Another great day in Somerset, it wasn't as bright but also not dull. It stayed dry all day but remained very cold throughout.
66 SPECIES RECORDED TODAY
We took and early breakfast and set off at 8am just at was getting light. The short trip to Catcott Low was uneventful but we could see that almost everywhere was frozen over. From the hide we could see very birds, most of the ducks had gone and those that were left huddled in the middle of the reserve where the water had not frozen. A few Mute swans and 3 Whooper Swans were making the most of it and it was very comical to see a Mute swan land on the ice. In the distance we could see a few Buzzards, Kestrel and a very unusual sighting of a Goshawk which commenced its flight courtship display, how extraordinary, the bird flapped about in circles and occasionally stoop dived. It also chased off a peregrine which looked tiny next to the Goshawk. A Barn Owl made a brief appearance as it flew into a nest box across the reserve from us.
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| frozen water meadow - taken from Catcott Hide |
From catcott we drove straight to Steart Point Reserve near Bridgewater. We set off from the car towards the banks of the river Parrott where a Temminck's Stint has been found wintering there, the bird has been very elusive and extremely hard to find. However, today it was easy, this was probably just to the heavy frost. the grass meadows were rock hard and so the bird had ventured into the open scrapes where the major work was being undertaken and the ground was softer with more invertebrate life. It feed happily in to open with 10 Redshanks, great result for us.
Along the river the muddy banks became exposed as the tide went out, many waders came to feed there. we saw Avocet, Redshank, Grey Plover, Dunlin, Turnstone and Curlew. back in the meadows we watched large numbers of Lapwing with fewer Golden plover and a nice flock of Stock Doves. There was a huge mixed flock of finches and the same number of linnets. A Merlin was found sitting on a post.
We walked back to the car park and then onto a path that led us along the coastal side of the reserve overlooking Bridgewater bay. During the walk we found Great Spotted Woodpecker and a hundreds of Shelduck and thousands of waders - they were all a bit distant but the light was very good. As we neared the hides a Jack Snipe flew up from the grass and quick dropped down again over a grassy bank, we clambered over the bank but failed to find the snipe again, nevertheless it was another great find. A few meadow Pipits flitted about and small flocks of Skylarks were seen throughout the morning.
From the hides we had good views of Grey Plover, Red Knot, Dunlin, Redshank and Curlew. More distant views were had of Oystercatcher, Teal, Wigeon, Canada Goose, Grey heron and Little Egret.
We had walked a long way and it was very cold so we decided to jump back into the bus and drive to Highbridge to see another rarity. We quickly found Apex Park and as soon as we got out of the bus we found our target bird, the Glaucous Gull. A 1st winter bird which showed down to 1 meter, it was literally walking around our feet, a little food went a long way to encouraging the bird closer.
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| GLAUCOUS GULL AT HIGHBRIDGE TODAY |
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| THIS BIRD LOOKED SLUGGISH AND OFTEN CLOSED ITS EYES, IT HAD A SLIGHT LIMP TOO! NOT WELL AND PROBABLY WON'T BE AROUND MUCH LONGER |
We soon set off back to the Levels arriving back at Greylake at 3:30pm. The light was beginning to fade as we watched Reed Buntings in the car park so we quickly made our way to the hide. From there we watched Peregrine Falcons, many Buzzards, Common Snipe, hundreds of Teal and Wigeon and lots of Lapwing. Just before e left a flock 16 Common Cranes flew over the hide making a lot of racket.
We called it day after that and returned to our guest house tired but happy with our day.
ADDITIONS TO THE NEW YEAR LIST
115. Goshawk
116. Temminck's Stint
117. Skylark
118. Stock Dove
119. Avocet
120. Grey Plover
121. Sanderling
122. Knot
123. Jack Snipe
124. Glaucous Gull
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