RSPB Avocet Cruise

On Monday 21 January Arthur myself and a group of friends gathered at Trout’s Boatyard Topsham on the river Exe  for a bird watching cruise organised by the RSPB. It was a bit misty to start but by midday had cleared to a cold but dry day. Our number one priority was to see Avocets and we we’re not to be disappointed as there were flocks of them feeding on the mud flats. Such beautiful elegant birds. We were also very lucky to see large flocks of black-tailed Godwits, lapwings, dunnlings, curlews, golden plovers, red shanks, to name a few. We also spotted shell ducks,merganzers, teal ducks, brent geese, cormorants and the usual variety of gulls. At one point the flocks all took to the air in a wonderful ariel display, according to our two rspb guides this was most likely because there was a predator around probably a perigrene falcon. All our group aggreed that it had been an excellent bird watching cruise.