Trees
- 12 starlings
- 1 robin
- 1 dunnock
- 30+ house sparrows
- 2 ad female and an ad male blackbird
- 2 great tits
- 2 blue tits
- A few jackdaws
- 2 collard doves
- 1 wood pigeon
- 12 chaffinches
- 7 gold finches
- 1 magpie
Garden
- 1 ad female and 1 ad male blackbird
- 3 jackdaws
- 1 great tit
Flying over
- 15+ skylarks flying north. Last friday when there was snow the skylarks were in the flocks of redwing flying south but as the snow has thawed throughout the week and it was a sunny day they've been flying back to their fields.
- 20+ black headed gulls
- 2 common gulls
- A few juv herring gulls
- 2 ad great black backed gulls
- Corvids
Other news
- 1 grey heron in the flooded field feeding by Berkeley Castle
- 3 fieldfare with 1 with a white collar, which i photographed as well as 2 black headed gulls, 1 skylark, 7 starlings and a mistle thrush all feeding on the football fiels
The snow has affected the birds at SARA and by the docks there was 2 rock pipits and several coots. Sighted on the Marina the resident Great crested grebe has started molting into summer plumage already. The river had 2 redshanks which were very close because of the tide going out, 1 buzzard scared the 1000+ Wigeon which have arrived from Slimbridge WWT. The wigeon also got scared by a carrion crow which flew towards the 8 cormarants which were on some mud. The canal also had 20 mallards, 2 coots, 2 mute swans and some gulls were flying around alot of the time.
Flying over
- 2 buzzards- 1 pale individual
- 40+ Fieldfares
- 7 redwings
- Corvids
- Doves and pigeons
- Finches
- common and black headed gulls
Trees
- 1 Female Blackcap- 1st record of the year
- 3 Bramblings- 1 adult male, 1 adult female and a paler female - 1st ever great sightings and photos
- 40+ house sparrows
- 30+ chaffinches
- 14 gold finches
- 30+ redwings
- 10 fieldfares
- 30 starlings
- 2 great tits
- 2 blue tits
- 7 blackbirds- 3 females and 4 males
- Corvids
Garden
- 3 ad females and 4 ad males blackbirds
- 1 MEADOW PIPIT- came into the garden after being scared by the feral pigeons and after a minute flew into another garden- very rare and only being seen migrating in the Autumn.
- 1 robin
A mile and a half walk just outside the town I live in and I saw loads of birds and some of them I'd not seen around here before. I first walked down the Little River Avon and sighted:
- 1 grey wagtail- a pair raised 2 juvs last year
- 5 chaffinches
- 3 blue tits
- 1 kestrel
Then I went along the lane to Ham and saw:
- Blue, great and long tailed tits
- 1 blackbird
- Wood pigeons and collard doves
- 1 dunnock
- Corvids
After that, i saw lots of birds going from Ham back to Berkeley including:
- 10 rewings- Ive not seen any for along time and was great to see feeding in the trees
- 1 treecreaper- 1st ive seen down in the trees
- 1 nuthatch- a bit more common in winter
- Corvids
- Finches
Snow has fell throughout Friday morning making birds from further out in the countryside to come into my hometown of Berkeley. Special birds included some great sightings of them and with all of us sledging on a hill behind the old police station birds sighted included:
- 1 grey heron
- 1 raven
- 1 buzzard
- 1 male kestrel
- 2 pied wagtails feeding on the mud after Saturday's minor melting period
- 1 great spotted woodpecker feeding two feilds down on nut feeders
- 9 green finches
- 20+ chaffinches
- 20+ gold finches
- Corvids
- Black headed, common and a few herring gulls flew over
Rarer birds
- 300+ redwing and the fieldfares have been moving south down the river as the ground is solid. Skylarks have been joining the redwing flocks and the lapwings have also being flying south because the grounds frozen. Amazingly this redwing influx has been going as far down the river as Burnham on sea where they had 30,000.
