King Eider twitching!

A weekend at the Mother-in-laws in Devon sounded like just the excuse i needed to see the 1st winter drake King Eider that was present off Appledore near Bideford. A serious accident on the A30 occured just as i approached Bodmin (I later found out that a motorcyclist had sadly been killed) so i had to detour up onto the A39 Atlantic Highway. An hour and a half later i was at Northam Burrows Country Park watching a cracking King Eider, the first i’ve seen and more significantly, my 400th species of bird that i’ve seen in the UK. It was too distant for any photos but i got some video images through my telescope. I celebrated with a cup of flask tea and a biscuit! (usually a cup of tea and a cigarette, but i stopped on New Years Eve!)

On the way back to the car i noticed a very strange bird. I want to tell you all about it but it will make a great quiz bird so will save that for a rainy day!

Sunday morning was spent with my Daughter and the animals of Occombe Farm, near Torquay. She loved the cows, pigs and chickens and was equally pleased with the Great Spotted Woodpecker, Long-tailed Tits, siskins and Bullfinch hanging from the feeders at close quarters from the bird hide along the nature trail. I was happy to year tick the siskin!

Oh, i also saw a Green woodpecker from the in-laws garden, which was another year-tick so all in all not a bad weekend.