Todays bird watching walk along the new footpath from Wacker Quay made a pleasant afternoon. From the quay we enjoyed good views of Curlew and Little Egret, with large numbers of Shelduck feeding along the waters edge on the rising tide. A Great crested Grebe offshore was already sporting full breeding plumage. The footpath running east along the shore, follows the old MOD railway line to Anthony and has recently been opened up by a dedicated team of volunteers working with the Tamar Valley AONB. We walked to the first lookout point which was exposed to a chilly wind from across the water, so we didn’t linger too long. Further on however, the second lookout point was more sheltered and overlooked a large expanse of saltmarsh. This usually provides a good roosting place for the waders, but with the presence of a couple of anglers nearby they had sought refuge elsewhere. There was a nice raft of about a 100 duck though, mostly Wigeon, but a dozen or so Teal and a few Mallard. I had hoped to see the wintering Spoonbill but no luck on this occasion.
We retraced our steps to the car park and headed off to Millbrook lake as the tide was now quite well up. Upon arrival a group of four Black-tailed Godwit were right in front of the car park, but before we got a good look at them they were spooked by a dog and were gone. There were plenty of gulls to watch, Black-headed, Herring and Great Black-backs but no Meds today. A amazingly confiding Red-breasted Merganser swam past right in front of us and a single Greenshank was roosting on the island with the Redshank. A couple of Tufted Duck and Dabchick were also added to the list. We walked to the dam and looked at the newly built Kingfisher bank, funded by a grant from the Lottery Funds ‘Awards for All’ scheme. This surely would be a good source of revenue for a bird hide along the Wacker Quay trail.