Great Egret at Black Hole

A Tweet from Bob Longhorn had me heading out of the door; he had spotted a Great Egret on BHM! This is the 3rd we've had on patch here since October 18th and the 5th reported in 2017. As is fairly typical with Great Egrets it didn't linger for long before heading off high (South West). I saw Ian Mc arrive at the reserve just after the bird had flown but a quick phone call got him onto it as it was heading towards Seaton. One was reported at Dawlish about 90 minutes later so quite possibly the same bird continuing SW.

I quite like the warm light coming through the wing here

I'm very late posting this but Steve Waite had 6 Avocets flying over the estuary and then landing on BHM on 19th. It was tipping it down by the time I could get there for a look but they were nice to see none-the-less. 

Yellow-browed Warbler and Great Egret

October has seen frustratingly little birding for me as I simply haven't had time. A Tweet and a call from James Chubb alerted me to the presence of a Great Egret on Colyford Common so I rushed over having not seen one here for a few years. I jogged down the path as Great Egrets can be very brief visitors; it's just as well I did as it was already flying off and if I'd got there just 10 seconds later I would have missed it! Jammy.

Only other birds of note here were 5 Ruff on Colyford Common. Nothing of note on Black Hole Marsh.

Whilst heading back a message from Steve Waite came through saying YBW near Primrose Way. I missed 2 others whilst I was living at Primrose Way (I'm now back in Colyton) but managed to connect with this one.

Nice finds and cheers for getting the news out chaps!


I'll only post the one image (montage) as a lot of people are probably fed up of seeing pics of the Sun through the dust and ash from the morning of 16th. This post went a bit mad on Twitter...