JAN 4TH 2013 - UK NEW YEAR LIST

SEVERNSIDE, AUST WARTH AT BRISTOL & SLIMBRIDGE - WILDFOWL AND WETLANDS

59 SPECIES RECORDED - NEW YEAR’S LIST NOW STANDS AT  69

A full day out at last! I set off at 6:30am in the dark and headed towards Bristol where I had arranged to meet my good friend Richard for a day out birding. It was just getting light when I arrived; it was raining as expected and quite dull.

Bewick Swan

After a short walk along the shore of the River Severn I met up with Richard and began birding in earnest. It brightened up and stopped raining but a bitter westerly wind was coming face-on as we looked over the river.

We soon began listing species: Turnstone (32), Curlew (22), Dunlin (2), Oystercatcher (5), Shelduck, and lots of gulls, a few finches – Linnet, Goldfinch, and Greenfinch.

Lapwing

After we got very cold we drove round to the open meadows near to Aust Warth. We then spent 2 hours walking through boggy grass and very muddy footpaths where yours truly took his first tumble of the year – it didn’t take me long did it?

There weren’t many birds out on these marshes even though the tide had come in – we found more Dunlin, Redshank, Lapwings, Mute Swans, Shelducks and listed all of the 5 common gull species. A large flock of Eurasian Curlews sat on the shoreline. A solitary Peregrine Falcon sat on the grass, either contemplating a meal or just resting after one.

Teal & Common Pochard

Next we drove up to Slimbridge where spent the rest of the day looking out over the flood meadows from the superb hides found there. A good list of species was soon in the note book, it wasn’t the variety of species but the sheer numbers that was so impressive. Golden Plovers numbered in the thousands, as did Lapwing and there were hundreds of Teal, Wigeon, Common Pochard, Tufted Duck, Pintail, Shoveler, Canada Geese, White-fronted Geese, Bewick Swans and Shelduck. Wader numbers were not as high but we did see plenty of Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwits, Curlew, Ruff and Redshank (40+). 

Smaller passerines at the bird feeders added a few new species to the list – a couple of male Bullfinches were very nice, also Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Robin, Dunnock and a surprising bird on the nut feeder was a Jackdaw!

ADDITIONS TO NEW YEAR LIST

35. Gt Black-backed Gull 

36. Black-headed Gull

37. Dunlin

38. Ruddy Turnstone

39. Pied Wagtail

40. Eurasian Curlew

41.Common Shelduck

42. Oystercatcher

43.  Eurasian Wigeon

44. Eurasian Linnet

45. Greenfinch

46.  Eurasian Teal

47. Peregrine Falcon

48. Canada Goose

49. Meadow Pipit

50  Mallard

51. Common Gull

52. Tufted Duck

53. Lesser Black-backed Gull

54. Black-tailed Godwit

55. European Moorhen

56. Eurasian Coot

57. Golden Plover

58. Northern Shoveler

59. Common Pochard

      60. Greylag Goose

        61. Ruff

        62.  Grey Heron

        63. Bewick Swan

      64.  Redshank

      65.  White-fronted Goose

      66.  Northern Pintail

      67.  Great Cormorant

      68.  Bullfinch

      69.  Little Egret