Sutton Bingham - Fri 30 Dec

My final visit of the year to the patch and again I failed to find anything new or that interesting. In fact, a couple of drake Tufted Ducks amongst the Wigeon was as good as it got.

So 2022 went out with barely a whisper as I failed to add any new birds to the year list since the start of December, but that being said, the year ended up being my best ever for the patch with a final total of 125 species at Sutton Bingham, and that does not include the White Storks that visited.

I did miss about a dozen birds this year, three of which (Grasshopper Warbler, Waxwing and Crossbill) would have been patch lifers. I did add two birds to my Sutton Bingham list, a self-found Pied Flycatcher and the Grey Phalarope that made a brief visit.

And that's it for another year of patch birding and I'm now getting ready to start again in 2023!

Sutton Bingham - Sun 25 Dec

A brief late morning visit produced a female Shoveler amongst the Wigeon flock that consisted of one hundred and fifty-four birds, but there was nothing else to be found today.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 22 Dec

I've been able to make a few flying visits over the past week but seen nothing of note, however, this afternoon I arrived on site before dark and was lucky enough to see the Cattle Egret that had been dropping in presumably to roost for the past few days. It showed really well in the trees below the car park and was viewable from the northern causeway. Always a bit obscured and with the light failing rapidly I managed this identifiable photo!

The only other birds of note today were a pair of Gadwall on West Pool.

Sutton Bingham - Fri 16 Dec

An early morning visit to the reservoir today and the recent cold snap meant West Pool was completely frozen over and much of the southern end of the reservoir was also iced over. A walk from the car park towards the Canoe Club produced four Tufted Ducks with a further eighteen off the dam, a very good count for the reservoir these days. Other wildfowl present today included two female Shoveler amongst the Wigeon flock and a pair of Mandarin were at the bottom of the car park.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 15 Dec

Not much of note during the very few and very brief visits I'd made to the reservoir over the past couple of weeks. However, a few things of interest today with a late afternoon visit produced a nice total of eight Gadwall and three Shoveler off the dam with Mallards, Teal and Wigeon.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 1 Dec

I'd not had the opportunity to visit the patch for the best part of a week due to other commitments and I nearly didn't bother today as thick fog pretty much meant no chance of seeing anything on the water. However, a stop at the Fishing Lodge did turn up a year tick in the form of a Black Redstart! Initially rather distant and very mobile it eventually started feeding on the boats where it showed much better, I even got a few shots through the fog.

After enjoying this little beauty for about fifteen minutes I headed round to the car park and had a wander. A couple of Chiffchaffs were the pick of the birds with nothing else of real note being seen.
Sutton Bingham year list for 2022 now at 125 species.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 24 Nov

Three Chiffchaff were present at the bottom end of the car park this morning but there was little else of note other than a single Mediterranean Gull.
A return visit for the gull roost was very disappointing with almost zero gulls, just a few flying through, but a year tick was collected as a flock of around fifty Golden Plover were seen distantly over the back of the Fishing Lodge flying south.
Sutton Bingham year list for 2022 now at 124 species.

Sutton Bingham - Tue 22 Nov

A mid-afternoon visit today finally produced something of note when a bulky, short-tailed finch flew over the southern end calling...a Hawfinch! Well that was certainly not on the radar and was a really welcome patch year tick, and only my third for Sutton Bingham following two in the eruption year of 2018.
Also this afternoon five Mediterranean Gulls dropped in off the northern causeway and three Gadwall were on West Pond.
Sutton Bingham year list for 2022 now at 123 species.

Meare Heath & Ham Wall RSPB - Wed 16 Nov

A trip up to the Avalon Marshes as I was leading a trip for work and took a minibus full of eleven keen birdwatchers out for the morning.

A good start was had as a sheep field about half a mile south of the Ham Wall car park contained not just sheep but also about thirty Cattle Egrets!

