Trip reports

Steart - 20 September 2008

Monday, 22 September 2008

Large flocks of small birds were made up mainly of goldfinches and one willow tree contained a number of chiffchaffs. A kestrel hovered overhead and a peregrine flew past.
From the end hide there were views of numerous shelduck, a small flock of unidentified waders and curlew and oystercatchers.
Returning to the tower hide, the expansive view from the top across the meadows revealed a few wigeon, two kestrels on posts, quite a few little egrets, some curlew and a group of nine waders that were found to be knot.
Walking back along the path, the group turned off to a point overlooking the River Parrett where they found teal, wigeon, several redshanks and two avocets.
A number of the group then made their way to Ashcott Corner and found a similar picture with most of the lagoons having a lower than usual water level. However, on the mud among the profusion of plant growth, they found a huge number of black-tailed godwits and lapwings plus many snipe.
Also present were two ruff and many little egrets. The hoped-for harrier, a regular sighting at this location, did not appear, but another birder had seen one earlier.
One interesting sight was what appeared to be a large male otter working its way along the edge of the reed bed in shallow water, diving and digging for food.