Sightings

Bulbous Buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus) is in full bloom on my front lawn in Standish. This is the first of the big three buttercups of the year to bloom. It can be recognised by the bent-back sepals under the yellow petals. It prefers slightly drier ground to the Meadow Buttercup (Ranunculus acris) which is just starting to flower.

The River Severn continues to rise: at Haw Bridge this morning it was beginning to overtop its banks, causing increased flooding of the meadows along the River Chelt, which is also high and swollen.  As a result water levels at the Coombe Hill and Ashleworth Ham GWT reserves are rising sharply.  At Coombe Hill, the Grundon Hide was just about accessible this morning, water not quite overtopping wellingtons, but it was harder getting out again.  Robinson Crusoe syndrome?

High water levels at Coombe Hill are disastrous for breeding waders, but often brilliant for migrants.  The two Lapwings with chicks still have a full complement: female B (hatched 16 April) still has three chicks, female E (hatched last Friday) still has four tinies; but they are limited to a small and diminishing patch of grassland between the scrape and the willows, which will get smaller and smaller as waters rise.  Will they survive?

The main feature of the morning however was a massive passage of swifts, swallows and terns.  At least a thousand or more Swallows, a couple of hundred each of Sand and House Martin, maybe 30-40 Swifts, moving through to the north east in a constant stream, stopping to feed over the water en route.  Two Common Terns (which have in the past nested in the area) appeared early on, feeding over the water, perching on fence posts to preen and rest.  Then between 09h45 and 11h15, there was a movement of Arctic Terns, very similar to Common Terns and probably the longest bird migrant in the world (they winter in the Antarctic and breed as far north as Finland).  Four flocks, each of 30-40 (a total of 150 birds), not stopping for a second, powered past to the northeast, clearly birds which had come up the estuary and were taking the overland route to The Wash.  A phenomenon often suspected in the past, but rarely observed, and certainly not in such numbers so far inland.

A variety of other passing migrants too: four excited, calling Black-tailed Godwits, at least nine Whimbrel, one Common Sandpiper, one Snipe; one Wheatear, and five Yellow Wagtails.   Plus sundry songbirds along the canal towpath: a Cuckoo, Sedge Warblers, Lesser Whitethroats, a Redstart.

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.