Day Trip To Slimbridge !

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Happy New Year!

Date spotted: 30th December - All Day

Location: WWT Slimbridge

Observation: The last outing of 2013, decided for a day at Slimbridge. Was a lovely day with the odd bit of sun coming out. Thousands of waders taking to the sun every few minutes and loads of ducks/birds also around the reserve. Very close Grey Heron, sat in front of South Lake hide. Definitely worth a visit around this time of year!

Weather: Cloudy, Broken Cloud, Sunny

Other Species: Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Grey Heron, Buzzard, Kestrel, Pintail, Mallard, Coot, Moorhen, Teal, Wigeon, Golden Plover, Curlew, Pochard, Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Mute Swan, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Dunnock, Black-Headed Gull, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Herring Gull, Comorant, Lapwing, Lesser Scaup, Tufted Duck, Shoveller, Feral Pigeon, Wood Pigeon

 

New Species Count - 35 Birds

Date spotted: 29th Dec - 2PM

Location: Newton St Loe Circular - Zones 1,2,4+5

Observation: Decided to walk around Newton St Loe, and back past Newton Park Lake. Pretty deserted to start with but soon picked up and proved to be a record breaker walk with 35 species of birds!! The Little Owl is back but 3 cygnets seem to be missing from the lake, but luckily past the predation stage (hopefully). Found 3 Nuthatches in the local yew trees near Home Farm, not very common in this area so was nice to see! Very nice walk

Weather: Blue Sky, Sunny, Cold

Other Species: 4 Blue Tit, 3 Great Tit, 3 Chaffinch, 3 Goldfinch, 12 Wood Pigeon, 2 Buzzard, 7 Crow, 9 Magpie, 10 Jackdaw, 2 Rook, 1 Pied Wagtail, 1 Grey Heron, 5 Mute Swan (3 Cygnets missing), 25 Mallard, 2 Coot, 1 Moorhen, 1 Little Owl, 6 Teal, 4 Robin, 6 Blackbird, 22 Redwing, 6 House Sparrow, 1 Pheasant, 5 Dunnock, 1 Wren, 1 Greater Spotted Woodpecker, 4 Collared Dove, 2 Song Thrush, 1 Coal Tit, 9 Lesser Black-Backed Gull, 7 Black-Headed Gull, 4 Long-Tailed Tit, 3 Nuthatch, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Feral Pigeon 

Also, heard a badger in bushes, but disappeared before getting a definite ID or picture.

 

Marsh Tit At Newton Park Lake

Date spotted: 28/12/2013

Location: Zone 1+2

Observation: Redwing everywhere on walk, with plenty of Buzzards as well little owl present, then Newton top lake Marsh Tit !! new bird for us here. Also seemed to be lots of squirrel around collecting food. Got back home to find even more Redwings on our Rowan Tree seems to be only tree with berries left !

Weather: 10c, Calm with some Broken Cloud

Other Species: Redwing, Blackbird, Dunnock, 5 Buzzard, Robin, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Marsh Tit, Little Owl, Rook, Crow, Raven, 4 Mute Swan, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Black-Headed Gull, Mallard, Moorhen, Coot, Jay

 

14 Bird Species - 88 Birds

22/12/13 - 2PM

7 Blue Tit
7 Great Tit
9 Goldfinch
3 Greenfinch
4 Wood Pigeon
2 Buzzard
2 Crow
3 Magpie
2 Jackdaw
1 Pied Wagtail
2 Black-Headed Gull
2 Coal Tit
34 Lesser Black-Backed Gull (roosting)
10 Long-Tailed Tit

After The Storm Stroll!

Date spotted: 19th December 2013 - 1PM

Location: Newton St Loe - Zones 1+5

Observation: Lots of little birds around probably trying to get food after last nights storm and  stocking up before more wet weather tonight! 23 species of bird on a 2.5 circular walk so not bad!

Weather: Cloudy, Some Wind, Quite Cold

Other Species: 13 Pheasant, 6 Blue Tit, 5 Great Tit, 5 Goldfinch, 90+ Crow, 3 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 8 Magpie, 1 Coal Tit, 6 Blackbird, 8 Redwing, 16 Wood Pigeon, 2 Robin, 1 Wren, 10 Red-Legged Partridge, 1 Herring Gull, 2 Pied Wagtail, 4 House Sparrow, 2 Collared Dove, 1 Greater Spotted Woodpecker, 12 Black-Headed Gull, 2 Lesser Black-Backed Gull, 1 Green Woodpecker

 

Severn Beach Count !

Date spotted: 17th December - 2PM

Location: Severn Beach - Aust

Observation: Went in the hope to find the Desert Wheatear (which we knew had gone!) but no sign of it or many other birds infact! Pretty deserted quite a few Redshank and Wigeon feeding on the mud.

