Sutton Bingham - Sat 17 Sep

A stop at the northern causeway on the way in to work produced three Common Sandpipers and a Little Grebe on West Pool. A single Little Egret was also noted and five Mistle Thrushes were in the horse paddock to the south of West Pool.
An afternoon visit failed to yield anything other than eleven Meadow Pipits which flew over heading north-west.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 15 Sep

A very quick stop at the dam on my way back from a long day in Southampton produced the first two Wigeon of the "winter" and a couple of Little Egrets. The Linnet flock was still present with a few Goldfinch mixed in. At least two White Wagtails were present with the large numbers of Pied Wagtails but there was no sign of yesterday's Blue-headed Wagtail.

Sutton Bingham - Wed 14 Sep

I spent best part of an hour at the reservoir this afternoon, starting at the southern end where two Common Sandpipers were still present as well as half a dozen Teal. Back to the northern causeway and three Lapwing were on West Pool...slightly closer than the single bird present last month.

Three Little Egrets were noted at the northern end but again that was about it so I made for the dam to see if anything interesting was present there.
A large flock of Linnet, around thirty or so birds, were feeding in the horse paddock and on the dam wall and another two Common Sandpipers were seen. The first Meadow Pipit of the autumn was also noted and a Raven flew over. I then scanned the horse paddock again and found an interesting looking wagtail. This individual had a bold white supercilium (no yellowish tones at all), a greyish head and white throat, and the wing bars were very prominent. My initial thoughts were Blue-headed Wagtail and the general consensus from other individuals who saw my poor photos tended to agree. A nice addition to the patch list, albeit just a sub-species.

 

 

 

From the photos above you can see how distinct the bird was.

Sutton Bingham - Tue 13 Sep

A quick stop off at the northern causeway on the way to work produced two Snipe in flight over West Pool, and these were the first of the autumn. Also on West Pool, two Common Sandpipers and a Kingfisher. A Little Egret was feeding on the shoreline near the Sailing Club and the, dare I say it, resident Shelduck was still present.

Shapwick Heath NNR - Sun 11 Sep

Somewhere different this afternoon and a trip up on to the Somerset Levels and for the first time this year I took a walk out to Shapwick Heath NNR. I made straight for the new hide, though it's been open for a few months now, and scanned the second lagoon checking the various waders present. I counted 232 Black-tailed Godwit, 91 Lapwing, 12 Snipe, 9 Ruff, 2 Greenshank and 2 Green Sandpiper...so not bad for waders really! There were also two Great White Egrets present and a good number of wildfowl.
On then to Noah's Hide and a scan from there produced another two Great White Egrets and a distant perched Hobby. A female Marsh Harrier was over the back of the lake.
I then headed back to the car and just as I re-joined the main path a Glossy Ibis flew over my head going towards Noah's Lake, a great end to a lovely afternoon out.

Sutton Bingham - Sun 11 Sep

An hour at the reservoir late morning failed to produce much in the way of variety. Four Common Sandpipers and a female Tufted Duck were at the southern end. A couple of Little Egrets were still present and the Shelduck was still hanging around the northern causeway. A Yellow Wagtail was seen briefly on the dam and another two Common Sandpipers were noted. A small flock of half a dozen Linnet were also seen.

Sutton Bingham - Sat 10 Sep

An afternoon stroll from the car park to the Canoe Club and back produced my first patch Wheatear for four years, with a female-type bird showing really well on a fence post, though annoyingly I had left my scope in the car so wasn't able to get a photo.
The only other thing of note was a Clouded Yellow.