eye a big brown shape came out of the reeds and then back in. Was I imagining things, surely a Bittern ? Keeping a sharper eye out it eventually appeared in the front of the reeds below and left of the hide. It stayed there for the best part of an hour if I remember right. One time something spooked it and it stuck its neck up and I swear for a short time gently swayed in unison with the reeds. What a bird, not reported before 1st January or seen after and I cannot believe it was 10 years ago this Sunday. The photo was taken in poor light in heavy rain with a Nikon digiscoping camera hence the big image.
Thanks for reading this blog and I wish peace, health and happiness to everyone in 2017 and if you manage to avoid a hangover and get out birding on the first I hope you are as lucky as I was 10 years ago.
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