Tuesday 6th September 2022 - Chew Valley Lake

 

Another trip to Chew Valley Lake in the hope of dodging the weather plus as the water level is still low there is plenty of exposed mud and therefore lots of wading birds.

 The 3Amigos were all together today and on the way to Chew we logged Rook, Carrion Crow, Magpie, House Martin, Swallow, Woodpigeon, Starling, Jackdaw, and Collard Dove. At Chew 1st stop was Herriott's, the first thing we noticed was the water in the pond was much higher than the previous week and subsequently fewer birds, but we did see Black Headed Gull, Moorhen, and Mallard, and wader wise Lapwing, Green Sandpiper and Common Sandpiper. A Great White Egret was sat on a branch and a Snipe was on a pile of sticks with more in the shallower water.


Snipe-CVL(Bath Birdwatcher)

 A few extra ducks were also seen Shoveler, Teal and Gadwall. On the main lake were more waders Black Tailed Godwit, Spotted Redshank, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Ruff and new for the year a Little Stint. A Great Black Back Gull was on the water's edge and 4 Common Terns were sat on one of the exposed tree stumps. A Buzzard flew over causing most of the waders to fly off, but they soon returned and settled down and a Grey Wagtail flew by. It started to rain so we decided to move to Stratford Hide but we were forced to sit in the car park until the hardest of the rain moved over.

 When we managed to make it to the hide, we soon added Mute Swan and Canada Goose to the day log and while scoping the lake a few Pintails and Wigeon were found. A Sedge Warbler was seen in the reeds to the left of the hide and another species of duck Pochard, was in the middle of the lake with Tufted Duck just beyond them. Lesser Black Back Gull and Grey Heron were sat on the lakeside and a constant stream of Sand Martins were overhead with a few House Martins and Swallow with them. One of the guys in the hide pointed out a Wheatear in front of the hide and a Curlew Sandpiper that I had missed at Herriott's when the Buzzard frightened of all the waders so was able to catch up that one.

 Next stop Herons Green here were lots of Little Egrets and the seemingly resident Yellow Legged Gull along with a Herring Gull for comparison.


Yellow Legged Gull-CVL(Bath Birdwatcher)

 David found a Raven sat on a cattle trough eating what seemed to be a bird. Another birder pointed out a Wood Sandpiper close to where we had seen one last week. Great Crested Grebe, Cormorant and Pied Wagtail were the last birds seen as the rain started again it was time to set off back home.


Mallard's picnic area-CVL(Bath Birdwatcher)

Cormorant-CVL(Bath Birdwatcher)





 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saturday 11th November 2023 - Newton St Loe.

Image
  NSL Boathouse with the lonely Mute Swan - Bath Birdwatcher When we woke up on Saturday it was such a beautiful day we decided to go for a walk at Newton St Loe as we have not visited since the 26 th of October and we were interested not only in the bird life but the autumn colour’s of the trees. We arrived parking as usual by the church where in the field beyond the church we found our first sightings Magpie, Jackdaw and Rooks all flyover. In the hedgerow opposite the cottages were Blue Tits and Woodpigeons and Long Tailed Tits were in the trees by Ripple Effect. On the footpath were Blackbird and Robin and on reaching Butterfly Alley a Grey Heron was in the trees above the stream, and a Wren flew into the hedge to our right. The lake outlet was a real torrent over the waterfall which was expected due to the amount of rain we have had recently. Waterfall NSL (Bath Birdwatcher)  Up to the bottom lake where 2 Kingfishers were playing chase and I thought I heard a possible 3...
Read more

Sunday 19th January 2025 - Blagdon Lake

Image
  The first, Bath RSPB’s field trip of the year was a visit to Blagdon lake where Nigel Milbourne the site warden led our group of 14 members. When we arrived having seen a Red Kite on the way we were waiting for others to arrive, so I scanned the lake and found Mallard, Coot, Tufted Duck, Moorhen and Black Headed Gull. As others arrived we all got together, and David introduced us all to Nigel and we set off to walk the length of the dam looking for an overwintering Common Sandpiper but unfortunately it didn’t show but we did find Mute Swan, Cormorant, Common Gull, Great Black Back Gull, Pied Wagtail and Herring Gull. Walking back to the cars we added flyover Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon and Starling plus our 1 st Great Crested Grebe of the day. We then drove inside the confines of the lake where we parked and from here our 1 st new bird of the day was a calling Chaffinch and on the lake in front of us were Teal, Pochard and Gadwall. We also looked at a strange duck which had caused...
Read more

Tuesday 4th March 2025 - Marshfield

Image
  A bit f a last-minute decision was to go to Marshfield for this week’s birding trip mainly as we could only spare a half day. Parking at the Bath end of Marshfield we set off towards Bond’s Lane spotting Robin, House Sparrow and Goldfinch. Crossing the A420 we set off down the lane where Jackdaw and Woodpigeon flew past and in a field to our left were 2 Ravens feeding on something unknown in the grass, they flew away and a Carrion Crow flew in taking their place. As we continued David spotted movement in a hedge to our right but looking into the sun made it difficult to identify the birds but one flew up into a bush to our right enabling up to identify it as a lovely male Yellowhammer, a year tick.  Yellowhammer - Marshfield (Bath Birdwatcher) A Dunnock flew down onto the side of the road and a flock of Rooks flew past. A Skylark was singing in the sky above us but hard to find against the blue sky but with binoculars I did find it year tick no2. A Blue Tit and a few Linnets...
Read more