Clevedon Wildlife

A bright day today, at last, which brought with it several signs of spring on a walk around Dowlais and the lower blind yeo. This blackthorn blossom, for instance which could be a site for a rare moth, the small eggar, in a few weeks time. As a reminder not to get too carried away, however, snow was still visible on the Welsh hills opposite my patch The last of the winter migrants, such as redwings, are still hanging on but birds such as the local Canada Geese are now paired up and seeking breeding sites at nearby lakes    Other good sightings in the last couple of wet and windy weeks have been a little egret with an unfeasably large fish  and a fox near the hide at Portbury Wharf. I had the pleasure of an uncommon garden visitor in the form of a grey wagtail early one morning which is a species that I hope will breed in Clevedon pill again this year. With the forecast set for yet more wind and rain its time to retreat back into the dry an

As usual the weather has been a bit dull and wet here in Clevedon for far too long. So plans were hatched for a friend and I to spend a long weekend birding somewhere warmer and drier. We picked the Negev desert with it's promise of strong sunlight, arid stony ground and especially the presence of both Pharaohs eagle owl and Egyptian nightjar in the  last few days. Both of us had missed the owl in several countries and I had now dipped the nightjar at least three times....this time would be different, we told ourselves. To cut a long story short we dipped again .... at two sites.... on two nights. Some birds just seem to evade some people and become what are called bogey birds. What made matters worse, of course was the cold, wind and rain ! A combination of conditions that are perhaps best described as uncommon given the sites we visited. At one point the drizzle was whipped along by a howling gale in a midday temperature of just 5 degrees C. This could be described as u

Despite the ongoing gloomy conditions I was determined to get out of foot and photograph a few of the commoner species here. Birds rarely come close except for the gulls and tame mallards at the bridge on Strode road but I gave it a try. The tides are not esp high this week but still lead to a roosting flock of common, black-headed and herring gulls with a couple of lesser black-backed popping in. This is a typically distant view but the black-headed at least will co-operate better I am no expert on gulls but nothing seemed to resemble this weeks "gull du jour" which is black-tailed.... despite this being the severn estuary and therefore close to the sighting of two days ago. Out of the flock of 50 plus shelduck these two were marginally closer than normal We are at peak winter flooding at dowlais just now and this picture shows the extent it has reached. Unfortunately by the time lapwing start to nest its just the one pool left and unless we are lucky