Weather: Blue Sky, Cloudy, Warm

Other Species: Starling, Robin, Cormorant, Redshank, House Sparrow, Wigeon, Coot, Mallard, Pied Wagtail, Greenfinch, Crow, Magpie, Kestrel

 

The Long-Tailed Tit's Are Back !!

Date spotted: 11th Dec - 1.30PM

Location: Birding From The Window

Observation: A quick scan on the feeders outside the window, produced a feeding frenzy! 

Weather: Cloudy, Cold, No Wind

Other Species: 4 Blue Tit, 6 Great Tit, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Greenfinch, 3 Coal Tit, 14 Long-Tailed Tit, 1 Dunnock, 1 Pied Wagtail, 1 Dunnock, 1 Wood Pigeon, 2 Magpie

No Purple Sandpipers !

Date spotted: 9th December - All Day

Location: Battery Point - Portishead

Observation: Got to Portishead for high tide in hope to see the Purple Sandpipers but no sign of them ! We had a look for them a few times but still no sign! On the Marine Lake, was the 2 Egyptian Geese and a few Black-Headed Gulls and Mallard but nothing else.There were quite a few Rock and Meadow Pipits around on the shore and grass around Battery Point that let you get quite close for pictures! Finally, a quick stop-off at CVL proved successful as we seen the Pink-Footed Geese! Slightly closer than normally, but still not close enough!!

Weather: Blue Sky, Some Wind, Warm

Other Species: Blue Tit, Great Tit, Egyptian Goose, Pink-Footed Goose, Rock Pipit, Meadow Pipit, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Curlew, Mallard, Mute Swan, Coot, Moorhen, Tufted Duck, Water Rail, Turnstone, Black-Headed Gull, Dunlin, Canada Goose

 

Sand Point - Kewstoke

Date spotted: 26th Nov - All Day

Location: Kewstoke - Sand Point

Observation: A quick walk along to Sand Point produced a few birds but not many. Just missed high-tide so we only seen Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank. Quite a few Stonechat and Crow along the point, no sign of any Divers or the Dartford Warbler which was a shame! Got back to the car park and a very close Goldcrest (too close to photograph most of the time!) was inches away from my head at one point, amazing to see SO CLOSE ! On way home, stopped off at Chew Valley Lake just the normal birds really, Black-Throated Diver still present with a fly through Kingfisher so stopped and had a quick fish on the boats.

Weather: Cloudy, Warm, Calm

Other Species: Great Tit, Goldcrest, Kingfisher, Black-Throated Diver, Mallard, Coot, Moorhen, Black-Headed Gull, Crow, Stonechat, Dunnock, Wren, Robin, Mute Swan, Herring Gull, Redshank, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Goldfinch, Treecreeper, Buzzard, Curlew, Oystercatcher, 

 

Quick Window Check

Date spotted: 25th Nov - 3PM

Location: Birding From The Window!

Observation: A quick look out the window this was on our tree all at the SAME time!

Weather: Cloudy, Cold!

Other Species: 11 Goldfinch, 8 Lesser Black-Backed Gull, 4 Blue Tit, 2 Great Tit, 2 Greenfinch, 1 Coal Tit + 1 Wood Pigeon

 

30 Species - 400 Birds !

 

Date spotted: 21st November - 1PM

Location: Newton Park Lake - Zones 1,2+5

Observation: Repeated the walk we done earlier in the week, to put down some more steak and seed (steak had gone, as well as most the seed!) We placed seed in a few more places. We put the 2 lots of steak in two different places, one return walk about 2 hours later, one lot of the steak had gone, just before we scanned the area, the Buzzard was hovering and went down out of view and flew off with crows/jackdaws chasing it so possible the Buzzard was taking the steak, which would be nice! The second lot was still there so we think it is Fox taking it as the grass path passing it has been flattened where an animal uses it. We had 30 species today which is 2 away from a record, but we beat the record on the amount of singular birds which totalled 400 birds!! Not much different about, quite a few Redwing about feeding on berries. We also found a dead Tawny Owl at the Lake, no obvious injury but still looked fresh so would have said it died last night/early hours :(

Weather: Blue Sky + Sunny, Quite Cold

Other Species: 27 Goldfinches, 4 Greenfinch, 6 Blue Tit, 4 Great Tit, 3 Buzzard, 119 Crow, 3 Magpie, 8 Wood Pigeon, 1 Blackbird, 9  Long-Tailed Tit, 3 Pheasant, 12 Jackdaw, 2 House Sparrow, 2 Pied Wagtail, 2 Green Woodpecker, 52 Redwing, 1 Little Owl, 63 Mallard, 7 Mute Swan, 17 Black-Headed Gull, 2 Coot, 4 Moorhen, 12 Teal, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Coal Tit, 1 Tawny Owl (sadly dead), 3 Chaffinch, 26 Lesser Black-Backed Gull, 1 Wren, 4 Collared Dove