Thursday 14 September 2017

14th Sept '17 Thursday - Arctic Skuas

Lovely, if cooler, with sun and high cloud.  One heavy shower.  Wind has turned NW and dropped.

4 Arctic Skuas, Arctic and Black Tern, RuffSpotted RedshankCurlew Sandpiper all at Chew.
Woodchat Shrike getting rather less attention in the face of all those seabirds - but only Manx Shearwater today. (Leach's Petrels, Grey Phalaropes, Arctic Terns and Sabine's Gulls still being seen off the Somerset coast.)

It's still there - Woodchat Shrike (Malcolm Black)
BRISTOL
Eastville Park:
1 Dipper, 1 Grey Wagtail, but no gulls on the lake.


SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Oldbury Power Station:
2 Harbour Porpoise, breaching, attracting gulls - see the video on the Oldbury website (honorary birds! - certainly worth a mention).
1 juv/fem Redstart, 1 Stonechat.

New Passage/Northwick Warth:
1 f. Pintail, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 ad. Hobby, 3 Ruff, 90 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Bar-tailed Godwit, 8 Sand Martin, 3 Wheatear.

Severn Beach:
Exhausted Manx Shearwater.

Chipping Sodbury Common:
juv Woodchat Shrike, 4 Chiffchaff, 1 Redstart, 11 Whinchat, 3 Wheatear, 6 Yellow Wagtail, 2 Tree Pipit, 20 Meadow Pipit.


NORTH SOMERSET:

Uphill:
1 Grey Phalarope ("Brean Down on Axe Estuary" so possibly in Avon, just?)


BELOW M4 & BANES
no reports.


RESERVOIRS:

Both fishing - Black Tern ignoring a boat at Chew (Ian Stapp)
Chew Valley Lake:
8 Great White Egret, 10 Little Egret, 500+ hirundines.

Woodford:
 6 G BB Gull, 1 Black Tern (ignoring nearby fishermen in boats).

Villice:
1 ad. and 1 juv. Hobby. 4 Dunlin, 1 m. Blackcap, 2 Spotted Flycatcher (along the old road, Parkland).

Heron's Green:
4 Arctic Skua at 13:50 (heading towards Blagdon).
16 Little Grebe, 2 Buzzard, 1 Water Rail, 3 G BB Gull, 7 House Sparrow, 2 Reed Bunting.

Moreton:
6 Buzzard, 1 juv. Arctic Tern (up & down lake Stratford end), 1 Green Woodpecker, 1 m. Blackcap, 4 LT Tit, 1 Jay.

Herriott's Bridge:
29 Black-tailed Godwit (possibly a record count for Chew), 7 Ruff, 2 Spotted Redshank, 1 Curlew Sandpiper.


Reports: Pete Coslett, Andy Davis, Pete Hazelwood, Brian Lancastle, John Martin, Richard Scantlebury, Ian Stapp, blagdonlakebirds,  CVRSnslbirding,  opsbirding,  severnsidebirds