Ben Macdonald
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25 FEBRUARY:  SOUTH DEVON BIRDS

2/27/2018

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​12:45 – 14:00:  The Point, Teignmouth, Devon (50.540799, -3.499607)
On arrival at the Teignmouth sea-front, enormous breakers were crashing right against the shore-line, drenching passers-by.  It was hard to even hold the binoculars steady and the winds were icy.  A ghostly 2nd winter Iceland Gull was soon swept by on the wind.  In the shelter of the bay at the point itself, around 30 black-headed gulls were battling the wind like storm-petrels.  From 13:50-13:55, the adult winter Bonaparte’s Gull showed extremely well, with its pale plumage, black trailing wing edge, dark fine bill and strikingly pale-pink legs, my second seen in the UK.
 
15:00-15:10:  Cadbury Gardens, East Budleigh, Devon (50.655356, -3.321499)
In Corsica, in 2006, I spent quite a lot of time observing Italian Sparrows around the island’s villages and towns. The location of a male in Devon, and its ID, are still under discussion, but at 15:05 the Italian Sparrow arrived on its feeder in East Budleigh and looked, to me, exactly like a pure male of the species, so it remains to be seen what the authorities decide.  It was particularly nice to find the whole village of East Budleigh alive with nest-prospecting sparrows, starlings and sympathetic gardens.
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    This diary updates my efforts to see as many British birds in the UK as possible in 2018, using IOC taxonomy.  The list itself is viewable at www.bubo.org and will be updated more regularly than this blog.

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