CHEDDAR RESERVOIR - CHEW VALLEY LAKE (MORTONS HIDE - HERONS GREEN BAY - NUNNERY POINT - VILLICE BAY) - HAM WALL STARLING ROOST
WEATHER: overcast until 3pm then bright and sunny. Temp 1 - 9C
Not everyday is bright and breezy, we don't have wall to wall sunshine all the time and the target birds we set out to see are not always there!! Today was one of those days, I call it a partial dip-day, we did see some targets but not all.
The Starling mini-murmuration over the Farm Guest House was quite spectacular today, we watched from the car park as, only about 2000 starlings, swirled around forming many shapes and lots of noise. It was just after eight when we set off to Cheddar Reservoir, some 15 minutes away.
our very own starling murmuration at the Farm
It was dull and overcast but the air was perfectly still so the water surface of the rservoir was flat and calm. It took us a while to find our target birds as we scanned from the Cheddar Tower area. First we found two Black-necked Grebes and then, much further away we found a single female Greater Scaup. During our search we also found 4 Goosanders, one pair and two males.
Black-necked Grebes
We logged all the usual suspects, Common Coots were in huge numbers, one guy we spoke to was doing a WeBS count for the BTO, he was halfway through his count and the number of Coots stood at 1258 on his 'click-counter'.
We searched for more Scaup without luck and we couldn't find a Common Scoter which had been seen yesterday. We did find Tufted Duck, Shoveler, Wigeon, Gadwall, Pochard, Great Crested Grebes, Cormorants, Common Gull, Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull and Herring Gull. Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits we seen on the embankment.
two male Goosanders at Cheddar Reservoir
From Cheddar we drove through the famous Gorge and over the meddips to Chew Valley. Along the way we stopped to watch Redwings, Fieldfares, Song Thrushnd Common Buzzard. In the same field we saw a hundred or so of Black-headed Gulls with Common Gulls.
It was in West Harptree that we bought our 'pastie-lunch' and then we drove to Morton's Hide to eat it (it was only 10:30am?). As we ate we watched a superb Goldeneye which came very close to the hide. We saw lots of other Goldeneye in the distance but not a single grebe! It was grebes that we were after, especially the Slavonian Grebe and Black-necked Grebes. Both were not in sight!
This female Goldeneye came very close to the Morton Hide
We scanned Heron's Green Bay from the track and still missed the grebes. From the roadside car park at Herons Green we scanned once more for the grebes and dipped on them both! We did see plenty of other birds, mainly ducks but also Grey Herons, Great Egrets, gulls and Canada Geese.
At Blagdon Lake we made our biggest 'dip' of the day! Once again I searched for a RING-NECKED DUCK and for the umteenth time I missed it again. We spent alot of time looking in the bay where this mythical bird had been seen yesterday but all we saw was the usual common duck species. Common Moorhen was added to the day list and we heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming, a first of the year!
Back at Chew Valley Lake we drove to Nunnery Point and walked around to Villice Bay. We had close views of a flock of Lapwings and we saw acouple more Goosander. Villica Bay was disappointing, no small grebes or anything worth writing homa about.
Lawings at Nunnery Point
As we walked back to the car park we flushed a bird from near the shoreline, I traced with my bins and thought it was a Goosander, but when it landed I realised that it was a Red-breasted Merganser, wowza! I didn't expect to see that species here. I did a final scan of Heron's Green Bay and lo and behold I found the SLAVONIAN GREBE, at last, I thought it was going to be another dip.
We made a brief visit to Woodford Lodge and spent sometime searching the orchard along the entrance track. We saw zilch. It was now approching 3pm and although the sky had cleared the light was diminishing. A report of two Glossy Ibis at Ham Wall and the appreance of a Ring-necked Duck at Godwin's Pool encouraged us to return there.
a view of Chaddar Reservoir looking eastward
On arrival at Ham Wall we realised that we had made a mistake, the car park was almost over flowing, we just about got in. People were leaving their cars along the lane, I knew this would be a big problem later when leaving. The RSPB staff were having a fit.
taken at Viewing Point 1 (VP1) at 4:30pm today
We walked to VP1 whilst the huge crowd of people were directed to VP2 to look for the starling roost. We searched for Glossy Ibis and the RN Duck and dipped on both. We left way before the starlings arrived to avoid the mass exodus Despite our early exit the lane was still blocked, it took 15 minutes to leave the car park and then we had to leave in the opposite direction that we wanted to because of a grid locked lane. It was a lucky escape and we got back to the Fram House just before 5pm.