After parking we started by walking out to Meare Heath and before long found the drake American Wigeon that had been present for a couple of weeks, it was nice to introduce a bunch of "new" birders to the joys of twitching! The American Wigeon spent most of the time asleep, but occasionally raised its head for a quick glance around.

Just along the bank from the American Wigeon there was a roosting Garganey, which also spent most of the time with its head tucked away, but did show enough at times to clinch the ID.

After a successful stop we tried our luck at Ham Wall RSPB where pretty much the first birds we saw were four Marsh Harriers soaring in the sky together, over the next hour we must have seen up to eight different birds. From the first viewpoint we saw a couple of Great White Egrets and there were a good number of Lapwing about.

A walk around the reserve produced many of the expected species, but we did miss a few things that would have been nice to have added to the trip list, but it was an enjoyable morning with a total of 47 species seen.

Sutton Bingham - Sun 13 Nov

Visits to the reservoir have been few and far between recently, especially since the clocks have changed, but I did manage a very brief visit this afternoon and found a pair of Pochard at the southern end.

Pochard is a pretty scarce visitor to the patch these days, and these two are the only ones recorded at Sutton Bingham so far this year. Also today there were about forty Wigeon but nothing else of note during my whistle-stop tour.

Sutton Bingham year list for 2022 now at 122 species.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 3 Nov

Disappointment recently with the last few visits drawing blanks and missing both Firecrest and Kittiwake, the latter by a matter of minutes. Anyway, I did spend about an hour on patch this afternoon and a Great White Egret was at the southern end with two Little Egrets and this was by far the best bird present today. A drake Gadwall and two pairs of Mandarin were with the assembled commoner wildfowl and that was pretty much it. A couple of Stonechat were still patrolling the southern arm.

Sutton Bingham - Wed 26 Oct

Well the rising water levels were not so high that a Lapwing was put off with a single bird settling at the southern end early in the morning. A couple of Stonechats were also seen but that was it during a quick visit before work, so imagine my surprise when a message came through on the WhatsApp group from Ash that a Grey Phalarope was present! Fortunately, I was able to take an early lunch and arrived on site and was rewarded with some excellent views of a patch lifer!

The Grey Phalarope fed constantly during the half an hour I was on site and was still showing until 2pm, but visits later in the day failed to relocate it, so I really got lucky with this one.
Sutton Bingham year list for 2022 now at 121 species.

Sutton Bingham - Mon 23 Oct

Back to the patch today after a week away and a quick stop in the morning turned up a drake Gadwall at the southern end with Wigeon and Teal whilst later in the day a female Pintail was also present. A large flock of Linnet and Goldfinch were feeding at the southern end and there were lots of Meadow Pipits present also.

A few Siskin and more Goldfinches were in the car park.

Water levels have risen significantly over the past few days, so unlikely to get any late passage waders now I expect.

Cornwall - Fri 14 Oct to Fri 21 Oct

A week away in Cornwall with the family was relaxing and enjoyable but was somewhat lacking in the birds...not that I was looking for any of course! On our first evening I counted over two hundred Mediterranean Gulls off Porthkernick, and there were Mediterranean Gulls present daily during our week away.
The first full day of our holiday saw us stay local to Portscatho but just up the road we stopped to take a look at a flock of small birds that consisted mainly of Linnets but also a few Skylarks and Meadow Pipits but the highlight was a pair of Cirl Buntings.
A trip to St Just in Roseland produced a Whimbrel, but surprisingly few birds in the churchyard.

Along the coastline Turnstones and Oystercatchers were both pretty abundant.

A trip to Ruan Lanithornes was quite profitable with a couple of Firecrests present and a Common Sandpiper. A look over Gowens Bay turned up to Great Northern Divers and five Common Scoters were seen in flight.

All in all a wonderful week away and really good to recharge the batteries.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 6 Oct

A few brief visits since the start of the month have failed to produce anything of interest, despite lots of exposed mud still, there have been very few birds on patch. This afternoon I spent about an hour and a half on patch checking the reservoir for anything of note. Five Wigeon and a Little Grebe were at the northern end before being disturbed by sailors. The Wigeon relocated to the southern end.

