Saturday 30th September 2023 - Chew Valley Lake

 

I have just returned from a week in Cornwall (More about that in another blog) but while away we read of a Grey Phalarope that turned up at Chew for Bryan and myself quite a rare bird I can only remember seeing one twice before, the last time was in 2018 at Keyhaven. Well that was a chance not to be missed so we decided to take our wives with us pop to Chew to see if we could find the Phalarope before visiting a local farm shop for tea and cake. Before leaving we checked that the bird had been seen the previous day and as all previous sightings had been at the dam, that was to be our starting point. On the way we saw Magpie, Kestrel, Woodpigeon, Rook and Carrion Crow plus a small flock of Starlings. The Dam car park was very busy, a good sign that the Phalarope was about but when we got to the dam there was not a single birder so our hopes sank, we got out of the car and started scanning the lake, Mallard, Great Crested Grebe, Black Headed Gull and Pied Wagtail were all seen but no Phalarope a father and son than arrived but we had to tell them the bad news, no Phalarope. We did add Canada Goose before we moved on to Herons Green hoping it had relocated there but again no luck, here we chatted to another birder who gave us the bad news that the Phalarope had not been seen since the previous day and had likely moved on overnight. But while there we did see Coot, Tufted Duck, Moorhen, Gadwall, Wigeon and at least 4 Great White and 3 Little Egrets also a single Grey Heron. A Buzzard flew over, and in the corner of the lake were Teal and Mute Swans. I then spotted a Tern flying back and forth occasionally diving in for small fish a Common Tern the 1st I have seen this year but not a tick for Bryan. Before leaving for Herriotts we added Lesser Black Back and Herring Gulls, House and Sand Martins, Jackdaw and Cormorant. Over the road on the pond we found just 1 Little Grebe. At Herriotts our only new bird for the day was an Egyptian Goose. It was then off for the tea and cake and to reflect on the fact that we had missed the Phalarope by one day, well that’s bird spotting some days you win !!!!!!

Grey Phalarope- Keyhaven- 11th June 2018 (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