Tuesday 3rd March 2026 - Chew Valley Lake.

 

Bryan and Tony were just 2 of the 3 Amigos as David was away opening up his caravan. As its now March we needed to buy our new Birding Permit for Chew Valley Lake so that was todays destination. We headed straight for the lodge and 1st thing was go and pay for the new permit as we intended visiting the hides during the morning. Permits purchased we did a short walk towards the dam where a Collared Dove was cooing from the top of a tree.

Collared Dove - CVL (Bath Birdwatcher)

Woodpigeon and Carrion Crow flew over and a Great Spotted Woodpecker was drumming in a tree which we did find, Jackdaw, Blue Tit and Blackbird were soon spotted. Canada Geese we spotted as we looked out over the lake and a Great Tit flew into a bush and 2 Magpies were in a field. Robins were in full song and a Redwing flew out of an ivy-covered tree. Several Chiffchaffs were found some in song as was a Wren booming out its song. Again, looking over the lake lots of Black Headed Gulls maybe in there 100’s were on the lake with the odd Great Black Backed Gull, Cormorant and Great Crested Grebe. On the way back to the car, we added Long Tailed Tit a pair of Buzzards drifted over and a Coal Tit was close to the car park. Next we stopped at Herons Green here we noticed Mute Swan and Mallard plus a male Chaffinch on the wall. After setting up our telescopes we found Coot, Common Gull and a male Goldeneye. 

Goldeneye - CVL (Bath Birdwatcher)

A pair of Pied Wagtails flew past then Bryan found a flock of 15 Cattle Egrets with a single Great White Egret on the far bank behind a row of trees. Also, in the right-hand corner Gadwall and Pochard.  On the pond a single Little Grebe was swimming and diving close to the reeds. Next stop Stratford where from the car park a Marsh Harrier drifted over the trees and 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers were chasing each other round and round into and out of the trees at the same time a 3rd bird was drumming in a tree. From the hide we found a Lesser Black Back Gull and a pair of Teal. A Cormorant flew in and landed on a perch placed there when the water was low making it a good spot for a picture.

Cormorant - CVL (Bath Birdwatcher)

Walking back to the car park I spotted a small bird in a bush seemingly eating buds and a red cap on its head immediately said to me Lesser Redpoll but before I could get Bryan on it, it flew off. We walked along the lane hoping it would show but to no avail, I said to Bryan lets go back to where I found it hoping it had returned. Well as luck would have it, there it was sat nicely in a tree long enough to have a good look at it. Redpoll was a year tick for both of us. Time to leave and traveling home we passed a rookery where several pairs of Rooks were seen.

 

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