A cold, dry morning saw 30 members gather at the Salthouse car park. A Jay was flitting around the play area with two Pied Wagtails and, from the vantage points on Poet’s Walk, Oystercatchers and Redshanks were quickly picked out. Teal, Dunlin, Common Sandpiper, Shelduck and beautifully camouflaged Turnstones put in an appearance on the mud and rocks. Two Little…
Month: November 2013
Saturday 23 November – Oldbury Power Station
After a cold and misty start, 17 birdwatchers met for what turned out to be a very enjoyable morning in brilliant sunshine. Although good numbers of estuary birds, such as Teal, Wigeon and Dunlin were seen, most interest was generated by the variety and number of passerines around the site. These included two Stonechats, a late Chiffchaff and singles of…
Tuesday 19 November – Cheddar Reservoir
It was a brilliantly sunny morning and there was still a lot of very colourful leaves on some trees, but the blustery northwest wind made the 18 members glad they had (mostly!) come clad in cold weather gear. The decision to make this a “reservoir only” walk was surely the right one – standing water and mud could be clearly…
Tuesday 12 November – Hengrove Mounds and Manor Woods NR.
It was a lovely sunny November day when 13 of us met at the somewhat unlikely venue of the Cineworld car park at Hengrove! The more cynical of us were soon amazed as Margaret led us behind the cinema into the fascinating oasis of the Mounds. This is a former landfill site which has been transformed into a wonderful wild…
Sunday 10 November – Coombe Hill Meadows Nature Reserve, Glos
After some recent foul weather, the morning gave way to clear skies and warm sunshine. Seven members met with Mike Smart, local birder and bird surveyor for this part of Gloucestershire. Mike introduced us to the reserve and its past life as a working canal in the late 1800s, delivering coal to Cheltenham. Here at Coombe Hill Meadows the coal…
Tuesday 05 November – Chew Valley Lake
Due to the previous rain and the state of the fields adjacent to the River Chew it was decided to change the usual walk. So, on a dry morning, part overcast, part sunny, 29 members ambled around the edge of the lake until we reached the new Bittern Hide which is a great improvement on the original one. On the…
Saturday 02 November – Blagdon Lake
The morning’s field meeting was very well attended and we got off to a great start with excellent views of two adult Yellow-legged Gulls at the Lodge. Then, and before we’d even started the walk, we saw an extremely late juvenile Swallow fly over (it’s the latest date I have in my lake database by some margin with the previous…