Saturday 08 February – Uphill / Axe Estuary

 The horrendous forecast of gales and heavy rain for Saturday obviously put off many people attending what turned out to be a really good walk, so it was six hardy souls who set off. We only had one short shower and the sun was out for most of the morning! We took the telescopes to look over the beach at Brean Down. High tide was at 13:00 so at 09:30 the birds were rather scattered but we saw a large flock of Lapwing, some Oystercatchers along the tideline along with Redshank, Dunlin and a few Curlews. In the marshy grass opposite were five Grey Herons standing like sentinels. A few Teal, Wigeon and Mallards were present. We then walked up past the quarry in the local nature reserve. In the lake by the boatyard we found three Dabchicks. From here we walked through the AWT reserve at Walborough adding the usual Robin, Goldfinch and Chaffinch. We also listened to a Goldcrest in the ivy but could not see it. Two Chaffinches were singing, a Reed Bunting called and Skylarks sang as we drank our coffee. There was little to be seen at the sewage works but from the sea wall we saw Snipe and Stonechat. On the return journey we had excellent views of a Kestrel hovering and a lovely rainbow. We should not overlook the masses of Corvids and Woodpigeon in a stubble field. In all we managed a list of 42 species.