4 Counties

This weekend saw us pass through four separate counties, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Somerset (unless you class Bristol and area as separate county then Avon makes five instead).

We were attending a 60th birthday party for a dear friend of ours in Bristol on Saturday evening and as we were in the area we thought we would make the most of it and do a spot of birding in the area.  After an early start on Saturday day morning we headed first to the most obvious port of call, which was Ham Wall RSPB to view the long staying Pied Billed Grebe.  The car park was pretty clear when we arrived, possibly because the bird had been at the reserve for over two weeks and most twitchers had been and gone.  So, after a short walk when we arrived at the 2nd viewing platform there was not any jostling for space and the bird obligingly decided to show clearly for a couple of minutes.  As time was a factor, we decided not to hang around but go and find the Ferruginous Duck and Ring Necked Duck which were a further 400 metres down the path.  Unfortunately, despite extensive searching I could not find the "Fudge" Duck but did locate the Ring Necked Duck and even managed a record short.  Other birds of note in the area were a couple of Marsh Harriers and at least 3 booming Bitterns.

A quick march back to the car and short drive then took us to Catcott Lows NR to view a visiting Spoonbill,  Great White Egret and a surprise star of the show, a Water Pipit near the hide.

As my Birder's Wife started to make noises about the loo and lunch, we winged our way to some services and then made our way back up to Bristol and had lunch at Aust Warth while waiting for some long staying Twite to make an appearance.