Cold Weather At Last!

Still no white-wingers, but a bit of cold weather movement has fired me up a little...

This afternoon on patch, a nice flock of 12 Gadwall were floating about north of Coronation Corner (eight drakes), and on Bridge Marsh were these seven Golden Plover...

Can you spot them all?

Also on Bridge Marsh, 220 Wigeon. Back to the Estuary, and amongst the gulls were eight Med Gulls; seven adults (one near summer plumaged and one white-ringed) and a single second-winter bird.

Earlier in the day, I was in Exeter so popped down to Dawlish Warren to have a look at the wintering Surf Scoter. Despite the choppy conditions I soon picked it up off Langstone Rock, along with a single Slav Grebe.

I was feeling lazy, so tried to scope the American Wigeon from Cockwood. Epic fail! The Wigeon were miles away, and they were all a hazy blur! A bit of a surprise here though were two Egyptian Geese on the water's edge, near to Railway Saltmarsh. However they obviously didn't like it much, as they soon took off and flew up river. Bloody typical that I left my Lumix in the car - they flew right past me (half way between me and the wreck).

So, let's hope this cold spell continues to produce...a drake Ring-necked Duck or two would be nice :-)