Newton-St-Loe Birding: Another NSl birding Round Up of the year so-far.

Date:

September 2021 - January 2022

Species Highlights:

Pectoral Sandpiper, Barred Warbler, Brambling, Green-Winged Teal, Jack Snipe, Slavonian Grebe, Grey Phalarope, Pacific Diver

It's been a while so another round-up of what's been seen by me & Lauren.

So starting all the back to 27/09/2021

Cheddar Reservoir - Pectoral Sandpiper

This bird didn't care and came to us, too close to focus at times.

October, I spent a bit of time at Chew Valley Lake, Glossy Ibis, Yellow-Legged Gull to name a few good birds, Marsh Harrier (Female)

Also a grounded Peregrine, out the front of Stratford Hide.

Into November and my 200th bird of 2021 was a lifer... It's a Barred Warbler in case you can't tell!

Berrow NR. A very elusive bird, we spent a couple of hours, this was the best we got.

On Patch, Newton Park Lake the last few years has been struggling, from Dam Work 2020, disrupting Grey Heron breeding and waterfowl on the lake. This year it was dredging, totally destroying any chance of anything showing up, Top Lake almost drained, Long Armed Diggers doing the work.

On the bright side, a deeper lake may help with a few more diving ducks or something else turning up, fingers crossed.

On the same day, I saw a large Finch flock above Stanton Prior, I followed flock scanning through and Patch tick number, 108 Brambling!

5 birds in with 150 Chaffinch & 35 Greenfinch. Always worth scanning those winter flocks.

On the 21/11/2021, A Little Auk had turned up in Weymouth Harbour, we spent all day there and I think we were the only ones who didn't see it! This Peregrine was a small consolation prize.

November continuing works.

The dumper in the above picture was taking mud to fields above top woods making a good spot for a Gull roost.

28/11/2021, the Rowan tree out the front of our house was full of berries, 4 days later every single berry had been munched.

15+ Redwings, Fieldfare

Lauren nailing the pictures!

Jack Snipe from Chew Valley, very tricky to spot!

You may remember my shed/hide from last year, it's still going well and I'm still sitting in there some days taking a few pictures.

Goldfinch

Long-Tailed Tit

Another visit to Chew and the Green-Winged Teal floated past Stratford, nice to get a closer shot even if the light was awful.

18/11/2021

A Saturday morning me and Allan Chard went to Tata Reservoir, Port Talbot, Wales for the Pacific Diver, police, and security on-site, it was a private reservoir but lots of birders were visiting so we followed along, after walking from miles to a so-called vantage point, it must have been 1/2 mile away so we returned to the car.

Passing the main gate, a birder said to go in through trees and a very short walk we were stood on the side of the reservoir, The Pacific Diver although into the sun was right there!!

A life tick but also present was a Slavonian Grebe.

Plus a Grey Phalarope, just to add to an excellent day, all not as close as some pictures of the bird but very happy we got to see at all.

A last visit of the year to Slimbridge and the Willow Hide, Water Rail was showing well.

The yearly total are as follows:

Patch total 82 species

Wayne's UK List - 211

Lauren's UK List - 205

11 Life Ticks

Last photo of the year a Jay from shed/hide

2022

We started the Year with a Patch Walk, our first bird of the year being a Sparrowhawk for Lauren and Goldfinch for Wayne.

The Patch Walk covered almost 9 miles in a circular route and highlights were Red Legged Partridge, Red Kite, Meadow Pipit, Yellowhammer, Bullfinch, Greenfinch, Stonechat and a huge flock of Fieldfare and Redwing at Stanton Prior.

Day 2, we explored further afield and visited Weston Airfield for the Penduline Tit, they showed very distantly and then flew high over to another area, and didn't return so after a 2-hour wait. Moving on to Clevedon Pier, where we had great views of the Black Redstart, despite the many people on the beach!

Next up was Barrow Tanks, where the Long Tailed Duck was present but distant as always!

On the way home we then stopped off at Blagdon for the Black Necked Grebe and finally the Jack Snipe at Stratford Hide.

On the 3rd of January, we spent the day at Slimbridge and started with seeing the Glossy Ibis on the Approach Road.

This put our Year Count on 102 on Day 3!! Our 100th Year Tick was a Peregrine Falcon.

Whilst still on Christmas Leave, we spent another day at Weston Airfield, this time the light was PERFECT! But after spending 3 hours, we only had distant views before having to head home for a family emergency.

With our final day off work, we returned to Weston Airfield and after a wait of about an hour, it was definitely 3rd time lucky!!

We walked away with big smiles on our faces, as the effort paid off in the end, and we were glad to warm up!!

With sightings of Golden Plover just outside our Patch, we went Home via Ashton Hill, Corston. A Buzzard had just gone through putting up the whole Plover flock.

