Spawning Frogs on Newton St Loe

Date: 8th-13th February

Location:
Newton St Loe, Chew Valley Lake, Stockhill, Ashleworth Ham, Slimbridge
Weather: 
Cold, Rain, Blue Skies.

Species Highlights: 
Frogs, Bearded Reedlings, Greater Scaup, Crossbill, Black-tailed godwit, Kestrel.

Observation: 
This year our frog spawn is early 2 weeks early, it appeared a day after we did a Pond clean, just pulling up dead and dying plants getting it ready for a bumper Dragonfly year I hope.

Lauren does the photos for the pond, and a great job she does!

Monday the weather wasn't great so a trip down to Chew Valley Lake was in order not long after entering the hide and seeing nothing in front...I mean nothing we left and we were gonna try another hide when I spotted a Bearded Reedling, year tick for Lauren, again Laurens pictures.

We heard 2 but this male put on a great show, such stunners.

We walked around to next hide with rain starting, on entering we spied Scaup another year tick for Lauren, 15 birds seen, really Scaup through the rain.

The rain eased off eventually leaving the great looking rainbow, with scaup at the end of it.

Next stop was Stockhill, It wasn't long before we spotted our targets Crossbill, male & female perched as always at the top of larch tree's very tricky as the wind was blowing a hooly!

Wednesday Lauren at work I decided to go to Ashleworth Ham in Gloucestershire, for a look for the Bean Goose after the drive up and an hour waiting for it, it was a no show. A bit of a Knightmare journey back, with a road closed, the diversion was flooded and my Van door falling off!

 I dropped into Slimbridge on way back eventually to at least see some birds, hardly anything from hides so wandered around the captive pools.

Canvasback duck- Aythya valisineria

Hooded Merganser F -Lophodytes cucullatus

Lesser Scaup - Aythya affinis

Ferruginous duck - Aythya nyroca ( a Duck I keep missing for Uk but have seen in Rhodes)

This the male.

Not a bird I expect to see in the Uk but another Duck I've never seen, I've been to Slimbridge many times, seen photos of this bird there but never managed to see it! Its a Baikal teal (Sibirionetta formosa

What a beauty eh!

The captive Crane looks great close Up this one just a few feet away. 

A Jackdaw posed nicely too.

The only hide where anything was happening was the Hogarth hide, Black-tailed Godwits just outside the windows.

An airborne predator or something flew over spoking the Godwits.

So that was Wednesday highs and lows.

Thursday was patch walk day, and a grey day to start but on top fields, I had a view of the only Fieldfare of the year.

Not much else to report apart from the Whooper Swan now it's 115 days. Mute swans all showing aggression towards it now, I hope soon it will depart.

Another year Patch tick was this Kestrel in the horse fields.

Like buses another kestrel,  male/female.
Patch year list up to 55.

Wayne Year Bird List: 126
Lauren Year Bird List: 118

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Another Visit to Slimbridge...

Date: 6th February 2017

Location: WWT Slimbridge

Weather: Cloudy, Overcast, Light Rain Showers

Other Species: Bewick Swan, White Fronted Goose, Dunlin, Golden Plover, Common Crane, Lapwing, Black-Tailed Godwit, Linnet, Song Thrush, Wren, Dunnock, Teal, Curlew, Wigeon, Cetti's Warbler, Barnacle Goose, Shelduck, Skylark - Of Note

Observation: After recent sightings of the Lapland Bunting and Goshawk at Slimbridge, we headed off early in the fog hoping for views of these. On arrival, the Rushy was full of wildfowl including Bewick Swans, Teal and Pochard. We spotted Widemouth (TUV ring) where she has wintered yearly at Slimbridge since 1999/2000.

Onto the Martin Smith hide, the waders on the Tack Piece were very mobile all day long.

Plenty of Golden Plover and Lapwing present this morning along with at least 4 White-Fronted Geese.

With the mobile wader flocks, a small flock of approx 30-40 birds were also spotted, we think Linnet... The poor light didn't help us today!

The Knott Hide never seems to disappoint, with a very showy Wren and this stunning Song Thrush doing very well catching worms.

The resident Otter's enjoyed having a bit of a play and a good old scratch today!

The Robbie Garnet Hide and Willow Hide had a few things to photograph, although the Tack Piece was the best to view.

 Wayne spotted a Cetti's Warbler's singing from Stephen Kirk Hide showing very well until it was chased off by another Cetti's.

 From the Holden Tower, the group of 60+ Barnacle Geese were closer in, happily feeding, no sign of the Lapland Bunting on the second visit, but 10 Skylark and some Meadow Pipit were present on the shoreline to the first pool.

 With the rain starting and the light fading we headed back to the Rushy for some last pictures, with the wader flocks still very mobile, it gave us plenty of opportunity's for flight shots!

On the return back home, we stopped off at Sharpness Docks in the hope of seeing the long-staying Black Redstart's. After a good search for about 20 minutes there was no sign so we headed home.

For now I am stuck on 99 for my life list and Wayne is speeding ahead on 119.

Hoping for some sunshine soon!


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Sea King The Cirl Bunting !

Date: 21st March 2016

Location: Broadsands > Dawlish Warren > Black Hole Marsh 

Weather: Blue Sky, Little Cloud + Sunny

Other Species: Buzzard, Kestrel, Brent Geese, Great-Crested Grebe, Oystercatcher, Sparrowhawk, Cirl Bunting, Goldcrest, Greater Black-Backed Gull, Herring Gull, Reed Bunting, Curlew, Black-Tailed Godwit, Rock Dove, Shelduck, Linnet, Stonechat, Redshank - Of Note - Total Species 57

Observation: We both finally had a day off, so a visit to Devon was in order. We started at Broadsands to visit the stunning Cirl Buntings. On the beach a lovely group of 11 Great-Crested Grebe along with a group of Brent Geese who were happily feeding on the receding tide.

We were on look-out as the Sea King Helicopter 'Farewell Tour' should have passed overhead the same time, but we didn't see or hear it unfortunately!

Now to find the Cirl Bunting, we spotted a Female in the brambles, after a few minutes the Male started feeding on the floor.

After us snapping away for about 5 minutes we were joined by the Female.

We even managed some with both the Male and Female in one shot!

After about 30 minutes we headed for Dawlish Warren, where the reserve was pretty quiet apart from 26 Dark-Bellied Brent Geese on the estuary, also a few Stonechat and Linnet buzzing about. The highlight of the reserve was seeing our first Speckled Wood of the year!

A very smart Herring Gull back on the sea-front.

On our way home, we popped into Black Hole Marshes, where again it was low-tide so levels were low, but the estuary was full of waders including Oystercatcher, Curlew and Black-Tailed Godwit and also some Shelduck and Teal.

After some fish and chips on the sea-front, we headed home, all in all a lovely day out and nice to be back out birding again together!

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