24th Nov 2024

The Velvet Scoters were last seen on Tuesday and after a 13 day visit they have gone!

The rest of the week was back to, fairly mundane, normality. John saw a Little Egret and 3 Little Grebes on Wednesday and there was a Chiffchaff on Friday. Three Little Grebes is actually notable for the reservoir, but frequency of sightings has increased quite rapidly in recent years.

Courtesy and copyright of Dave Fuller

17th Nov 2024: Velvet Scoters still

The 2 Velvet Scoters remained this week, up to late morning today at least. It turns out that there wasn't any sailing last Sunday and there wasn't any today either. They could leave any day but for now they seem to be quite happy here.

There were 2 Yellowhammer and a Lapwing on Wednesday morning. John had 2 Wigeon, a Redpoll, and 3 Lapwing Thursday morning and up the valley saw a Stonechat and 13 Snipe. Friday afternoon there was a adult female Pochard and Chiffchaff.

This morning 2 Ravens, a Little Egret and 2 Egyptian Geese flew over and there was at least 2 Siskins around. 

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

10th Nov 2024: VELVET SCOTERS and GLOSSY IBIS!!

It has been an incredible, almost unbelievable, week on patch with two entirely new birds for the site. Of which one is a first and one is a second (?) for the B.O.S. recording area. On top of a very good supporting cast, which would have made it a great week anyway.

It kicked off on Wednesday technically, but I didn't know about that until Friday, with regular bird-watching dog walker John Beak seeing and adult drake Common Scoter. The first of several new birds for the year seen this week.

News broke on Thursday afternoon of 2 VELVET SCOTERS! Initially seen by Keith Freshwater, he posted a photo of one of the birds on the local whatsapp group to confirm the ID and then revealed that there were 2 of them. A lot of people went to see them that afternoon and they were still present the next day. Surprisingly they were present up to the end of the week, with even the sailing (if there was any today?) not flushing them away. They have been seen flying around the reservoir but otherwise actually seem quite settled in.

On Friday morning I had our first Brambling of the year fly over. Saturday morning Steve Sansom found two Goldeneye on the reservoir and that afternoon Adam Hartley saw our first Dunlin of the year. Goldeneye is now a really good bird for the site and, for context, we've had as many (maybe more) records of Common Scoter in the 10 years or so. It has been a really poor year for waders too, so the addition of Dunlin is very welcome.

This morning I had another Hawfinch over calling c.10-12 times and not very high, which made me wonder if it had actually roosted on or near to site and was just setting off again. In the afternoon I was out for a walk with a friend, with no optics or camera, and just so happened to end up going round the reservoir. He asked me if one of the birds flying over was a Cormorant and I looked up to see a GLOSSY IBIS! Panic set in as I tried to take some phone photos of it and they were terrible. Thankfully, with other birders on site for the Velvet Scoters, some of them had seen it too and Duncan Dine managed to get a photo of it.

Other birds seen this week were a good amount (for here) of more common wildfowl, including 3 Shoveler, up to 5 Wigeon, 3 Teal, 2 Pochard, and 178 Greylag Geese. There was also a Snipe one morning, more Lapwing, another Redpoll one morning and up to 3-4 Chiffchaffs around.

Oh, and the Snow Goose was still around too.

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

Courtesy and copyright of Adam Hartley

Courtesy and copyright of Duncan Dine

3rd Nov 2024

The Snow Goose was still present this week, seen on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and numbers of Greylags are building up again with 72 seen on Saturday. Other wildfowl of note seen today by Clive were 1 each of Teal and Wigeon and 2 Gadwall. 

A massive number (for here) of 86 Cormorant were present on Saturday morning, with most only present for a brief time before dispersing. Realistically there was likely more with smaller numbers coming and going throughout the morning. The ringed bird (084) was still present. 

Small numbers of 1-3 Lapwings have still been around and Clive saw 24 this morning. 

A ringed Black-headed Gull (EMK1) was recorded again Saturday morning. One from the Netherlands that we have seen here a few times over the last couple of years.

Numbers of Redwings have been building up with more birds now settled in and c.45-50 birds left roosts early Thursday morning. Our first Fieldfares of the Autumn were this week too, with 13 on Saturday and 6 today. However, there seems to be less than usual, especially flocks flying overhead on migration, as we'd normally have recorded hundreds by now. A Mistle Thrush was also seen on Tuesday.

A Stonechat was seen on Friday. A few Siskins seem settled in now and a single Redpoll has been seen twice this week. The number of Chaffinches is clearly bolstered by migratory birds too.