Sightings

Main sighting: Common gull

Common gull among hundreds of BHGs; few black tailed godwits, 3 curlews, 42 oystercatchers; many dunlin; 2 common sandpipers; 2 kestrels (pair, regular at the moment); 2 buzzards (one sending the other away from its patch); 2 little egrets, 2 herons; mallards, teal, shelducks (several young) – good visit!

Main sighting: Kingfisher

Kingfisher at Cotland pool and Tawny owl at Manorside.

Main sighting: Whimbrel

2-Whimbrels on the shore line,3-Stock Doves,1f-Marsh Harrier,3-Little Ringed Plovers all fledged juveniles,206+Black’wits,1-Great White Egret,2-Kestrels,1-Yellow Wagtail,another birder saw a small flock of them around the cattle.10h30-12h35

Main sighting: Yellow-legged Gull

A big, probably male, adult yellow-legged gull on the reservoir today, with some structural characters suggesting Caspian (especially the head and bill shape) but on detailed plumage characters seen on photos confirmed as a yellow-legged.

Main sighting: Green Sandpiper

2 Green Sandpiper, Great White Egret this am

Main sighting: Hobby, Barn Owl

Hobby hunting Swallows over the riverside meadows in the morning. Also a ghostly Barn Owl hunting in the same area after dusk.

Main sighting: Great white egret

Great white egret and 1 Mediterranean Gull just feeding just other side of second Severn crossing. Then flew off east. Also wall butterfly on top of marshal sudbrook my first here

Main sighting: Night jar

1930 hrs hunting insects over golf course

Main sighting: Sparrowhawk

Female sparrowhawk over my garden 5.30pm

Main sighting: Little Egret

Four Little Egrets at a site where I’d previously only ever seen one (with the possibility of two once); Yellow and Pied Wagtail young; Sand Martin colony still active.

Main sighting: 3 kestrels

3 kestrels quartering the seawall midday 23/7; successful fledging presumably. Redshanks starting to gather in numbers again; hundreds of BHGs; shelducks and mallards; 20 oystercatchers; 3 curlews; 1 little egret.

Main sighting: Great white egret

0615-1000hrs, 46 species seen, of note were 4 chiffchaffs, 1 cettis, 1 willow warbler in sub-song, 1 reed warbler (contact call), pheasant and skylark. Redshank platform – 5 swallows, 15 swifts, 55 lapwing, 5 ringed plover, 2 little egrets, green woodpecker yaffling, 3 cormorants over. Snipe platform – 1 heron, 10 mute swans, 65 mallards. Seawall – good movement of sand martins (excess of 200 birds) aerial feeding, 7 more swift, 5 curlew, 1 whimbrel, 1 black-tailed godwit on the mud, 5 yellow wagtails, 42 greylags coming in. Marsh platform – 3 more black-tailed godwits feeding, 2 teal, 14 gadwall, 1 common snipe, 5 little ringed plovers (3 juvs and 2 adults), kestrel hovering, great white egret flew in but soon went back over the Pill area, linnets and a little grebe, Lapwing platform – 4 more yellow wagtails amongst the cow herd, starling, and at 0930 a female sparrowhawk flew past low with what looked to possibly be a ringed plover in her talons. Other: meadow browns, gatekeepers (good numbers now), 1 painted lady, Essex skipper, ruddy darter, female four-spot chaser and 1 speckled wood.