Trip reports
Field Trip to Winspit 17th September
Saturday, 17 September 2011
Ten members turned out despite the stormy weather forecast and we were all pleased that we did as we had a dry and sunny morning spent in Winspit valley with a short sea-watch from the ledges at midday. I decided that due to the strong winds with up to near gale force gusts that it would be too risky to walk along the coast path as there are places where the path is only a few feet from the edge. We all agreed that this was a sensible decision.
In the valley our best finds were a Garden Warbler and two Spotted Flycatchers with a few Wheatears adorning the hillsides. The usual Grey Wagtail around the pumping station was very obliging and we had excellent views of the many Yellowhammers topping the bushes throughout. Flocks of Goldfinches and House Sparrows were prevalent and added to the rather entertaining morning. A persistent Crow dive-bombing a Kestrel for quite a while was very amusing with the Crow finally seen off by an aggressive Sparrowhawk, obviously the Kestrel's buddy. The sea-watch produced only two Gannets and a Shag which was rather disappointing. We returned to the car park for lunch at 1.30pm.
After lunch, a few of us decided to stay on, risk the gathering clouds and walk down Hill Bottom valley at the end of the road. We had two short sharp showers but took advantage of the trees for shelter and then the sunny weather returned with several of the already mentioned passerines emerging to dry off. A Treecreeper and a Goldcrest were heard only and it wasn't until we returned to the field car park we got our reward with a good number of Yellow Wagtails around the cattle in the adjacent field.
Total No. of species: 36.
Cliff Rogers.