we went on one of our occasional walks to Seaton and Downderry this morning. The bird at the top was calling rather plaintively. It looks like a large pied wagtail, and I think it is most likely a white wagtail, a non resident bird and a very close relative of our native pied wagtail, on its way to its breeding grounds. A pair of oyster catchers also flew past.
The cliffs at Downderry appear to have survived the great storms of the winter without too much damage.
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Worryingly, some of the garden fences have fallen into the sea and palm trees are close to falling over. The little beach hut and it's wooden patio have gone as well as the very solid protective wall that formerly protected it from the sea. As a regular walker on Downderry beach, I have seen many rocks exposed because all the sand has been swept away and last week the beach was covered in new shingle.
but did you catch a glimpse of the white wagtail?
With 3 big, energetic dogs racing round like lunatics there's little chance of bird-spotting, although we always see the Oystercatchers, piping their way along the shoreline. So no, I didn't spot the white wagtail, but we did encounter a small group of twitchers with their tripods and cameras, very excited about something, although they weren't explicit, just replied 'an interesting bird' when I asked what they were looking for. Huh!
I have also noticed that birders and twitchers are strangely uncommunicative!
Maybe they think we would gallop away, waving our arms in the air and screeching, "There's a lesser-spotted doodah bird along here!" and scare it away.
As if!!
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