Clevedon Wildlife

Well, everything has changed over the past week. We started the weekend, outside at the cafe, as usual, but with the new seating arrangement, further apart, and with the take away coffee delivered to a pick up point by the staff. Within 2 days we were all effectively confined to quarters except for a daily, solo walk. At least the weather has transformed with 5 days of almost unbroken sunshine albeit with a steadily reducing temperature. Down at Dowlais the lapwings continue to display and a couple have moved from the far edge of the field as it has begun drying out. At this rate I should get a sharp picture before the summer is out. Chiffchaffs and Cettis warblers have also been singing but the only pic I managed was this reed bunting perched out on a reed head in the hedge and facing away so that it did not see me coming. Schedule Back in the garden I had had a cunning plan. Before the shutdown I had gone to a DIY store and bought fence paint. That wa...

Admittedly the cold wind and frequent showers have not completely gone but the sun shone briefly at least once this week. Around Clevedon there has been little more in the way of movement but a few godwits have passed through. First here is one I did see and identify on the still-flooded Dowlais field Plainer back, brighter front and (if seen to feed), the greater tilt , shows this to be a black-tailed. I did shoot off a couple of pictures of the curlew flock passing as they left their high tide roost on the Yeo. When I posted the picture on Twitter people were kind enough to point out that there were 6 black-tailed godwits at the top and a bar-tailed centre bottom ! I could not find any more migrants to get excited about so I spent today (Fri) on the levels with my wife. Several blackcaps were singing and flocks of sand martins passing but these are too small for my skills as a photographer. I concentrated on larger birds and in particular Marsh Harriers and Gre...

This week I was delighted to find my first spring migrants, albeit the sand martin was rushing back South over the yeo at the kind of speed that made it clear it had realised it's mistake. The first wheatear was unusually skittish among the new tide line of the channel view seawall As always it was a male. These seem to migrate a few days before the females in this area every year. The tides have been particularly high this week getting to 14.8 metres at times. It is difficult to demonstrate how high this is in still pics but this shot shows the top of the gate that we use to go along the seawall. Looking towards the Kenn estuary this pillbox is on the grassy bank way above the level of even high tides but here only the top is visible The rarest patch birds this week was a pair of Egyptian geese on the new pool by Blakes pools Only my second patch record I believe and presumably the ones seen by Paul Chapman crossing the M5 a few weeks ago. Down on ...

A brief visit to the Somerset Levels showed how close spring is now. Meanwhile here in Clevedon winter hangs doggedly on with many of the same  waders and  ducks though they must be preparing to leave imminently. At Dowlais water levels remain astonishingly high with the few lapwing standing on the odd higher patch, generally well out of photographic reach. On the shore here and a mile or so along the estuary at the yeo they sometimes get closer however. grey plover grey plover with a d unlin , they really are quite differently sized Finally grey plover with some knot . These are best told by the bill length when they occur together like this The best waders though were undoubtedly the avocets . 17 of these terrific waders are still hanging around and I caught up with them close in (on the far bank of the yeo) as they flew off out to the estuary following high tide A short shopping excursion to Street ( don't worry, I survived by hiding ...