Turnstones at Starcross, Devon

The Turnstones are at Starcross Quay again.  But their numbers are much lower - in fact half as many!

A year ago today, we took the Starcross ferry to Exmouth across the Exe Estuary to visit our favourite restaurant - the River Exe Café.

Whilst waiting on the jetty at Starcross, we noticed a large flock of Turnstones crowding along the Quay Wall.  Many were basking in the sun, many were chattering and pushing around to secure their space.  We counted around 200 of them. Just a handful were scratching through the seaweed in the muds below the jetty.  Most were just resting.  

This year we counted around 100.  Some were sitting on nearby boats waiting for the tide to go out so they could drop down into the seaweed strewn muds.

These Turnstones had likely just made their long journey from Scandanavia and chose this safe roosting spot, just out of reach of land, to restore their energy before continuing the long journey South to winter in Africa.

A few Turnstones do winter around the shores of the Exe Estuary.  You are likely to hear them before you see them as they use their strong beaks to flip stones over, in search of small crustacians. These birds are more likely to have come from the Arctic or Canada and their journey stops here for the winter.

I hope we will see this year's Turnstone numbers increase over the coming days and we are not witnessing yet another serious decline in numbers of another migrating species.