Firstly apologies for the absence of posts recently. My mother-in-law passed away suddenly last Wednesday and it's been all-hands-on-deck to sort things out with the family.
Despite his bereavement, my father-in-law wanted to go ahead with a pre-planned birding trip on the Exe yesterday and I have to agree it was the best tonic for clearing your head and taking your mind off things. We couldn't have picked a better day if we'd tried - the weather was simply fantastic and it was really good to catch up with Ian Waite, who I haven't seen for some time.
Got off to a great start when I found a long-tailed duck in the mouth of the river. We also saw the resident slavonian grebe, spotted redshank, greenshank, plenty of mergansers, sanderlings, around 700 avocet, 2 male shoveler, three goldeneye plus lots of commoner stuff.
 |
| A very sunny Exmouth - not a cloud in the sky |
 |
| Good numbers of Avocets on the river this year: R. Harris |
 |
| Huge numbers of Brents but no sign of the Black Brant today |
 |
| Cormorant: R. Harris |
 |
| Long-tailed duck, an unexpected find: R. Harris |
 |
| Red-breasted Merganser, drake: R. Harris |
 |
| Distant spotted redshank: R. Harris |
