gnsadmin

The River Severn was very high at Haw Bridge (10.70m) this morning, almost bursting its banks.  So the River Chelt, also unusually high, can’t discharge into the Severn and is back-flooding the Coombe Hill and Leigh Meadows.  Waters are much higher than of late at Coombe Hill; the Grundon Hide was comfortably accessible (as long as you were wearing wellingtons – ankle deep) this morning, but levels will almost certainly rise some more in the next day or two.  Both the islands in the scrapes are under water.

Five Lapwings, the Oystercatcher and the Redshank have had their nests submerged, but at least two pairs of Lapwings have got their chicks (respectively families of four tinies and three aged two weeks) on to slightly higher ground round the edges of the scrapes; will they survive further rises in water level?  Another fifteen Lapwings, two Oystercatchers, at least one Redshank and three Curlews were still present, and may well try to nest again when the waters recede; among migrant waders a Common Sandpiper and at least ten Whimbrel.  Four Swifts flew over, just returned from Africa.  Two pairs of Gadwall present and at least one Shelduck.

Other observers report a possible singing Iberian Chiffchaff (which would if confirmed by a great rarity) along the canal bank; and a Whinchat (not very common in spring) and several Yellow Wagtails.

Always a chance of something unusual in these conditions.

At Ashleworth, water levels are also higher, but the hides along the road are easily accessible; Lapwing are displaying again after losing their eggs to the floodwater, the incubating Mute Swan is preparing to get her feet wet.

On Saturday 21st April a meeting was held at New Fancy for the Wildlife Watch group to see if we could see any adders or other reptiles. A lovely male adder was spotted and photographed. After the meeting, just down the road, a family of Wild Boar was seen and photographed calmly eating their way through the undergrowth.

The much-needed April showers continue, and make things more interesting at Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Coombe Hill Meadows reserve.  Slight rises in water levels on the pools, but ground nesting birds so far coping well: one Lapwing brooding three chicks, now eleven days old, at least five more Lapwings still incubating eggs, plus a pair each of Oystercatchers and Redshanks, and several Curlews.

A lot more Whitethroats along the canal, at least five singing in the rain, plus two recently arrived Lesser Whitethroats, and two SedgeWarblers, with a Cuckoo for good measure.

The rain seemed to have brought in some passing migrant waders, bound for breeding grounds much further north, and stopping off for wash and brush-up: one Little Ringed Plover, two Ringed Plovers (nice to see these two similar species together), ten Dunlin, three Common Sandpipers and a very noisy, agitated Black-tailed Godwit (in breeding plumage but unringed), flying round shouting “Grutto, Grutto” (its name in Dutch, derived from the breeding call, though this one was more likely to be going to Iceland, so was probably saying the Icelandic equivalent, not given in most identification books); it upset the on-guard male Lapwings which tried to chase it off.  At least five Whimbrels, also likely to be Iceland bound.  Graham Smith reported a female Marsh Harrier yesterday, which also caused extreme perturbation among the Lapwings.

Mike Smart

Recently we have had several sightings of Muntjac Deer at Caudle Green. They used to stay lower down in the valley but now they come up to the top. They graze in our garden and drink from the pond.

On The Leigh and Cobney Meadows: ditches mainly dry despite recent rain, and no standing water on the fields; a nice show of Lady’s Smock in many of the meadows: one pair each of Mute Swan and Canada Goose nesting on a pond; at least five Curlews but no Lapwings.  Among summer visitors a really good show of Redstarts with at least eight singing males, about ten singing Blackcaps, five Chiffchaffs, three Willow Warblers, but no sign of Whitethroat or Lesser Whitethroat; only one or two Reed Buntings and no song.

On the Handkerchief Pool another pair of nesting Mute Swans.  At Wainlodes about 30 Mallard on a pond, with one not very small duckling, the first I have seen this year.  At Haw Bridge, the Severn level is a bit higher after recent rain: three Common Sandpipers on the beach and four Sand Martins.

First ringing session of the season at Ashleworth Ham this morning, in surprisingly frosty and misty conditions, the sun not breaking through the mist over river and meadows until after ten.  The mist nets (to give them their full name) were not that effective in these conditions, since they were soon covered with frost, and the birds could see them; so only 16 birds were caught, half of them residents that had already been ringed in previous years (two Wrens, a Blue Tit, a Bullfinch and four Reed Buntings) but also a Willow Warbler; many of the birds (notably Reed Buntings) already in breeding condition, with brood patches forming.

Among birds seen and heard on the reserve, the Mute Swans are nest-building right in front of the hide, two Coot, three Lapwings, three Curlews bubbling, two Great Spotted Woodpeckers drumming, one Cuckoo singing briefly, a couple of Swallows and three Sand Martins heading north, two Redstarts (the first of the year),  a late Fieldfare; plus at least two Blackcaps, three Willow Warblers and three Chiffchaffs, all singing.

Mike Smart, David Anderson and Mervyn Greening

The section of the canal between the Wharf and the Grundon Hide produced a good selection of invertebrates this morning, including several Orange-tip butterflies. Smaller species included leaf mines of Celypha woodiana on Mistletoe, galls of the mite Cecidophyes rouhollahi in Goosegrass and a number of Iris Flea Beetles (Aphthona nonstriata) .   Celypha woodiana is something of a Gloucestershire speciality  and is a BAP species.

Despite the fine weather in March, summer migrant birds seem to have been late in arriving in the Severn Vale: plenty of singing Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps since mid-March, but these were likely to have been birds that had wintered, using the resources provided by bird tables in hard weather, and bursting into song as soon as the weather improved.  But unusually no Swallows, very few Sand Martins (and these were all seen by others!), not a Willow Warbler anywhere.

So it was something of a surprise to hear, on the morning of Saturday 7 April, near The Leigh, the unmistakeable sound of a calling Cuckoo.  John Wiltshire and I looked at one another and couldn’t believe our ears, given that even the most optimistic ornithologists reckon that 14 April is an average first date for singing Cuckoos in the Vale.  Even more astonishing, I had hardly got over the surprise, when Mark Grieve rang me on my mobile phone to say that he was just back from a visit to Ashleworth, where he had heard…. a callling Cuckoo.  Mr Editor, may I venture to suggest that Cuckoos are remarkably early this year?

A Woodpigeon has been very obviously building in a nest in a dense 10ft cypress tree visible from the front window. Today, at lunchtime, a Magpie shot in half way up the tree at about the level of the pigeon nest, at which point a female Blackbird exited from the top. The Magpie flew off with something from near the top of the tree, was back within a minute and emerged with a Blackbird egg which it cached in a dip in the lawn at the foot of the tree concealing it with a dead beech leaf, then flew back into the tree and flew off with a pigeon egg, all within a couple of minutes. I had not known about the Blackbird nest. Did the Magpie know it was there, or was it just its good luck that its attack on the well-advertised pigeon nest flushed another species? We hunted for the cached egg and and unfortunately managed to stand on it.  However, we re-covered it, and at dusk I checked the cache site and only broken shell remained.