The last day of the trip, but there was still birding-a-plenty to be getting on with. A phone call to the long-suffering Mrs Telescope on Sunday evening confirmed that there was a Red-Necked Grebe at Cheddar Reservoir. The King Eider in North Devon was a twitch too far, but the reservoir would only involve a minor detour, so we thought it was worth a shot. There was talk of trying for a Short-Eared Owl at Aust Warth, but eventually we came to the decision that a few hours at Slimbridge would pay greater dividends.

Before all of this, however, my Dad and I made an early morning visit to Exminster to try for a Woodlark. It was a long shot and, somewhat predictably, there was no sign of them. To be fair, I think they breed in this location and they may still be on their wintering grounds. Either way, they weren’t there so far as we could see. We had a pleasant surprise, however, when we picked up a pair of Chiffchaffs merrily singing away [year tick 116!]. Another reasonable tick so early in the year.

We left Budleigh Salterton at 10:15am and arrived at Cheddar Reservoir about an hour later. It’s a two mile walk around the reservoir, which isn’t too bad when compared to the veritable behemoth that is Draycote Water. The sun was in our eyes at first, which made scanning tricky, but having sifted through a number of Great Crested Grebes we felt happy that its rarer relative was not amongst them.

As we made our way around the water’s edge, I suddenly noticed something that got my birding senses working overtime. It looked like a diver, but disappeared from view very quickly. When it broke the water again I was able to identify it as a Great Northern Diver. Not a year tick, but it was a great moment. We had no idea that it was there, although I later found out that it had been around for a couple of weeks. Self-found birds! You just can’t beat ‘em!

Further round I picked up four Scaup [year tick 117!], two drakes and two females, plus a pair of Goldeneye. Birds like divers and the rarer ducks used to have to be pointed out to me, so it was personally very pleasing to be picking them up on my own. Without wishing to sound big-headed, I reckoned I must be getting the hang of this birding lark.

They say pride comes before a fall, so you can guess what happened next – a birder travelling in the opposite direction told us that the Red-Necked Grebe had been seen on the opposite side of the reservoir about an hour ago. Of course, that was where we had started our search, so we hot-footed it around the path until we could get a decent view of the appropriate area.

Almost instantly, I had a grebe in my sights that looked promising. It was still a bit distant, though, so there was another mad dash to get a better vantage point. Then there was no doubt. Red-Necked Grebe [lifer 201!] [year tick 118!] fell, meaning that we had bagged five grebe species on the trip. Nice work!

Onwards and upwards to Slimbridge, where we got easy ticks in the shape of Bewick’s Swan, White-Fronted Goose, Golden Plover and Barnacle Goose [year ticks 119, 120, 121 & 122!], plus a Water Rail and the second Peregrine of the trip. Sadly, my camera had packed up at this point so I have none of my famously blurred record shots with which to illustrate these sightings.

A quick dash to the Zeiss Hide got us nothing better than a Gadwall for the trip list, so we made our way back towards the Holden Tower. It was from the hides along the path to the tower that we picked up a couple of Ruff [year tick 123!], before beginning the daunting task of picking out the Bean Goose amongst the sizeable flock of White-Fronted Geese.

Ten minutes in, we were joined by a youngish lad, who almost immediately claimed to have located the lone goose. We were able to get in the right area fairly easily due to the fact that the bird was only about twelve geese or so in from the right. After an agonising ten minutes or more, the goose stuck its head up and we finally got good enough views to see that it was indeed the Bean Goose [lifer 202!] [year tick 124!]. The hides were closing at this point so we packed our scopes away for the final time and headed for home, not before we’d had our last swig of whisky though!

Looking back, it was an amazing weekend. I knew three lifers in some shape or form would surely fall, maybe even four or five if we were really lucky, but to get seven was incredible. Passing 200 lifers courtesy of the Long-Billed Dowitcher was a special moment. Although there are a few relatively common species that I still need to see, it is inevitable that any lifers now are going to be pretty good birds. Equally, lifers are going to become more and more scarce in accordance with the law of diminishing returns, but I’m looking forward to the birding challenges ahead with nothing other than excitement.

Until next time, happy birding!

Before I begin waxing lyrical about Sunday’s birding, I should mention our close encounter with another potential lifer on Saturday night. Ivor had told us that Tawny Owls had been calling from the trees near his house, and as we were heading into Budleigh Salterton for a few pints and some food that evening, we were sure to listen out for them.

Sure enough, one called from the branches of a tree just as we passed underneath it. It couldn’t have been more than 10 to 20 feet above us. I have certainly never heard them call as clearly as that before. Unsurprisingly, we couldn’t locate it in the dark and a shameful attempt to flush it with the flash from my camera proved ineffective.

Sunday morning didn’t start too well. The first thing I did was crack my head on the sloped ceiling above my sleeping bag, leaving me with a red mark on my forehead and a passing resemblance to Harry Potter. Undeterred by this blunder and a spot of resultant dizziness, I headed for the shower. Unfortunately, Leapy’s decision to take a steaming hot bath the previous night meant there was no hot water, so I was forced to wash beneath an icy torrent. Needless to say, I was in and out within a minute. My nipples are still recovering.

After a quick breakfast, me and my Dad headed off to Bowling Green Marsh. In our opinion, the early tide meant getting there before 8:00am, which we managed, but Leapy and Ivor had elected to join us later on. There were many birds present including Dunlin, Wigeon, Snipe, Avocet, Knot and Bar-Tailed Godwit. I also picked up Black-Tailed Godwit [year tick 111!] in good numbers.

