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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Matt Prince" data-source="post: 2008802" data-attributes="member: 52862">Weekend 4th/5th DecemberOn the saturday the pager had reported 3 black-throated divers from Thurlstone area, so after letting the roads warm up a bit we headed down to the South coast, the roads weren't too bad, mostly dry. Annoyingly we didn't check the pager until I passed it to Nicola, the passenger, just as we were getting to the Lodiswell turn off, whereupon we found out we driven straight past Buckfastleigh were two waxwings had been seen. Decided to press on and gingerly travelled the tight high banked lanes down to South Huish. On arrival we parked up near the deserted cafe and a quick scan revealed not much more than a few wildfowl and gulls on the marsh, and a scattering of a few ducks and plenty of gulls on the sea. There was a fairly deep rolling swell which made it hard to get on, or stay on, floating seabirds. A brief view of a diver was much more great northern than black throat, though it then disappeared completely and frustratingly. Nicola took a bit of a snooze as I continued to scan the sea without much joy - its always annoying when your struggling with one bird and know another good bird is somewhere else, but I wasn't going to give up too easily. Another briefly viewed diver was a long way out, and disappeared as promptly as the first, without giving much away at all. Another quick scan of the marsh and as I was turning back for yet another scan of the sea, three birds flying in above the horizon, distinctive drooped, hunched flight posture of divers.. Scope on them and I rapped on the car to wake up sleepy head, they were looking good but distant and the angle wasn't great, in that I couldn't see their rear flanks. Fortunately they were flying in towards us and Nicola quickly got on them with bins. We tracked them as they flew briefly out of site behind the rock in front of us, whereupon they were side on, closer and a decent view of 2 adults and 1 young Black-throated Diver. They pitched up on the sea shortly and gave fairly good views as they sat and preened in the big swell. Pleased with that we headed back to Buckfastleigh, passing through a worrying rain shower, we got ahed of the dark clouds and peeled off the A38 and set about finding the co-op in the twisting streets.. Fortunately we actually found our friend Dave Land who was obviously looking up at one of the birds. Parking the car we bundled out to see a Waxwing in the top of a tall alder. It was soon joined by its friend, and we got good views, and chatted to a couple of the locals before the rains caught up with us with a vengeance. Heading back towards Exeter we realised we had just about enough time to look for woodlark that had been reported in the Axe area - seemed a bit silly to go past the known site near Exeter, but as we had had no luck there this year and the road was potentially a nightmare in the icy conditions, we sailed on past and out to the East. Arriving at the site trying to work out which field the larks were likely to be in. We spotted a few cars parked up near the sewage works, parking up further down near the farm we had a flock of 50 to a 100 skylarks, but sadly no woodlarks amongst them. Heading back towards the sewage works I found two birders just inside the field and joined them to ask if they had any joy. Nope they said, but there were a couple of birders looking at a yellow wagtail by the sewage works. I must confess I assumed that they had either misheard or the birders at the sewage works were mistaken.. So I thanked them as they left and having seen nothing from here and with the flock further up the field, I set off across the footpath to check the field from a different perspective. A few wagtails and pipits later I was returning along the same path when I spotted a landrover coming towards me, it approached and pulled up alongside, the farmer wondering what was going on as several people had told him about strangers wandering across his land. I spoke to him for a while (thankful that I'd stayed on the path) explained what was going on and apologised for the 'small minority' that had been straying from the paths. To be honest he was a fairly affable chap.Returning to the car, I decided to check out the 'wagtail' and was rather surprised to find a trio of birders discussing colour and claw length of a very late yellow wagtail which was showing rather well on the rotating wires over the settling beds. Not a year tick.. yet.. but an interesting bird none the less.Sunday was a lot less productive, spent most of the early morning trying to source a working firewire cable and waiting for the roads to warm up sufficiently for a Dartmoor expedition... As it was when we did attempt the moor the roads were predictably treacherous, with the car squirreling around at sub 20mph. Nicola was not happy, and we didn't get much birding done, though the moor was beautiful in the perversely warm light, and chips at Princetown went down well before we headed out on safer roads and back in on the A30.Sites visited: Thurlestone, Buckfastleigh, Colyford Area, DartmoorBirds Black-Throated Diver, WaxwingBirds 200 at lastGT 1638</blockquote>

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