SOMERSET TOUR 2 – FEB 4TH 2011

DAY 4 – BRIDGEWATER BAY FROM STEART POINT

The changeable weather continued, today we had strong winds with a dull overcast sky, a complete contrast to yesterday’s cloudless, sunny, day. We packed our cases and set off at 9am for Bridgewater Bay, the journey took about 40 minutes and was uneventful.
At Steart we stopped just before the village to look over the flood meadows, in very windy conditions we located the small flock of Pink-footed Geese (14) that had been there for the last few days. It was a very good start and a very good species for Somerset.
We parked in the village and took the coastal path, the tide was half way out, so many birds were just dots in the distance. We identified Curlew, Common Shelduck, Bar-tailed Godwit and Dunlin. The only passerines we noted were Chaffinch, Linnet and a small flock of Skylarks. Just before we went into the hides we found a female Merlin perched on the wind-swept grassy bank. From the hide we saw a large flock of Knot, also fewer numbers of Grey Plover, Ringed Plover and a couple more Bar-tailed Godwits.
We also found (3) Oystercatchers, several Great black-backed Gull, a flock of Wigeon, some Cormorants, a good sized flock of Curlews (50+) and not much else. We headed back fighting strong head wind and we were happy to get back to the bus for shelter. It was now 1pm so we decided to call it day and head for the motorway where we had left the cars, on the way back we stopped to look at a couple of Little Egrets which were the last birds recorded on the trip.