Tuesday 21st October 2025 - Chew Valley Lake

 

Another Tuesday and another visit to Chew Valley Lake as the birding has been so good over the last month or more, Again it was only Bryan and Tony and this week it was only a half day visit. Driving to Chew the only bird of note was a Collared Dove a species we rarely see at Chew. 1st stop as usual Herriotts with lots of birds on the pool including Shoveler, Canada Geese, Coot, Teal, Mute Swan, Grey Heron, Gadwall, Pintail, Shelduck and Tufted Duck. Also on the pool were 5 species of Gull, Black Headed, Common, Great and Lesser Black Back and Herring. 2 species of corvid flew over Jackdaw and Carrion Crow and on the far side of the pool were 4 Black Tailed Godwits the only waders we could find here. All the time we were looking heavy drizzle was falling and we were spotting from under the cars tail gate but we were still getting wet so we decided to move on to Stratford where we could stay dry in the hide. When we arrived in the hide a fellow birder Andy pointed out the Whooper Swan that had been present for a few weeks. I forgot to mention that on arrival at Herriotts I discovered that I had forgotten my binoculars, luckily I had my telescope and at Stratford it a piece of equipment that is necessary as the water is still very low and a long distance from the hide so a Pochard in the duck and coot flock was a good find. Andy then found a Stonechat on to of a reed stem and lots of small birds were feeding on the mud, with the scope we were able to find Linnet, Pied Wagtail and Meadow Pipit. We were then joined by another fellow birder Rich, while scanning the lake I found Great Crested Grebe, Lapwing, Little and Great White Egret. 

Great White Egret - Chew (Bath Birdwatcher)

Bryan then spotted a Peregrine that flew in and landed on an exposed isle with several Cormorants close by. Andy then spotted a double figure flock of Cattle Egrets on a hillside in with a herd of cows and a Marsh Harrier flew low over the lake. Rich then spotted a male Scaup feeding with a few tufted ducks, and later as I scoured the lake I found a female so a pair were on the lake. Having spent almost three hours in the hide it was nearing time to go home so we moved on to Herons Green for a quick stop here we added Little Grebe, Wigeon, Chaffinch and Magpie. Also sleeping on the shore was a flock of Canada Geese.  

Canada Geese - Herons Green (Bath Birdwatcher)
Driving home we finished the morning with Buzzard, Woodpigeons and Rook.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday 8th April 2025 - Chew Valley Lake and Blagdon.

Image
  Primroses at Blagdon - (Bath Birdwatcher) For our Tuesday birding trip out this week, we decided that a visit to Chew Valley Lake and Blagdon would be the best bet as many summer visitors are on the move and with luck we could possibly find a few year ticks. This visit we thought as it was school holidays we would start at the picnic area 2 and walk the Bittern Trail before any people arrived. On the way we spotted Magpie, Rook, Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Buzzard and House Sparrow. Once at the picnic area we started our walk a Blackbird being our 1 st sighting also 2 Dunnocks playing chase, we also could hear the call of Reed Warblers, but we failed to see one, and because we only count birds we see, we dipped on them. A Long-Tailed Tit and a flyby Grey Heron were our next new sightings for the day. Blackcaps were calling everywhere and for a change they seemed easy to find as was a calling Treecreeper. As we continued I could hear a Goldcrest that David found in the top of a fir tree...
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 2nd September 2025 - Chew Valley Lalke

Image
  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...
Read more