Sutton Bingham - Sun 23 May

Recent visits of varying length have not produced anything were writing about, and today nearly ended up the same way when I responded immediately to a WhatsApp message from Pete telling me there were three Arctic Terns at the reservoir. Within ten minutes I was on site in the pouring rain only to fail in relocating the birds. More frustration and another good bird missed this month. The slight consolation was a Coot that I found half way down the arm of the reservoir, so I did manage a patch year tick after all.

I know it's a dreadful photo, but it was absolutely chucking it down and I didn't have my scope, but if you squint you can just about believe it's a Coot.

Sutton Bingham year list for 2021 now at 92 species.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 13 May

Missed another very decent Sutton Bingham bird today with a fly-through Grey Plover seen briefly late morning. My two hours on patch in the afternoon did finally add Treecreeper to the year list with one at Cotton Bridge. A Lesser Whitethroat was singing near the entrance to the Fishing Lodge and showed briefly but that pretty much summed up the visit.

Sutton Bingham - Sun 9 May

An afternoon visit in the rain was pretty pointless, lots of hirundines again and plenty of gulls but nothing else of note until four Swifts flew in from the east over the dam and onwards. Having missed both Dunlin and Whimbrel (both fly-throughs) over the past few days, it was good to get a patch year tick, albeit a somewhat expected one.
Sutton Bingham year list for 2021 now at 90 species.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 6 May

An afternoon visit today generated just a single bird of note, and that was a Yellow Wagtail. Initially seen in flight over West Pool it landed on the northern causeway where I managed to get a distant record shot through my binoculars.

After returning to the car to get my scope it flew up from the causeway and in to the field adjacent to West Pool but then vanished and I was unable to relocate it. Nice to get a Spring Yellow Wagtail especially having missed one a week ago.
Sutton Bingham year list for 2021 now at 89 species.

Shapwick Heath NNR and Ham Wall RSPB - Mon 3 May

After breakfast we took a family trip up to the Somerset Levels, our first visit for about two years. It was a somewhat overcast morning with a chill wind, nothing like the expected weather for early May. That being said as we got out of the car a Cuckoo was heard calling, so a nice start to the trip.

We walked out to Shapwick Heath NNR first, passing singing Garden Warblers and hearing Reed Warblers, Cetti's Warblers and Sedge Warblers deep in the reedbeds. Great White Egrets seemed to be the commonest birds with around seven or eight seen. A pair of Marsh Harriers were seen interacting and a second female was also noted. On the lagoon my first Pochard and Coot of the year! Overhead there were loads of Swifts, but we failed to find a Hobby.

We then retraced our steps and walked out on to Ham Wall RSPB going as far as the second viewpoint. It was pretty much more of the same, although if truth be known it was more less of the same. A single Black-tailed Godwit was viewable form the first viewpoint and a Bittern was heard booming. Little Grebe was also added to my somewhat pathetic year list total.

With stomachs starting to grumble we waked back to the car and came on home. A lovely morning trip out.

Sutton Bingham - Mon 3 May

I didn't get a chance to do any birding on patch over the weekend, but as it was a Bank Holiday I did manage an early start, arriving on site just before 7.00am, this morning. The morning began pretty well as I found a singing Lesser Whitethroat near the entrance to the Fishing Lodge in a territory I had noted in 2019 but seemed to be vacant last year. Lesser Whitethroat was a glaring omission on my 2020 list, mainly due to the lockdown that curtailed any access to the site during peak migration months.

I then popped down to the Fishing Lodge and had a bit of a surprise when I saw a Greenshank on the dam. I watched it for several minutes as it worked it's way in to the north-east corner in the company of a Common Sandpiper. A Spring Greenshank is somewhat unusual and so was nice to get on the year list.

Leaving the northern end I went round to the car park and walked down the arm. There were at least four singing Whitethroat and a flock of around twenty Linnet but nothing else to be found so it was back home for breakfast.

Sutton Bingham year list for 2021 now at 88 species.