Bath Birdwatcher

  This week a Tuesday trip out, had to be put back by 24 hours as it was my birthday and my wife and I celebrated it by going out for coffee and lunch. Wednesday arrived and it was decided that Chew Valley Lake was the best option as with the very low water level and plenty of mud showing it was a haven for waders both in the main lake and Herriotts pool. We both took a packed lunch so we didn’t have to rush to visit all the places where we hoped the majority of birds would be. On the way the day started with Buzzard, Collared Dove, Jackdaw and Woodpigeon all being seen. At Herriotts many different species were on the pool including Mute Swan, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Great White Egret, Shoveler, Gadwall and Teal.  Grey Heron - CVL (Bath Birdwatcher) Great White Egret - CVL (Bath Birdwatcher) When we arrived we commented on how many people were present which was very unusual, and wondered if a rare bird was present, but on chatting to other birders they were watching an Ospre...

  Corfe Castle (Bath Birdwatcher) Friday 12 th to Friday 19 th of September Bryan, Yvonne, Mary and Tony spent a week in Corfe, staying in sight of the famous Castle. On arrival we found out that Swanage Steam railway was holding its annual autumn gala over the weekend, something to visit while we were there. We set off stopping at Blandford for a comfort break and coffee where we spotted a Little Egret on the river Stour and 2 or 3 Red Kites on the journey. Our next stop was Wareham where we had lunch and a walk to stretch our legs and here by the river Frome were 2 Mute Swans with 3 full grown cygnets many Mallards and a Moorhen. Saturday started wet and windy with the promise that it would improve as the day went on, and so it proved so we explored Corfe and had coffee in the National Trust Café. We had an early lunch and caught the bus into Swanage to visit the Steam Gala with 6 locos in steam including Southern Region U class 31806.  Class U - Swanage Steam Railway (B...

  Westbury White Horse (Bath Birdwatcher) This week David and Tony met Jo at White Ox Mead to do a recce for the upcoming Bath RSPB’s field trip to the same location. An utter disaster happened on the return trip, I lost my notebook so I think I have remembered all the birds we saw but they are not necessarily in the order we saw them ( as Eric Morcambe once said). Jo knows the area very well so she led us and we used mainly by-ways well off the public roads for most of the walk. The walk started in the village where the wires were covered with lots of Swallows except for one wire which contained Goldfinch, Dunnock and a single Greenfinch. As we continued we saw the 1 st of many Woodpigeons a single Blue Tit and another species we were to see all morning, Carrion Crow. We reached a tree lined area that was full of birds mainly Chiffchaffs but also several very yellow juvenile Willow Warblers. As we continued we reached a long open area with bushes on our left and here a large floc...

  Our birding trip this week was another visit to Chew Valley Lake but just Bryan and Tony as David is on holiday. Chew was chosen because 2 waders scare at this location had been seen and it would be silly not to take advantage and see if we could find them. As usual we started the day at Herriotts noting Magpie, Collared Dove and Woodpigeon as we drove through Bishops Sutton. On arrival at Herriotts it was noticeable the amount of hirundines flying over the pool with Swallow and both House and Sand Martins in quite large numbers, while looking at these 2 Common Sandpipers flew over the water landing out of sight on the wall. The water level had risen a little since last week but the now overgrown mud was still above water with double figure count of Lapwings seen along with lots of Black Headed Gulls also seen were Mallard, Teal, Gadwall and Mute Swan. On the far side of the pool were at least 2 Garganey and close by a Grey Heron. A Green Sandpiper and a single Snipe were also fo...