- 200+ fieldfare
- 9 skylarks
- 50+ lapwing
- 11BLACK TAILED GODWITS- very rare sightings near the town. Also possibly the birds from Slimbridge WWT
- 1 cormarant
- 4 REDSHANKS were flying very high up flying towards the river and went over our house. Very rare over the town as their mostly sighted at the Severn.Sighted on the 19th.
Garden sightings
- 40+ redwings landed in the berry bush and the apple tree on the 18th. I was able to get some great sightings as they flew over calling but then came back and landed in the trees.
- 30+ fieldfare landed in the trees and 2 even stayed all day in the berry bush on the 18th
- 40+ starlings landed in the trees together
- 1 cormarant flew over (same one sighted from field) 18th
- 20+ lapwing flew over on the 19th
- 1 female sparrowhawk
- 1 Raven
- 20+ chaffinches
- 20+ gold finches
- 30+ house sparrows
- The familiar blackbirds including at least 14 different males and 4 female blackbirds including "Whitey", "Whiteless" and the new birds which are called "Stripe" which has a white stripe through the whitish breast and "Snow flake" who is the same as whiteless but has a white part underneath the tail. Also snow flake's named because she's one of the many blackbirds to feed on an apple on a table.
- 2 blue tits which arrived in the garden on the 19th
- 2 great tits flew over the garden and into the bushes
- Wood pigeons, collard doves and even a few feral pigeons
- 10+ black headed gulls (most in summer plumage), 10+ common gulls, 2 lesser black backed gulls and even a herring gull flew over
- 1 robin in the garden
- Corvids
- 1 mistle thrush flew over
- 1 pied wagtail (1st in the garden) feeding in the snow
Not alot of sightings over the past week exept from starlings, jackdaws and the robin who sings every morning. On the 13/1/13 there was some amazing sightings of birds in the garden and at the end of the day i had seen 6 different species of birds which is the highest of the year so far. Also on the 13th there was a big increase of birds probably because it was very sunny and from 18:00 we are hoping for snow as they say we may have it from 18:00 to 3:00 tomorrow morning. Todays birds sighted in the garden were:
- 7 blackbirds (4 adult males and 3 adult females)- including a very territorial male blackbird who scared the other blackbirds when they tried to get the food. "Whitey" an adult female blackbird who is a resident around here and she bred last year. She has a yellow bill and a white chest. On the other hand "Whiteless" a wintering female blackbird with no white on the chest but has a black bill. The last female blackbird which I named was "Bird poo" a winter migrant with white on her tail and bits of white on her back but is very like whiteless because of the black bill. All the males and females visted the garden for most of the morning when we had at least 10 adult males and the 3 adult females in the area.
- 3 great tits- 1 pair which were fighting against a blue tit for a bird box in another garden and fed from my bird table and nut feeder.
- 7 house sparrows were feeding together either on the fat ball feeder or on the bird table.
- 1 Wren which is a first was feeding for half an hour in the garden next door and only spent a minute in ours before flying of into the Apple tree
- 5 jackdaws didn't visit the table today but spent the morning drinking out of a pipe with water in while the frost was melting.
- 6 starling were feeding on the fat balls all morning.
Other bird sightings
- a very low flying buzzard scared the starlings, ferel pigeons aswell as the house sparrows but then got mobbed by a few jackdaws.
- 8 black headed gulls flew over
- 1 common gull flew over
- 10+ chaffinches in the trees
- 13 blackbirds- 10 adult males and the 3 adult females
- 10 blue tits
- 40+ house sparrows
- Several jackdaws, 3 carrion crows and a magpie were all in the trees
- 2 wood pigeons
- 2 collard doves
- 1 wren
- 1 robin
- 20+ starlings
- 1 dunnock
Other news
- A Green winged teal at Slimbridge WWT as well as the bittern
New fancy View
- Nuthatches
- 30+ Coal tits
- Several chaffinches
- 3 carrion crows
- 10+ blue tits
- 1 great spotted woodpecker
RSPB Nagshead
- Nuthatches
- 10+ jays
- 3 mistle thrushes
- 4 robins
- 10+ blackbirds
- 20+ coal tits
- 7 bull finches
- 1 great spotted woodpecker
- 1 Hawfinch i didn't see at 12:00
- Carrion crows
Lots of birds have been visiting the garden and there have been
- 10+ jackdaws
- 2 ad males and an ad female blackbird
- 3 starlings
- 3 Long tailed tits- 1st ever in the last 2 years
- 2 wood pigeons
- 1 ad male house sparrow
- 1 carrion crow
Although many birds in the garden there has been a sighting on the female sparrowhawk who hunts around here as well as:
- 20+ starlings
- 30+ jackdaws
- 4 carrion crows
- Lots of house sparrows
- 2 collard doves
- Several gulls- most black headed and common but a 3rd year and an adult great black backed gull and occasionally a lesser black backed gulls with some herring gulls.
