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.