Mad !

Rough and stormy weather this morning saw me looking around Orcombe Point in Exmouth and yes I know what your thinking he must be mad . And perhaps your right as the only birds I saw were 2 Firecrest that were in with a flock of Long-Tailed Tits that were constantly on the move .
On my way back home I took a look at the Exe Estuary where I saw quite a few Dark Bellied Brent Geese and in with them were a few of the Pale Bellied race ( hrota ) .

Brent Goose ( Branta bernicla ) . The Exe Estuary . Exmouth . Devon

Hawfinch

News came out yesterday of some Hawfinch seen in the Haldon Forest , so today I went up to see if there was ant still about . The first place I went to to was where they were seen yesterday but all I saw there was 200+ Common Wood Pigeon that were flying over heading south , 3 Common Crossbill also went over and in the trees were a flock of Common Chaffinch .
I then went to another site under the row of pylons and after a while I logged onto a single Hawfinch but I only saw it on top of a tree for a short while before it dropped into cover , a couple of other birders were looking for it also and after a bit of a wait I managed to pick the bird up on call and it then flew out of the trees giving all of us nice views , also seen were 5 more Common Crossbill and a flock of 100+ Redwing .

Eurasian Collared Dove ( Streptopelia decaocto ) . Topsham . Devon

GSW

A welcome visitor to my feeders today was this female Great Spotted Woodpecker. A regular visitor but always nice to see .

Great Spotted Woodpecker ( Dendrocopos major ) . Topsham . Devon

Seawatching In The Rain

Early morning saw me at the raised beach huts at the far end of Exmouth Seafront to do a seawatch , I arrived to see fellow birder Matt Knott already there just as the rain started to fall . At first the only things on show was a flock of Black-Headed Gulls but after a while I started to pick out quite a few Northern Gannet going through , there was also 20+ Common Scoter , 20+ Black-Legged Kittywake , a Great Northern Diver , a Red-Throated Diver and a distant Arctic Skua that I saw for a short spell before it was lost from view in the increasing  bad weather .... winter is here !