There were also nine Teal this afternoon and plenty of Meadow Pipits. A couple of White Wagtails were on the fringes of West Pool but there nothing else of note today.

Lodmoor RSPB & Portland - Sun 2 Oct

Somewhere different today as myself and the "Usual Suspects" headed off for a day out together, the first time for many years since all five of us could make it. Arriving at Lodmoor we were met by heavy rain but after donning waterproofs we set off anyway and had a good explore of the reserve. An explore of the old tip area drew a blank as we looked for the juvenile Red-backed Shrike that had been in the area for a few days, but in the rain I guess it was not that surprising, so instead we headed down to the reserve proper and checked out the birds present. A few Mediterranean Gulls were noted and on the deck a handful of Black-tailed Godwit and Lapwing. A flock of small waders then flew in, all Dunlin but one which was a Little Stint. Continuing round the reserve we added Kingfisher and then a couple of Ruff. Two Great White Egret was also present. Fortunately, the rain eventually stopped and it soon became a bright and warm morning, so we returned to the old tip location to try our luck again. I somehow managed to find myself separated from the others so focused on finding the location where the Red-backed Shrike was last seen, and I found it! So a quick call to the rest of the gang and before long we were all treated to great views.

We then returned to the car and drove out to Portland It was now a glorious day and the weather was far too good for any passage offshore, which just a few Gannet and a couple of Common Scoters noted. On the land there were a few Rock Pipits and a very smart Wheatear but little else. So after a good wander around we headed back home after a really enjoyable trip out.

After getting back I popped up to Sutton Bingham for a quick look and found a couple of late Common Sandpipers but nothing else of note.

Sutton Bingham - Sun 25 Sep

A couple of flying visits in the morning produced nothing but I popped back out to the reservoir later in the afternoon and spent about an hour on site where I found two Redshank that had arrived at some stage during the day and settled on West Pool.

A third calendar year Yellow-legged Gull was amongst the gulls gathered at the northern end.

At the southern end three juvenile Swallows had managed to get themselves bogged down in the sticky mud, a truly sad sight but no chance of trying to get them out unfortunately.

There were hundreds of Swallows and House Martins passing through during the hour I was on site. I also picked out a Hobby flying over the willows at the southern end, my third this year, no doubt attracted by the masses of hirundines.

Sutton Bingham - Sat 24 Sep

A quick visit early in the day produced a very smart male and a couple of female/juvenile type Stonechats at the southern end.

A White Wagtail was amongst Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits also at the southern end but there was no sign of the Little Stint today.
A return visit in the afternoon produced a Wheatear on the dam wall, which Pete had found late morning, my third of the Autumn in what has been a very slow year for them on patch.

Finally, a juvenile Little Grebe was off the northern causeway.

Sutton Bingham - Fri 23 Sep

The Little Stint lingered in to it's third day and I popped out at lunchtime to take another look, and it was showing really well in the north-east corner of West Pool, just off the northern causeway, so took a few more photos, and they turned out a bit better than the poor efforts I took on Wednesday evening.

I think the photo of the Little Stint alongside a discarded beer can shows just how small they are.

Nothing else of note during today's quick visit though.

Sutton Bingham - Wed 21 Sep

I'd not made a trip to the reservoir since the weekend due to the fact I'd been at work and despite visits from other birders nothing of note had been seen, however, that changed today. Because Ash had drawn a blank first thing I decided against a lunchtime trip, but at 2.30pm Dave Chown messaged to say he had found a Little Stint on West Pool, what followed was over three hours of nervous waiting before I could get to site after work. Fortunately the bird lingered and after a bit of a manic search I finally clapped my eyes on this tiny wader. Poor light and an even poorer photographer resulted in a few ropey record shots.

The Little Stint was associating with a Common Sandpiper and were pretty much the only birds of note during my brief stop.
Sutton Bingham year list for 2022 now at 120 species.