9th Janaury

Our next trip wasn't until the weekend, we went to Wales for the Pacific Diver at Eglwys Nunydd, we had some abuse on arrival from fishing, but ignored and carried on in, no further issues once on sight, and were treated to amazing views!

A life tick for Lauren this time.

17th of January

We spent the day at Forest of Dean, where we started at Parkend for the Hawfinch after a very short wait.

Onto RSPB Nagshead in the hope for Firecrest.

We didn't have to wait long before Lauren spotted one flittering around. A small flock of Crossbill also flew over before one settled in the distant tree for a definite ID.

Next up, was Cannop Ponds.

19th of January

Next up, Lauren was working so I headed out without her! I headed to Mere Down in Wiltshire for the Snow bunting that had been present for some time, The Car Park was full so had to wait for an opening, finally started to walk the byway and was not feeling hopeful with Gunshots, walkers, and horse riders but got to its favorite field and it jumped on to fence line.

I walked along byway toward Whitesheet hill a hill I've visited for the last few summers, Glanville fritillary, not their normal habitat but a small introduced colony exists. The weather worsened with hill fog and drizzle but Red Kite, Corn Bunting and flocks of Chaffinch, Yellowhammer, Linnet were constantly overhead. not sure what this Kite had hanging?

Almost back at the car and this car flew close along path giving great views and brilliant day.

22nd January

With an early Ring Ouzel spotted at Brean Down, it would have been rude not to visit!

The Ring Ouzel didn't show straight away so we headed to the Beach to find the Black Redstart.

It showed briefly before we were called by another birder.

The Ring Ouzel was showing in the field.

23rd January

After a Patch Walk, the Kentish Plover was showing so we headed down to Burnham on Sea, but we were too late, we had no view of it whilst we were there (we arrived at Low Tide!)

25th January

Lauren's Birthday so we had a day on and around the Somerset Levels planned.

We headed to Greylake first and 20 minutes from arrival, a tweet came out saying the Baikal Teal was showing well in front of the hide, we rushed down the Hide, to be told a Marsh Harrier had spooked the flock and it was no-where to be seen! Bugger!

The hides were busy with no seats so we only stayed for 45 minutes before heading to Burrow Mump for the Whooper Swan. We only had views of 4 Whooper Swan as they were hidden behind a lump in the field, but another tick!

So on to the Kentish Plover it was was showing well 5 minutes before we got there, but now it was just hidden out of view.

A very rude obnoxious walker with binoculars arrived and said she didn't have time to hang around and wait for the bird to show so decided to walk straight out to the point, after being told not to, she flushed the bird... no surprise! But this did favor our position.

After some flight shots, it settled back out of view so we headed back to the Levels stopping off at Tealham Moor for the Tundra Bean Goose which was feeding in the back fields with the Canada Goose flock.

At Ham Wall, the Ring-Necked Duck was still present and was showing well as we sat down in the Hide, but quickly went out of view.

Along by VP2, a decent flock of Siskin, Redpoll and Finches were feeding in the Alders.

We were also accompanied by a group of 3 very friendly Robins.

29th January

RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch

a wet day was spent in my shed with awful light but a few birds were visiting my clean feeder. 2 Bullfinch male and this smart female.

2 Chaffinch only, numbers have crashed recently

But numbers of Goldfinch have not with 10+ birds most days visiting.

30th January

I did a Patch walk, Blues skies, and perfect temperatures, with hardly any people about either. Top fields were almost empty of birds except for a flock of Linnet. At the lake's work is still progressing with dredging, but I think it will be finished soon. A pair of Stonechat were at top ponds.

Walking on to Stanton Prior a Red Kite suddenly appeared alongside me only to be joined by 2 More, not sure if these were the same ones from Priston, no tags were seen.

A flock of Red Kites!!

The Pied in Stanton posed nicely for a picture.

A tip-off from Robert put me on some Brambling at Burnet and a phone call later Lauren was standing by my side and we watch 5 Brambling feeding 20 foot away.

15+ Yellowhammer also here.

A proper winter farmland flock.

A drive home stopping at Ashton Hill saw 19 Golden Plover and another stop produced a Little Owl Pair close to Home, always good to see.

31st January

Back to the Somerset Levels for Take 2 of the Baikal Teal arriving earlier this time, with the car park almost full at 8.45am! Not 1 sighting of the Bird, so after about 45 minutes sat freezing from the gusty winds, we walk-around to the Screens in the hope we could view from the back pools. Halfway around, a Marsh Harrier moved them to the front pools, meaning it was very quiet for Waterfowl from the screens but we did have a Siberian Chiffchaff calling and feeding.

We returned to the Hides and had a Marsh Harrier and a Peregrine moving the Waterfowl around but still no Baikal Teal, well at least not whilst we were there, but 40 minutes after leaving, of course a sighting comes through!