Monday
4th January
Light SW Occasional heavy shower mild - 8 Celsius
The
cycle route is once again an easy one, the main A38 to Tewkesbury
from Worcester. Then the same to Gloucester and along to Slimbridge.
All sounds simple and the trip goes smoothly and steadily enough
despite a light, in the face wind and occasional heavy showers. The
mild weather from last year is continuing and I should count my
blessings.
A
few skylarks in a field near Kempsey are the first bird to add
to the year list. Otherwise the fields are bare and the hedgerows
similar.
Common
gull and shelduck are in a field just before Slimbridge;
both are year ticks. These make the list stand at 72.
Reaching
Slimbridge at 3:00pm I rush down the Zeiss hide. Six people in there
haven't seen the reported grey phalarope but luckily I find it
(modest) and try to point it out to the others birders present. On
Rare Bird Alert and Birdguides the bird is reported as being elusive.
It is easy to see why. It is amongst thick, dark green sedges on our
side of the pool along the far end of the viewable field. This makes
it easy for the rare, very white looking wader to disappear and it
does just that.
Luckily
a buzzard comes low over the area after about fifteen minutes and all
the teal and lapwing take off. The phalarope does likewise and lands
on an area of exposed mud. A lady from Cheslyn Hay, Staffordshire
named Sheila has a telescope and I put her onto what is a lifer for
her. She is so pleased she gives me a kiss on my cheek!
Now
the main bird is safely UTB I can look for other year list birds and
enjoy the massed flocks of lapwings and golden plover nervous
due to the presence of a peregrine. Dunlin also fly
both in front of us and out over the Severn Estuary. A little
egret heads upstream while on the nearby lake there are wigeon
and pintail amongst the masses of teal.
Out
on The Dumbles there are a few Great black backed gulls as
well as around a hundred barnacle geese. I don't know whether these
are genuine wild birds and don't add them to the list.
Off
to the nearby Wild Goose Hostel for the night as Slimbridge closes,
there I meet two superb workers for the WWT, Kane and Ed. Ed's eyes
sparkle as he describes his job of monitoring common scoter in
Scotland. Kane later asks if he can both donate some money to the WWT
on my behalf and sponsor me also!
The
Green Year list now stands at 79.
41.87
miles 994 elevation up 1014 elevation down
No comments:
Post a Comment