High Tide Again

SONGBIRDS ON THE SHORE

24th October 2013

You never can tell with wildlife. My second high tide watch at Dawlish Warrren in October, on the morning of the 24th, was completely different from the previous one. The tide was not so high and there were hardly any waders near the hide, just a few grey plovers and a turnstone in company with the usual suspects, some crows and a dozen assorted gulls. All the other birds chose to roost on the other side of Bight. 

But my attention was immediately caught by a beautiful wheatear on the little beach beside the hide; this is just a patch of pebbles, a strip of sand and a miniature sand dune above the mud, with some saltmarsh behind. It is decorated with the usual line of dead seaweed brought in by the tide and occasional bits of rubbish. I was surprised to see the wheatear as I expected that all the summer visitors would have left. Fortunately it came quite close and posed nicely to let me get a photo.

I don't know this species well, but I think this one looks quite plump. I don’t think it had fluffed its feathers up, so it must have been fuelling up for its migration.

I realised that it was a day for passerines when a couple of linnets arrived at the edge of the saltmarsh and a little brown job arrived on the shoreline. At first I though it might be a skylark, which can come near the hide in winter; but I quickly realised that I was mistaken. It had no crest, was too small and too olive in colour and the absence of any proper distinguishing marks made it clear it was a meadow pipit.

Actually there were at least two pipits, probably more, as they were very active, coming and going, searching up and down the tideline and foraging in the stranded seaweed. Eventually one came very close to the hide.

To my frustration, I wasn’t able to get good photos of the linnets which returned to search among the pebbles. Neither did I get photos of the dunnock or the wren which turned up briefly. Of course the activity aroused the attention of the local crows, a few looked in at the far end of the beach to see if anything deserved their attention, but they didn’t stay too long.

Between the arrivals and departures on the beach, I watched the estuary and I was delighted when a party of Russian brent geese swam up to feed near the hide. The light was perfect for this photo of an adult.

A party of starlings came in to work their way down the beach, giving me excellent views of their tails: but when they turned and came back again I was able to see that they were probing deeply between the pebbles and in the sand, acting quite like dunlin. I’m not sure what they were catching, but they seemed to find it rewarding. As ever, close views show how attractive and interesting starlings are.

The tide had turned and the light was starting to fade as the final act happened. A meadow pipit returned and stood near the hide for a moment. I don’t think I ever expected to see a photo of a meadow pipit in such a striking pose, I certainly never imagined I would take one.

It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. I saw no rarities, but I had splendid views of interesting birds and I took a few nice photos too. That is enough.