Sutton Bingham - Sun 27 Jan

An hour on site late morning and a few duck around today with around one hundred and twenty Wigeon at the southern end with a single Teal, a few Mallard and two pairs of Gadwall. Off the Canoe Club there were eight Tufted Duck (four drakes and four ducks), another addition to the path year list. Not much else of note, though a few Common Gulls passed through.

Sutton Bingham year list 2019 now at 61 species.

Sutton Bingham - Fri 25 Jan

A text message from James early afternoon resulted in a mad rush to the reservoir during my lunch break to "twitch" three Pochard that he had found on West Pool. Luckily they were still there when I arrived on site.

I also added Great Black-backed Gull to the year list, with an adult bird on the main reservoir.
A return visit just before dark to check the gull roost produced an adult Yellow-legged Gull amongst the commoner fair.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 24 Jan

An afternoon visit today was not looking that promising until a found a Marsh Tit at the bottom end of the car park, a similar area to one I had seen last year, so that's encouraging. It was extremely obliging, at one stage feeding and calling just six foot above my head. Other than that is was very quiet with around eight Wigeon and two Teal off the Fishing Lodge and a calling Pheasant heard.

Sutton Bingham - Sun 20 Jan

A very brief visit late morning produced a female Siskin in the car park and good numbers of gulls, though not enough time to properly check them out. Two adult Mediterranean Gulls were certainly the pick.
Whilst in the car park I glimpsed a bird fly south low over the reservoir which looked remarkably like a diver, but such a brief view and with trees in way meant a mad dash to the southern end in the hope of relocating whatever it was, but I didn't, so that's that.
Sutton Bingham year list 2019 now at 55 species.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 17 Jan

Although a week has passed since my last proper visit to the patch, I did add Tawny Owl to the patch year list on Monday night. Today though I made an afternoon visit that was looking pretty disappointing as all I could manage was around one hundred and fifty Wigeon from the Fishing Lodge before taking a look around West Pool where it all got rather exciting. As I walked along a chestnut brown bird went up from almost under my feet and what followed was half an hour or so of me trying to pin it down, although I was pretty certain I knew what it was. It was occasionally calling and showed very briefly enabling me to confirm identification and then it popped out in to the open, flew back in to cover and sent out a burst of song, my first patch Cetti's Warbler for at least ten years, a real patch mega! The only other birds of note today were five Snipe and a flock of eighteen Lapwing that flew over.
Sutton Bingham year list 2019 now at 52 species.

Sutton Bingham - Thu 10 Jan

So a few short trips to Sutton Bingham at the start of the year failed to produce much other than a drake Gadwall on Jan 2 and a Peregrine on Jan 4 meaning a rather dismal total of just 42 species by the end of the first week.

A little over an hour on patch this afternoon though but again it was hard going. A single Snipe was flushed from the water's edge near the Canoe Club and other than that it was routine fair. So I made for the southern end and a wander around Cotton Bridge. A total of twenty more Snipe were seen plus a pair of Gadwall, a single Wigeon and around twenty Teal. However, star bird without a doubt was a Woodcock that had obviously been disturbed by something and flew straight towards me and over my head before I lost it in the trees. Awesome! Only my third Sutton Bingham Woodcock and the best views I've ever had at the reservoir.
Sutton Bingham year list 2019 now at 49 species.

Sherborne Sewage Works - Mon 7 Jan

Not usually worthy of a separate blog posting my Sherborne patch does occasionally produce something interesting and today I found a Yellow-browed Warbler at the sewage works, even managed to get a few ropey hand-held digi-binned record shots.

My first Yellow-browed Warbler for Sherborne and a welcome addition.