- 4 magpies
- The occasional chaffinch in the berry bush
- 10+ gold finches
- The same 3 blackbirds as in the garden
- A pair of dunnocks
- A few redwings flying over occasionally
- No fieldfares flying over although they're around the area
Other news
- 1 mute swan became a resident in a nearby flooded field by the castle
- Lots of rarities around the area including a Lesser scaup at Blagdon Lake (somerset)
- More rare bird sightings and Avon area birds at http://avonbirding.blogspot.co.uk/
Today it felt alot like Spring rather than the middle of Winter as Purton in gloucestershire had hundreds of birds from roughly 11:00 to 12:00. I counted at least 32 birds which was very good. I was very lucky to see some birds and to hear then as I have hardly seen/heard them at Purton before down the Tow Path as well as The Berkeley Arms pub looking out to the River Severn. The strange but great bird sightings were:
- 1 Cetti's Warbler (Timber Pools)
- 17 Waxwings (near old ships)
- 2 Rock pipits (with meadow pipits and skylarks feeding in the field by the pub)
- 3 Meadow Pipits (Field by pub)
- 3 Skylarks (field by pub feeding with the rock and meadow pipits at high tide)
- 2 Ravens
Other birds which were sighted were not as rare but still nice to see included:
- 2 mute swans
- 4 Morhens- 3 in field by bridge and 1 in the Timber pools
- 200+ Golden plover got scared on the mud flats (viewed from Pub)
- 2 curlew (feeding on the field by the pub)
- 50+ Dunlin got scared as well on the mud flats
- 3 robins singing very close to each other keeping their territories
- 1 Dunock- in a garden
- 3 blackbirds
- wood pigeons
- Several Mallards
- Carrion crows, magpie and jackdaws
- 100 + wigeon past through the Severn going towards Slimbridge WWT throughout the hour
- 2 cormarants flew through towards SARA (life boat station)
- 1 lovely looking Bull finch which is the first time i've heard one call and come quite close because they are usually shy.
- Lots of great black backed gulls
- A few herring gulls
- Small numbers of lesser black backed gulls and common gulls
- Lots of black headed gulls including one in Summer Plumage which was very strange but another signs Springs coming early.
- Lots of pied wagtails in the field by the pub feeding. (didn't see any white or grey wagtails)
- 30+ house sparrows
- A few collard doves
- Chaffinches were feeding on a feeder in the 3rd house of 3 in the garden
- Blue and great tits everywhere but theres more in the bushes on the right of the Towpath
Sightings again but at 15:30- 16:30
The 17 birds sighted were
- Great sightings of a lapwing flock of about 15 perform their display with at least 5 dunlin (Old ships- right to Tow Path)
- 2000+ Gulls roosting on the mud because it was low tide. Most of them were herring gulls but I did pick out quite a lot of greater and lesser black backed gulls and alot of black headed gulls all together in a straight line. (Sighted from pub)
- The same 3 morhens in the 1st field on the right when walking on the towpath towards SARA
- 7 mallards and the same 2 mute swans on the canal
- 100+ wigeon roosting on the mud infront of the Gulls (sighted from the pub)
- 10 wood pigeons feeding on the same field as the morhens
- Chaffinches, a blackbird, 3 robins, blue tits, great tits and a dunnock all sighted from the Towpath on the left
- 100+ rooks were heard going to their roost in the fields on the left
- Sadly no sign of the Waxwings as they probably moved on to another place more in land and hopefully they're sighted from my garden
