Trip reports

Stolford & Hinkley - 19 October 2008

Monday, 20 October 2008

Telescopes soon picked out rafts of wildfowl that were found to be pintail. There were large numbers of shelduck and other wildfowl seen were mallard, one or two wigeon and a group of mute swans.
Walking the track to Hinkley, species noted in the brambles and reeds included starling, house sparrow, meadow pipit, robin, dunnock, goldfinch, chaffinch and skylark and also a female wheatear.
Large numbers of little egrets were seen and one group consisted of ten individuals out in the fields.
At the rocky outcrop near Hinkley Point, other birds added to the list included curlew, turnstones and ringed plovers. Oystercatchers and cormorants flew past regularly and there were good sightings of rock pipits along the fence.
Back at Stolford, the group managed to spot a raven, some long-tailed tits and a pair of stonechats.
Some of the group decided to look in at Durleigh Reservoir on the way home where several pied wagtails were seen on the dam wall and a kingfisher. But the best view of the day was a beautiful black tern that was beating up and down over the lake near the dam.