Black Tailed Godwits
Greenshanks
Little Egret
Estuary
RSPB Bowling Green viewpoint
Ross's Gull
Ten days off work allowed me to grab a bit of birding time ahead of the youngest lads festival of cricket at Kings College, Taunton. I'd booked a pelagic sea cruise on the Sunday so I broke up the journey with a Devon stay over. This gave me chance to visit the excellent RSPB Bowling Green Marsh in Topsham.
I arrived a couple hours after high tide due to some serious M5 traffic but there were still large numbers of Black-Tailed Godwits and an endless number of Little Egrets. The reserves marsh was currently being replaced so viewing was limited so I headed down to the viewing platform that looked over the River Clyst. The estuary held good numbers of Greenshank, Whimbrel and Curlews.
I then headed round the strangely named "Goats path" to the mouth of the River Axe before scanning for the reported Ross's Gull. Without any luck I continued to work up river until I located the bird sat under the M5 bridge, a good 40 minute walk. This little gem was very similar to a Little Gull in size and was certainly well off course considering it should be in north America or the arctic. A lifer for me and a great start to the weekend.
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