ARRIVAL IN YEOVIL - YEOVIL NINE SPRINGS COUNTRY PARK - CATCOTT LOWS RSPB RESERVE
WEATHER: horrendous! Windy, very dull and lots of rain.
Not a great start to the New Year, but a good one considering the weather
I spent a couple of hours watching the garden bird feeders and the activity in the meadow from the comfort of my living room window. I listed 14 species in the garden and another 4 in the meadow.
Blue, Great and Coal Tits were taking sunflower hearts by the ton, you could see the level in the feeder going down by the minute. Goldfinches and Chaffinches joined them but it was later on before the Robin showed up. On the lawn I had Crows, Magpies, Blackbirds, Pheasants and more Chaffinches.
Flying over or in the top of the sycamore trees, I saw jackdaw, Rook and Wood Pigeon. A single Little Egret fed in the meadow with another 50+ Wood Pigeons. Redwings and Blackbirds flew down from the hedgerow to forage on the muddy ground which was churned up by the seven Cows grazing the sodden grass.
At 1:30pm I drove the short distance to Yeovil Junction Station to collect my group, they were arriving from London to enjoy a few days of Somerset weather. It was pouring down when they arrived. One of the group had missed the train and would be arriving one hour later, so we decided to visit Yeovil Nine Springs Country Park for an hour or so.
It rained all the time we were in the park but we did see a few species. Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tits went onto the list, as did Chaffinch, Crow, Wood Pigeon and Jackdaw. On the lake and the smaller ponds we found Mallard, Little Grebe, Moorhen and at least three pairs of Mandarin Ducks.
After collecting Late Kate from the station and downing a hot drink at Nine Springs Café we set off for the levels, noting Common Buzzard along the way and dozens of Rooks.
It was practically dark and approaching 4pm when we got to the hide at Catcott Lows RSPB Reserve, but it wasn’t a waste of time. Along the lane leading from Catcott Village a Merlin flew right across the road in front of the bus, wowza! Then, as we got down off the minibus we saw a lot of ducks in the sky as a Marsh Harrier drifted over them.
Great White Egret at Catcott
The rain had finally eased off and we spotted a Barn Owl quartering a field to our left, the owl stayed in view for a few minutes before gliding out of sight, what a bonus that was! Also from the hide we saw hundreds of Wigeon and Shoveler and a few Pintail and Teal. We also listed Mute Swan, Great Egret (4), Lapwing, Greylag Goose and a Gadwall.
Wigeon in the rain at Catcott
The rain returned with a vengeance, we watched a few Common Snipe right in front of the hide before we called it a day and set off for our hotel which was 10 minutes away.