Thursday, 1 March 2018

01-03-18 Thursday - blizzard

Bitterly cold with light snow in the morning, more like a blizzard in the afternoon.
Do provide your garden birds with water as well as food to see them through these difficult conditions.

Hawfinches
Countryside birds in unlikely places and coming into gardens looking for food.
More interesting garden records than I can pass on - see the Twitter feed (right-hand column).

Cormorants at Bristol Harbourside in the snow (Jon Mortin)
BRISTOL

Downend:
Unusually, 4 Redwing in the garden, also Wren, Song Thrush, 2 Jay, Greenfinch, Goldfinch.
Little Egret over Leap Valley common.

Emersons Green:
9 Lapwing over, heading west.

Warmley:
8 Woodpigeon, 1 Collared Dove, 4 Dunnock, 2 Robin, 8 Blackbird, 2 LT Tit, 4 Blue Tit, 2 Great Tit, 2 Coal Tit, 2 Magpie, 9 Chaffinch, 12 Greenfinch, 7 Goldfinch, 7 Bullfinch all in one garden.

Longwell Green:
1 m. Blackcap, 24 Goldfinch in garden.

Eastville Park:
1 Lapwing over west (rare here), 30 Fieldfare over south.  Dipper.

Stoke Park:
2 BH Gull, 2 Herring Gull, 1 LBB Gull, 14 Woodpigeon, 1 Green Woodpecker, 6 Magpie, 3 Jackdaw, 7 Carrion Crow, 3 Coal Tit, 2 Marsh Tit, 10 Blue Tit, 5 Great Tit, 14 Long Tailed Tit, 1 Wren, 12 Blackbird, 1 Redwing, 4 Robin.

Lockleaze:
1 Fieldfare, 1 Grey Wagtail in a garden.

Bishopston gardens:
2 Fieldfare, 1 Blackcap in one garden.
2 Fieldfare in another garden.

Harbourside:
8 Cormorant.

Long Ashton:
Fieldfare in a garden.

Grateful for an apple core - a garden Blackbird (Lyndon Roberts)

SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Oldbury Power Station:
3 Golden Plover, 26 Lapwing over, 10 Snipe.

Pilning - a garden:
306 Lapwing, 21 Golden Plover,  30 Fieldfare to SW over the garden.  1 m. Blackcap, 1 Goldcrest.

Fresh water is so essential - Starling 1st March 2018 Severn Beach Garden (Paul Bowerman)

Severn Beach:
10 Golden Plover and 120 Lapwing over to South.


The best of the many garden photos of Fieldfare today (Christopher Teague)
Yate:
4 Blackcap (3 m., 1 f.), 4 Fieldfare.

Buzzard - an unusual garden bird in Almondsbury (Vera Carpenter)
Almondsbury:
In a garden - Buzzard, Fieldfare, 1 f. Blackcap, Jay.
Hollow Road -  Mistle Thrush.

Frampton Cotterell:
Extreme behaviour - a Lapwing flew out of a small Frampton Cotterell front garden, across the road and in amongst other houses. They don't do that...!  10 Fieldfare in the garden.



NORTH SOMERSET

Portishead:
3 Cormorant fishing in the marina.
f. Blackcap in one garden, m. Blackcap in another.

Clevedon:
20 Fieldfare in a garden.

Backwell Lake:
2 Gadwall, 6 Shoveler, 6 Tufted Duck, 2 Water Rail, 0 Homo Sapiens.
Note: A Mute Swan seen at Backwell Lake on Feb 15th was ringed at Abbotsbury in July 2015 as a one-year old female.

Reed Bunting 1st March 2018 Yatton garden (Higgy)
Yatton:
Good numbers of Fieldfare around the village.
Stowey Road garden:
1 Grey Heron, 2 Blackcap (f&m), 12 Blackbird, 2 Fieldfare, 2 Song Thrush, 9 House Sparrow, 43 Goldfinch (and a new garden record), 6 Reed Bunting.

Weston-Super-Mare:
167 Lapwing and 4 Snipe over Old Town Quarry WsM going SW.
Unusually, a Snipe in the rhyne at Wolvershill Road, WSM.  6 LT Tit.

Bleadon:
2 Fieldfare, 1 Redwing, 1 Song Thrush, 2 Blackcap, 1 Meadow Pipit, 3 Greenfinch, 2 Bullfinch, 2 Reed Bunting.

Churchill:
A few snow-driven birds at Churchill School today: 4 Lapwing (over), 5 Skylark (over), 1 Grey Wagtail with 50+ Pied Wagtail.

Fieldfare in a Bath garden (Brian Martin)

BELOW M4 & BANES

Bath:
Prior Park:
12 Hawfinch.

Bloomfield:
Fieldfare (feeding on crab apples and chasing off every Blackbird that landed on the tree).  1 Dunnock, 2 Robin, 4 Blackbird, 1 m. Blackcap, 1 Long-tailed Tit, 2 Blue Tit, 2 Great Tit, 1 Nuthatch.

Midsomer Norton:
Many Lapwings flying west, perhaps towards Chew.

Bullfinch in Butcombe - Barry Allsop

RESERVOIRS:

for once, no reports.


Reports: Paul Bowerman, Paul Brennan, Vera Carpenter, John Clark, Tim Ford, David Gibbs, Patrick Hardyman Richards, William Hewitt, Mike Jackson, Robert Kelsh, Iris Langson, Brian Martin, John Martin, Mike Meechem, 'olivenite', Chris Perry, Dee Pope, George Rabin, Gareth Roberts, Lyndon Roberts, Marcus Smith, Larry Sweetland, Christopher Teague, Tim Warren, Simon Williams, blagdonlakebirdsCVRSnslbirdingopsbirdingsevernsidebirdsTBOSG