I decided to do a bit of searching for myself today. At the beginning of January there had been a Black Redstart on the beach at Beer, a nearby fishing village. I wanted to look to see if it was still there, but first we went to the Beach at Branscombe. When I had been there before I had seen Great Crested Grebe and I was hoping to perhaps see Grebe and Diver species today in the bay.
Not much to see in the bay except for Herring Gulls and a fleeting glimpse of a possible Shearwater which disappeared away from me before I could make an ID.
At Beer the first bird to catch my eye was this Rock Pipit that has decided that the car park is a good source of insect life and tiny fish scraps.

He is feeding on a tiny shrimp morsel here. I am pretty sure that I have seen this individual before and he/she seems to have it sussed as far as finding food is concerned.

I have included this image because I think it shows what a distinctive feature the beak is on this species and also you get a good idea of facial pattern and wing-bar markings.
I wandered around amongst the boats and the boatmen confirmed that the Black Redstart hasn’t been seen for a while so infact, apart from the Pipit, there was not a lot else to see today.

This Herring Gull was a practice flight shot for my up and coming trip to Florida………… watch this space for more news. The Blog will be “Wildlife in a Suburban Garden On Tour” with daily reports and the usual daily photos but with an American slant. It should be an exciting time for the Blog and my wife Jenny and me.

This is a portrait taken with my Tamron 1:1 Macro lens. I sat very close to the perch in my pop-up chair hide waiting for one of the Siskins to land next to the daffodil. I knew it would be a “chocolate box” photo and after waiting for a while she eventually played ball and came in to pose for her photo!