Friday 28th February 2025 - Chew Valley Lake

 

Black Headed Gull - CVL (Bath Birdwatcher)

Yesterday Bryan, Yvonne, Mary and Tony drove to Chew, it was Bryan’s 1st trip out since last October, as all you who follow this blog will know he has been very poorly being in and out of hospital on several occasions but hopefully its now all behind him and in time he should be back to his old self. The idea was to visit a couple of places to do some birding, have fish and chips in the picnic area followed by a cup of tea. Driving to Chew our only sighting was a Buzzard in the top of a tree and on reaching Herriotts there were lots of birds on the pond including Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Black Headed Gull, Coot, Mallard, Pintail and Teal. A Pied Wagtail flew over as we searched the pond. On the pond were lots of gulls mostly Black Headed but also including Common and Great Black Back, also on the pond were Tufted Duck, Shelduck and Cormorant. We crossed the road to view the main lake where a few Carrion Crows were sat in a tree and on the lake were Great Crested Grebe and Pochard. We moved on to Herons Green where we added Lesser Black Back Gull, Great White Egret plus flyover Woodpigeon and Stock Dove and on the pond was a single Little Grebe. Next stop was the Lodge here Bryan wanted to purchase his Birdwatching Permit that we had done on our Tuesday visit. While here we had a short walk and spotted Blue Tit, Robin, Chaffinch. Next stop the Picnic Area for fish and chip lunch we did add a few birds Little Egret, Jackdaw, Magpie, Raven and a Chiffchaff. Last stop was picnic area 2 and the 1st bird I saw was a Reed Bunting a year tick for me, unfortunately Bryan missed it as it moved into the reeds before he could get on it. 2 Dunnocks flew through the reeds, we then decided to look through the fir tree and as we walked to them I picked up the call of a Treecreeper that we found climbing the trunk of a tree. As we looked for the Treecreeper we also found a Coal Tit. We wandered back to the reedbed looking for the Bunting, but it didn’t show but a Blackbird, Long Tailed Tit and Moorhen did. As we drove out a Wren was on a fence. Driving back home Rook and Collared Dove were our last sightings of the day.

Black Headed Gull - CVL (Bath Birdwatcher)


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