Tuesday 4th November 2025 - Portbury Wharf/Chew Valley Lake.

 

Roe Deer - Portbury Wharf (Bath Birdwatcher)

This week’s birding trip was a visit to Portbury Wharf to do a recce for an upcoming Bath RSPB field trip. The main reason was to discover where to park the cars as we know from previous visits that parking is at a premium. We drove along the Sheepway where we had parked on previous visits and realised only a few cars could park there so we drove down Wharf Lane to another parking place and if we parked carefully we should all be able to park here. So, time to do some spotting and we started by walking a footpath back towards the Sheepway where several large flocks of Starlings flew over must have been in excess of 200 birds. Also seen as we walked were Herring Gull, Canada Geese, Woodpigeon. A flock of Long Tailed Tits flitted  through the hedgerow with a Blue Tit for company, we also noted  flypast Goldfinch, Rook and Magpie. A Mistle Thrush was on the top of a hedge and in a close by field in amongst the Jackdaws was a male Pheasant, walking back to the car a Jay did a flyby. Next we walked down the road into the main reserve and into the first hide here we only found 2 Moorhens unusual for this hide, we did find 3 Roe Deer  on the edge of a field as we left the hide. 

Roe Deer - Portbury Wharf (041125)
On to the second hide and here there were many more birds including Wigeon, Teal, Grey Heron, Carrion Crow, Little Grebe, Shoveler, Mallard, Cormorant, Black Headed Gull, and Gadwall, after searching for a while we decided to move on to the last hide that overlooks the estuary. 

Wigeon & Canada Goose - Portbury Wharf
(Bath Birdwatcher)
While here we had lunch still birding a Lesser Black Back Gull flew down river and a small flock of Shelducks were on a patch of mud. Nothing new was found so the decision was made to head to Chew Valley Lake on the way home. Walking back to the car a Great Tit was added to our list. Back at Chew we stopped at Herons Green here we found Little Egret, Great Black Back Gull, Great White Egret, Pintail, Great Crested Grebe and Tufted Duck. Next stop Stratford where a Marsh Harrier was flying over the far side of the lake and 4 Whooper Swans were on the waters edge. We only had a single telescope (Bryan’s) and he found Pochard , Common Gull and Lapwing. Mute Swan and Coot were the final birds here. We drove home via Herriotts but by this time it was raining so we drove past rather than get wet.

A good recce as parking should not be a problem on our group’s day.



 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 7th January 2025 - Newton St Loe.

Image
  It was a return to Newton St Loe alone as Bryan is still recovering from his operation and David was under the weather. The day started very cold, and it took a long time too unfreeze the car and then I made a mistake by taking the main road to NSL as I thought it was the safest with the conditions as they were. BIG mistake 3way traffic lights at Windsor Bridge with the traffic queueing back to Brougham Hayes. Well, I did eventually arrive and park by the church, nothing in the churchyard but in the field beyond a small flock of Woodpigeons feeding in the grass and many Jackdaws flying over. On the bottom road Blue Tits were in the hedgerow and Lesser Black Back Gull and Magpie flew by, 2 Dunnocks were feeding by the side of the road with Great Tit and Robin visiting the feeders, and Carrion Crows in the top of the tallest trees. Nothing more until Butterfly Alley where a Grey Heron was by the side of the stream. The bottom lake was quiet with just a single Mallard 2 Black Headed...
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