We were, of course, looking out for the Long-Billed Dowitcher that has been frequenting the estuary for some weeks now. There was no sign of it over high tide, and as the waders began to move back down the estuary, we felt that we might be better off at the viewing platform further down the road. Leapy and Ivor had arrived by this point and we were within minutes of heading off, when a chap to our left suddenly spotted the Long-Billed Dowitcher at the rear of the marsh [lifer 200!] [year tick 112!].

We’d done it! 200 birds on the life list! There were a few slaps on the back and, needless to say, a few more swigs from the hip flask. It was a lifer for Ivor too, but Leapy had twitched the bird at Bittell Reservoir in Autumn 2006. Nevertheless he was suitably pleased for us, being the top bloke that he is.

Next up, we headed to Beer. One of the birders at Broadsands on Saturday had told us that there were three Black Redstarts there. It sounded too good to be true and unfortunately it was. We were there for over an hour and saw no sign of them. On a more positive note, several Fulmar [year tick 113!] and a Peregrine [year tick 114!] found their way onto my year list, the latter powering over the waves, before perching on the cliff face. A fine sight.

Last, but by no means least, we paid a visit to Woodbury Common in the hope of finding a Dartford Warbler. It took us about two minutes to track one down [year tick 115!], mirroring the success I had with these great little birds on Aylesbeare Common last April.

Although we managed a walk down the Otter Estuary afterwards, there were no more year ticks or lifers to be had. The rain closed in and we pronounced the birding over for another day, one that I will remember for a long time to come.

I woke up with a thumping headache on Saturday morning. We had tucked a fair bit of wine and whisky away the night before and I was paying the price. Still, there was birding to be done, so I popped a couple of Ibuprofen and washed them down with a cup of tea.

We headed to Dawlish Warren first. We quickly ticked a Rock Pipit [year tick 93!], before noticing a small group of fellow birders by the sea wall. They kindly pointed out what was around, mentioning that the long-staying Surf Scoter had been seen off Langstone Rock that morning. We set up the scopes and picked up Slavonian Grebe, Common Scoter, Eider and Red-Throated Diver [year ticks 94, 95, 96 & 97!] without too much difficulty.

After much scoping, Leapy finally thought he had a contender for the Surf Scoter in his sights. It was quite distant, so we upped scopes and headed further down towards Langstone Rock, where we could get better views. The bird eventually showed well enough to confirm that it was indeed the Surf Scoter [lifer 197!] [year tick 98!]. Sadly, my attempts to digiscope this bird failed. I was still feeling pretty rough at this point, but the combination of another lifer and a slug of whisky from my Dad’s hip flask perked me up no end!

A walk through the reserve revealed it to be fairly quiet. Once we were on the dunes, however, we were greeted by the welcome sight of many waders in the bay adjacent to the golf course. Grey Plover, Dunlin and Bar-Tailed Godwit [year ticks 99, 100 & 101!] were duly recorded, along with Knot [year tick 102!], a bird that I dipped on in 2007. Nice to get that one under the belt. Finally, a pair of Stonechats [year tick 103!] revealed themselves on the walk back to the car.

Next up, we travelled down the coast to Broadsands. The target birds here were Black-Necked Grebe and Cirl Bunting. More seawatching ensued. First up was one of my all time favourites; a fine Gannet [year tick 104!] cruising over the water. Then I picked up something far out to sea. It certainly looked grebe-like, but it was diving frequently and travelling some distance under the waves, which made it hard to keep tabs on. I was almost certain that it was a Black-Necked Grebe, but I was wary of letting my heart rule my head.

I took a break from the scope and had an unexpected surprise when I noticed a Shag [year tick 105!] in the bay below us. I had previously dismissed this bird as a Cormorant without looking at it properly. A lesson to be learned there, I’m sure.

Back on the scope, I was still struggling to identify the speck on the horizon, but I did pick up a Razorbill [year tick 106!] for my troubles. Then we realised there was something else just in front of us. No need for scopes with this one. Binoculars revealed it to be a Black-Necked Grebe [lifer 198!] [year tick 107!]. The hip flask was produced once more.

We had no idea where to start looking for Cirl Bunting, so we asked a fellow birder if he had any gen. He told us to head for the car park, where a canny birder had put down some seed, which the birds were reportedly happily tucking into. Sure enough, once we got down there, there were the birders, there was the seed and there were the Cirl Buntings [lifer 199!] [year tick 108!].

These little beauties were both me and my Dad’s 199th lifer. We had hoped to hit 200 together, but had thought that we would have to wait until a trip to Scotland in May to achieve this. With our next port of call being Exminster Marshes, plus the fact that he needed Cattle Egret and I didn’t, it looked like he might just pip me to it.

Exminster Marshes was reasonably quiet, save for a few trip birds. Certainly no Cattle Egrets about, though a Cetti’s Warbler was worthy of mention. Scanning the Exe estuary got us our first Avocet of the trip [year tick 109!] and plenty more waders, but it was the bird that appeared as we made our way along the canal and back to the car that took first prize. Ivor thought it was a House Martin. Leapy said it was more likely to be a Sand Martin, but when it flew back in front of us, it revealed itself to be an extremely early Swallow [year tick 110!]. A fitting finale to a memorable day …