Long-Billed Dowitcher

I took an afternoon walk setting out from home and looping around the fields down to Lympstone and along the river towards Mudbank.

Three Kestrel were still present in the fields around Exe View Road.

There was little out of the usual this week in the fields and hedgerows. Two Chiffchaff were calling from Oaks. A Jay was moving around the wood at the top of Exe View Road. But it was very quiet.

A Roe Deer was feeding in a field.

The tide was coming in at Lymsptone Beach. I watched a group of 6 Turnstone feeding on small crabs and wondered what other waders were on the estuary today...

As I was heading out of Lympstone, I picked up a message from Matt Knott, who had found that a Long-Billed Dowitcher, seen previously at Dawlish Warren, was now in a wader flock on Mudbank. I sped up my walking and arrived to find Matt and a group of other local birders watching the bird. It spent the majority of the time I was there asleep with brief moments of putting it's head up or relocating within the flock of Oystercatcher, Knot, Black-Tailed Godwit, Redshank and a Greenshank.