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| Slavonian Grebe, Otter Estuary NR |
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| Slavonian Grebe with Sand Goby, Otter Estuary NR |
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| Slavonian Grebe, Otter Estuary NR |
Finally back from a good few weeks guiding overseas and pleased to be home.
Thanks to a great find by Devon birder and old friend AJ, I added a new bird to my patch list this afternoon, in the form of a Slavonian Grebe. I'm pretty sure it is a first record for the Otter Estuary too. Sadly, it is becoming an increasingly rare bird in Devon these days. Thanks AJ!
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| Slavonian and Little Grebe, Otter Estuary |
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| Slavonian Grebe, Otter Estuary |
Having returned from 2 weeks in Namibia yesterday, I was looking forward to visiting the patch and headed down there late afternoon after having arrived into Heathrow very early morning. I decided to just take my bins and no camera - Big mistake! At around 3.20pm I picked up a distant Common / Pallid Swift being mobbed by a Crow! The light was appalling.
I took a gamble and quickly drove home to grab my camera and just hoped I could relocate it. I called Rick to see if he was around, but he was not nearby. Luckily, on my return, I picked up the Swift again twice at 4pm and 4.20pm, but I failed to see it well or close and never managed any photos. So I headed out again this morning in the hope it roosted nearby and at around 07.50 I found it in the same area and managed a very poor photo! I saw it again at 10am, but always distant and that was the final sighting, despite a few local birders looking throughout the morning.
Below is the best effort of any photo I managed to get and despite showing what appear to be some Pallid-like features and with such a big national influx in recent weeks, it's clearly not that unlikely.
I'm still very cautious as to how much you can really trust what are ultimately such bad images....But overall there do appear to be relevant Pallid features.
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| Original just cropped and lightened. Overall paler brown colouration compared to Common Swift and contrasting dark "alien" eye. |
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| Collage of all photos taken. Only heavily cropped and lightened. |
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| Sharpened image. Note contrasting dark eye, extensive pale throat patch and larger bill. |
Since the excitement of the Baird's Sandpiper, the great local birding continues with a nice selection of scarcities. I last saw the Baird's Sandpiper on the evening of the 21st September when it flew off in sunny warm conditions high NNW and calling continually as it went. The following morning a juvenile Little Stint was frequenting Little Marsh and then in the evening, there were 3 Curlew Sandpipers, along with a fly through Marsh Harrier (incredibly my first here) and a flock of 9 Glossy Ibis dropped in at dusk! This takes the total for the Otter this year as at least 17 birds!
This morning's highights were: a Spoonbill, the first Spotted Redshank of the autumn, 2 Little Stints, 1 Knot and the long staying Osprey still.
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| 2 Juv Little Stints, Otter Estuary NR 23 Sep 2025 |
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| Juv Baird's Sandpiper, Otter Estuary NR 21 Sep 2025 |
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| Juv Baird's Sandpiper, Otter Estuary NR 21 Sep 2025 |
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| Juv Osprey colur-ringed 8JT. This bird has remained loyal to the reserve for the last couple of weeks and was ringed as a chick in July on the Tweed River on teh Scottish Borders |
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| Spoonbill, Otter Estuary NR 23 Sep 2025 |
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| Spoonbill, Otter Estuary NR 23 Sep 2025 |
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| Spoonbill, Otter Estuary NR 23 Sep 2025 |
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| Juv Marsh Harrier, Otter Estuary NR 22 Sep 2025 |
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| 9 Glossy Ibis in the last glimmers of light, Otter Estuary NR 22 Sep 2025 |
Well, tonight was exciting on the patch! Literally, the first bird I see at the pools on Little Marsh is a Baird's Sandpiper! Another local birder (Steve Windle) had already found the bird and he had pretty much already concluded it was a Baird's Sandpiper, but understandably he wanted to see it closer and get some better photos to be sure. So it was exciting to be there and help confirm his suspensions with him. A great find Steve! The last record for Devon was 2015 on the Axe Estuary (thanks Mark Bailey for the stats). It seems to be a first for the Otter Estuary too!
Rare waders have certainly been on my radar this autumn as there has been a significant influx of nearctic waders into the SW. I'm just chuffed the Baird's chose the local patch! Also great to see a few locals connect with it tonight including Rick, Clive and Leon. The Baird’s was very flighty tonight and called a lot (low toned prrrt) as it bombed up and down the north end of Big Marsh before settling again on Little Marsh.
Prior to all this excitement, my highlight was seeing a Juv Arctic Tern sheltering from the wind on one of the islands on South Marsh. A rare bird here too and my first actually on the Otter Estuary.
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| Juvenile Baird's Sandpiper, Little Marsh. The pale loral spot, mini pec band, scaly upperparts and long wings all visible on these photos. To quote Richard Millington's Twitcher's Diary a "mini weetabix on legs!" |
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| Juvenile Arctic Tern, Big Marsh South |
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| Tiny legs! |
Great to find 3 Curlew Sandpipers on yesterday's high tide - Equals my highest count for the patch!
A nice morning on the patch today with a lovely juvenile Curlew Sandpiper and a Sanderling in amongst a group of Ringed Plover and Dunlin, and 2 Knot on one of the islands at high tide. It is still a novelty getting waders like Knot, Sanderling and Curlew Sandpiper here, as none are very common at the site. It is amazing to think the ever increasing salt marsh was simply grass fields less than 2 years ago! Other highlights today were a Hobby over Little Marsh and yesterday, a Whinchat around The Island.
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| Juv Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin and Ringed Plover |
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| Juvenile Knot |
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| Whinchat |
Incredible flocks of 30+ on Scilly today and flocks of over 40+ at Cornish sites, so not surprising that 6 birds dropped into the local patch tonight. Always great to see....
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| Six Glossy Ibis, Otter Estuary NR, 7th Sep 2025 |
A nice surprise whilst birding the Otter Estuary NR yesterday evening when this Glossy Ibis dropped in and started feeding on Big Marsh north from 6pm. Amazingly, this is actually my 32nd Glossy Ibis on the patch!
Plus the single bird yesterday.
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| Glossy Ibis, 3rd Sep 2025 Otter Estuary NR |
Thanks to local birder Viv Keene, I managed to get a day time view of what is presumably(?) the same Night Heron that I first found back on May 18th and sound recorded at night on June 15th. Update: The bird was also seen and photographed on the River Otter south of Clamour Bridge on 19th August: https://www.devonbirds.org/bird-sighting/night-heron-river-otter-east-devon/
In other news, it was great to confirm the first successful breeding and fledging of 2 young Oystercatchers on the reserve.
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| Black-crowned Night Heron, River Otter by Viv Keene |
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| Tawny Owl, Budleigh Salterton |
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| Oystercatcher adult with 1 chick 19/6/25, Otter Estuary NR |
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| The two fully fledged Oystercatchers on 23rd July, Otter Estuary NR |
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| A garden visit from a hedgehog in need of water, July 10th |
