The Birds of Torbay by Mike Langman

Tuesday 14^th October 2008

I found this talk particularly interesting because it gave a picture of the birds to be seen in our relatively local area, and the photographs of the species were excellent. Mike has been a local birdwatcher in Torbay for 35 years, and has therefore seen many changes. His `patch’ ranged from Hopes Nose to Brixham, and encompassed the three towns of Torbay – Torquay, Paignton and Brixham. The changing seasons bring a variety of species. Red-necked, Black-necked and Slavonian grebes can be seen in winter. Peregrines can now be seen on the red sandstone cliffs (in the 1970’s they were almost non-existent, but by 1978 the first pair was sighted) and occasionally black red-starts feeding amongst the flotsam and jetsam. Great northern divers will look for shore crabs in the Preston area, and turnstones, watching for picnickers along the sea fronts, will collect discarded sandwiches! The Thatcher Rock and Ore Stone provide excellent sites for breeding seabirds such as guillemot and razorbill and many species of gull. Occasionally an Iceland and a Glaucous gull have been sighted, together with an aggressive great skua harrying the fishing gannets. These birds are attracted by the sewer outfall near Hope’s Nose, but following the Clean Sweep by Southwest Water the area is not quite so attractive! Broadsands, Elbury cove and the sweep of the coast down to Berry Head are all excellent areas for bird watching, together with the inland area of the Clennon Valley and provide a wide variety of species. The seas are fairly shallow and sandy and are sheltered from the prevailing southwesterly winds by Berry Head. Clennon Valley has several sheltered pools of freshwater, and the phragmites reeds offer homes for reed buntings and sedge warblers; tufted ducks can be found on the ponds. Sparrowhawk, snipe (especially in autumn/winter), kingfishers, grey heron, bullfinches and an occasional over-wintering chiff-chaff have been seen in this area. Siberian chiff-chaff, and yellow-browed warbler feed on the insects, and even the rare dusky warbler, which was fed on mealworms by Mike and became quite used to this two-footed chef – it apparently ate 11 mealworms at one sitting! The payment was a wonderful photograph. Elbury Cove yields redneck grebe, sea ducks, crested grebes, scoters and red-throated divers on passage. The area behind Broadsands near the beach huts is home to a number of cirl buntings in the winter as a result of a feeding area set up and supplied by the RSPB, together with bramblings, siskins (in the tops of the willows feeding on aphids in the autumn), and the occasional yellow-browed warbler. Brixham fish quays are obviously the place for a wide variety of gulls, amongst whom may be seen grey phalarope, purple sandpiper, laughing gull, and Sabine’s gull – if you are lucky! Berry Head Nature Reserve is a haven for many smaller birds, such as goldcrest, firecrest and black cap. In the woods can be found great spotted woodpecker, coal-tit, stonechat, whitethroat, flycatcher, cuckoo and the occasional hoopoe! Its cliffs are of course home to numerous kittiwakes and guillemots, together with ravens and fulmars, and it is one of the best coastal-watching areas around, yielding views of storm petrel, shearwater, gannets, bottle-nose dolphin and porpoise. Greater horseshoe bats feed on the insects from the cow-pats in the meadow on Berry Head. We are fortunate to live in such a beautiful area, and thank you Mike for bringing the possibilities alive!

J.M. le Roux