November 2021

28th. The path to the hide and the hide at Dawlish Warren remain closed! Red-throated diver offshore, 2 red-breasted mergansers, dark-bellied brent geese, cattle egret, sanderlings, grey plover seen. A cirl bunting was singing. Greenshank as ever at Cockwood. The Exe Estuary seemd rather quiet. Lots of finches/buntings in stubble at Labrador Bay, including at least 5 cirl buntings.

21st. Weymouth Harbour to see the LITTLE AUK, a bird I'd never seen before and always wanted to see. The bird was very elusive and moved big distances between boats when diving, though eventually popped up in front of me. I'd accidentally nudged my shutter speed to 1/160s and had the camera on shutter speed priority, so was lucky to get a few sharp shots.

20th. Blaise Castle Estate. Firecrest near Woodman's Cottage, and probably 1-2 others in the wood too, one in a roving flock including 4 tit species and a tree creeper. Some nice porcelain mushrooms.

13th. Stowe gardens, Buckinghamshire. Four goosander on the lake, and a tufted duck with a pale blue nasal saddle, presumably marked in France. Alain Caizergues believes it was FK+, ringed at Saint-Philbert-De-Grand-Lieu on 27/11/2020 and seen subsequently in Sarzeau, France in January this year.

Siskins also present, and my first fieldfares of the year at Wappenham, where we stayed in an Airbnb away from our usual haunts for the first time in almost two years.

We also visited the excellent Laura Knight exhibition in Milton Keynes.

A pair of feral pigeons in the garden look very similar to the rock doves they descended from.