Sightings

Dull misty day; still some winter visitors about (ducks, Fieldfares and Redwing)s and some signs of spring (displaying waders, first Chiffchaff song in the Severn Hams area, Skylarks and Reed Buntings settling in).  River Severn very low, despite high current tide cycle (lots of cars with elver nets on the roof in the evenings).

Coombe Hill. Water levels continuing to drop very gradually: 12 Shelduck; 205 grazing Wigeon; 8 Gadwall; 60 Teal; 31 Shoveler; 2 Grey Herons.  No doubt the same two Oystercatchers, looking like a pair; 16 Lapwings including several  beginning courtship display quite actively; only four Curlews left, most of those present over the last ten days have probably moved on to breeding grounds further north (as far as Finland); one Redshank; one Snipe; two or three drumming woodpeckers, all turning out to be Great Spotted.  Short burst of song from one Chiffchaff; three Skylarks singing, four singing Reed Buntings, one singing Yellowhammer; flock of 50 Fieldfares.

Leigh Meadows: one territorial Curlew, one singing Goldcrest.

Ashleworth Ham: 187 Wigeon, 63 Teal, 13 Shoveler, 6 Gadwall, 76 Lapwings, 5 Snipe, 1 Peregrine on the pylons.

The Leigh village: big flock of 300 Fieldfares and 50 Redwings on maize stubble: no doubt migrants returning north.

The Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) is a national survey organised by the British Trust for Ornithology.  Volunteer observers count water birds once a month at wetlands over the British Isles (and indeed counts are carried out all over the world), to produce a picture of water bird numbers, and the sites they use.  Among the sites covered in Gloucestershire are three wetlands in the Severn Vale (the GWT reserves at Coombe Hill and Ashleworth Ham) and Leigh and Cobney Meadows, along the River Chelt upstream of Wainlodes.

Counts carried out today produced the following results.

–  At Coombe Hill:  3 Mute Swans, 33 Canada Geese, 12 Shelduck, 220 Wigeon, 4 Gadwall, 28 Teal, 37 Mallard, 58 Shoveler (one of the biggest counts of the winter for this species), 10 Coot, 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Oystercatchers, 19 Lapwings, 9 Curlews, at least 6 Reed Buntings, 1 Yellowhammer.  (Counts made by Les Brown and David Anderson).

– At Leigh/Cobney Meadows: 30 Mute Swans (the wintering flock still grazing), 1 Shelduck, 15 Mallard, 35 Wigeon, 2 Grey Herons, 4 Stock Doves, 2 Meadow Pipits, 2 Fieldfares. (Count made by Mike Smart).

– At Ashleworth Ham, after a misty start: 2 pairs of resident Mutes (plus some of the swans that were grazing at Leigh Meadows, which had roosted at Ashleworth before flying across the river); 15 Canada Geese; 210 Wigeon, 4 Gadwall, 120 Teal, 10 Mallard, 20 Shoveler, 4 Pintail, 2 Peregrines on the pylons, 28 Coot, 180 Lapwings (a big excited flock, no doubt mainly migrants), 20 Snipe, 1 Curlew, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming in Meerend Thicket, 30 Fieldfares, 10 Redwings, 1 Goldcrest singing in Meerend Thicket, at least six singing Reed Buntings (relatively recent arrivals, and a sign of spring).  (Count made by Les Brown and Mike Smart).

A full moon in mid March means big high tides on the Severn, and this morning’s tide (predicted as 9.6 m at Sharpness at 0832) was very much in the tradition.  Despite the strongish westerly wind, however, the high tide on the Dumbles fell far short of coming onto the Dumbles proper, no doubt because the amount of fresh water flowing down the river was pretty low.  Continued departure of wintering water birds: only 6 Bewick’s left, with 78 White-fronted Geese.  Waders numbers also seemed to have dropped: at high tide 5 winter plumage Grey Plover, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, only about 20 Curlews (no rings), 55 Dunlin on the edge of the Dumbles, with a Peregrine in attendance.  In front of the Zeiss hide 35 Black-tailed Godwits (feeding
deep in the water, so no colour rings visible).  An adult Black-headed Gull on the South Lake with a Cotswold Water Park ring 2N21 (white ring with black letters, reading up on the left leg).  Burst of song from a Chiffchaff in the walk to the Holden Tower, and a Cetti’s Warbler in song nearby.

Note: Information from the ringer shows that the ringed Black-headed Gull was not from the Cotswold Water Park, but was a bird originally ringed as a chick at Slimbridge in June 2009. seen three times between September and December 2010 at the Gloucester Landfill site.  It was not seen again until March 2012 at Slimbridge, where it has probably returned to breed for the first time this year.

For the last couple of weeks, signs of spring have begun to show at the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s reserve at Coombe Hill in the Severn Vale between Gloucester and Tewkesbury.  In particular Curlews have returned: they nest in the surrounding meadows, but have been absent in the winter, which they spend on the estuary.  Twenty to thirty Curlews have regularly been seen by day since late February, a lot more than would stay to breed.  It is suspected that these are migrant birds, en route from the estuary to breeding grounds in continetnal Europe.  One Curlew ringed on the estuary had already appeared in the Netherlands in late February, so I went for a look at dusk, when the birds often gather around the scrapes and are easier to see.  Sure enough there were 22 adult Curlews there, occasionally resting on the islands in the scrape, occasionally going to feed in the soft earth of the meadows round about, but with very little of the lovely bubbling breeding call – all signs that they were indeed passage birds staying fro a short stopover; sadly, no sign of colour-ringed birds!

Also present were a couple of Oystercatchers, which looked like a breeding pair.  And a very noisy group of 19 Shelducks, most of them paired off, and displaying at one another as if they might in the coming months be going to nest somewhere in the vicinity.

Evening visits often bring out something different: an interesting variation on the usual daytime visits.  No owls though; where have all the Little Owls gone, that used to be such a feature of the pollarded willows?

Mike Smart

Saw my first beefly of the year today in Standish.

On 24th February, and as the weather forecast was favourable, we decided to visit the Forest of Dean to see if any adders were out basking in the sunshine. Even though late February is early, we had seen them out at the same time in 2011, but we were unlucky, and didn’t see any. Even so, the morning at New Fancy, gave us splendid views of Goshawk, with one of the three sighted flying towards us at the Viewpoint so that the distinguishing features were clearly visible, even through binoculars! The best views we have ever had – a wonderful sight!

The afternoon took us to the new ponds at Laymoor Quag to look for frogspawn and any frog activity. We approached one of the ponds and could hear frogs croaking, but on our approach they all disappeared. We sat very quietly on a couple of convenient tree-stumps to await events, and counted 25 clumps of spawn; and after quite a while one frog appeared, then another, and another, until there were 35 blue-throated males purring and chasing one another around the pond. It was an absolutely magical sight, just sitting and watching them, and made one glad to be alive!

There are 22 species of wild flowers in bloom in my garden in Standish. About half are opportunist annual veg garden weeds such as Shepherd’s Purse; then there are the hang-overs from last summer such as Hogweed, Herb Robert, Bramble and Campion; but there are also the harbingers of spring, Whitlowgrass and Sweet Violet. This unusual combination must be due to the mild weather so far this winter.

Saw two Red Kites pottering around over a steep wooded valley and farmland near Eastleach, sometimes interacting with each other, sometimes patrolling for food, sometimes being hassled by corvids.

A wonderful warm cloudless autumn day. One rather tatty Red Admiral butterfly seen at Dayhouse Quarry, Tidenham

A Song Thrush has been singing heartily today. Repeats, “Pretty Dick” – the lot. First time I’ve heard this territorial song in months.