Full-day visit to Prawle
Five of us gathered on a fine sunny morning in East Prawle village with small numbers of swallows and house martins swooping around the houses. As we approached the path to Pig’s Nose Valley, we spotted a solitary distant golden plover in a field amongst a flock of herring gulls.
Maybe because of the fine overnight weather conditions, there were fewer migrants in Pig’s Nose Valley than expected, but we did see an elusive common whitethroat and heard several calling chiffchaffs. We were also pleased to see long-tailed tits, a sparrowhawk, kestrel, buzzard and a great spotted woodpecker sitting on a rock! While resting briefly on the coast path, we were able to add cormorant, shag and great black-backed gull to the list.
The highlight of the trip came as we walked around the bay east of Gammon Head and had good views of two choughs as they flew into the entrance of a small cave below us. A third chough was also seen some distance away in a field. Soon after they all flew off towards Prawle Point and were not seen again.
After eating our lunch on Prawle Point, we descended to the Coastguard Cottages where a female yellowhammer was seen. As we continued the walk east, we had several good sightings of cirl bunting, whilst on the rocks below there were at least two wheatears, several rock pipits, little egrets and oystercatchers.
After five hours we were relieved to reach the village and especially the cafe. As always it was a very enjoyable day’s bird watching, made special by the lingering Devon choughs.
Stuart Logan
43 bird species recorded: Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Oystercatcher, Golden Plover, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Cormorant, Shag, Little Egret, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Kestrel, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Magpie, Chough, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Raven, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Skylark, Swallow, House Martin, Long-tailed Tit, Chiffchaff, Whitethroat, Wren, Starling, Blackbird, Robin, Stonechat, Wheatear, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Rock Pipit, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Linnet, Goldfinch, Yellowhammer, Cirl Bunting.