Exminster Marshes 2nd June

This morning I headed down to Exminster Marshes for a great morning's walking and birdwatching. With an incredible dawn chorus, I saw lots of reed warblers, 4 sedge warblers and chiffchaffs, 3 Cetti's warbler, two blackcap, a willow warbler and a pair of linnets. There were also several reed buntings and a kestrel hovering overhead. Over the marsh there were lots of swifts, swallows and house martins, a few mute swans, little egrets, grey herons, and all the common ducks. We then headed over towards the Turf inn. On the estuary there was a real lack of birds, just several shelduck, oystercatchers and little egrets. We headed on next to the canal, and stopped at a look out point to scan the marsh. There were a huge numbers of waterfowl, including a greylag goose on the marsh and a splendid summer plumage black-tailed godwit. We then spotted a resplendent glossy ibis feeding on the water's edge. Not ten yards away was a magnificent male spoonbill. The glossy ibis has been my demon bird over the last twelve months in England, on six occasions I have been birdwatching somewhere where it had been seen earlier in the day, and each time I missed it. The glossy ibis then took flight and landed by a small pool further on. We followed and had ten great minutes watching the stunning bird. The spoonbill was hiding its bill under its wing but every 5 minutes or so it would reveal its remarkable bill for a very brief time, before returning to hiding it under its wing. An absolutely stunning pair of birds to finish a great morning!