30 September 2007 - Heanton,
This juvenile bar-tailed godwit was amazingly tame - a little after this photo it actually went to sleep just 30 feet away...
Wader numbers are beginning to pick up as you'd expect for autumn, with most of the redshank already showing winter plumage
But it isn't winter yet - a common tern passed through today.
The increased number of curlew seemed to make them less wary - some were happy to feed near the Tarka Trail
29 September 2007 – Ilfracombe
A walk around 'Windy Corner' can turn up interesting things - I have seen common dolphin, harbour porpoise and Cory's shearwater very close to shore. But today there were the usual rock pipits
...the odd gannet fairly distant...
...a few oystercatcher (you can see where they get their latin name Haematopus - 'blood eye'…
…and a couple of wheatear (photo shot in the rain).
Sigh! I am determined one day to turn up a purple sandpiper here
27 September 2007 - Meare Heath
A vain attempt to see the pectoral sandpiper, but I did see 1 green sandpiper, 2 common sandpiper and 2 dunlin. The levels' winter starling roost is beginning to build up.
22 September
Two common buzzards circled pretty low over the garden but not a great photo due to the rush for the camera...
Colyford Common LNR,
A brief stop to see the Temminck's stint that has been present for two weeks - I saw the bird but it was too far to photograph. 3 sandwich tern and 1 common gull over the beach; several ringed plover and 1 kingfisher over the river at Axmouth but could not find any of the reported 6 curlew sandpiper.
14 September - Dawlish Warren NNR
A brief stop here on the way to Crealy with the family provided great views of this male wheatear next to the car park...
There were groups of juvenile stonechats in several spots in the warren...
...and it was a nice surprise to have distant views of 3 spoonbills in the estuary...
12 September - Somerset Levels
Finally caught up with the great white egret at Westhay Moor but it stayed distant in the mist...
I would have liked closer views, but not bad for a lifer. I also had a close-up view of a badger feeding on blackberries. I totally dipped on the purple heron at Meare Heath, but the osprey at Noah's
And a group of 3 otters provided my first ever live view...
At Greylake, a greenshank (top two) and a snipe (bottom two) gave distant views. The camouflage on the snipe is amazing - it was very hard to see, let alone photograph, even when 'in the open'.
10 September 2007 - Searching for herons
Several hours spent on the levels and I failed to find either the Westhay great white egret or the Aller Moor purple heron today. A brief stop at Greylake on the way back and the 18 little egrets there didn't really make up for it, but this one was at least photogenic...
8 September 2007 - Taw Estuary,
I learned a lesson today - never let anyone else touch your camera! Having had trouble with my new Hoya skylight filter, the man at the shop took some convincing to give me my money back - in testing it with my camera he must have adjusted the ISO to 1600 without telling me, thereby causing all my photos that afternoon to be seriously grainy! Still, it was great watching the osprey fish for about 40 minutes in front of Chivenor. It turned out that the filter does prevent the autofocus from working effectively in this Sigma-Canon combination.
Also present on the estuary, viewed from Fremington Quay: 53 grey heron, 63 little egret, several groups of curlew (c.250 altogether), 2 whimbrel, 10 black-tailed godwit.