Usual stuff today plus 4 Brent Geese on the far side of the Parrett…

Another unexpected new patch bird for me and Geoff Carss this morning (Sat 13 Dec) - a non-breeding plumage Black-necked Grebe (plus a Little Grebe) just downstream (west) of Sloway Bridge. No. 109 for the year and 154 for the patch!

Unexpected new bird this morning, on the mud off Huntspill Sea Wall - a Little Stint feeding with two Dunlin. Also brief views of a Harbour Porpoise on Thursday… The stint was my 153rd species (plus 5 others at Apex Park!) for the patch.

Huntspill Sea wall; Thurs 14 August: 1000 - 1200
Wigeon 1F by sluice, 3 whimbrel, 2 common sandpipers, at least 4 turnstone with 250(?) redshank, kingfisher, 4 yellow wagtails on the old wooden wreck, then five further out towards the sewage works (which may have been different) and, yes Martin, two meadow pipits, so perhaps that dam is about to burst?

More to see at Huntspill sea wall this morning at High Tide. At least 4 Yellow Wagtails, 8 Pied Wagtails 3 Wheatears, 1 Common Sandpiper, 8 Ringed Plover, 2 Blackwits, 1 Curlew,3 Skylarks, 100+ Avocets on the Steart side, 40+ Swallows, 3 Teal,, numerous Redshanks, hundreds of Shelducks, Black-headed Gulls and Herring Gulls. Still no Meadow Pipits that I could see.

I am surprised that I have not seen a Meadow Pipit this month in any of their usual habitats including Tealham. It could be just chance but I have noticed a lack of certain passerine species since the extreme dry weather which has dried up a lot of the local moors on the Levels. Stonechat is another that I have not seen for a month. By contrast my garden is unusually busy with adult and juvenile finches (Green, Gold and Chaffinch) House Sparrows and good numbers of House Martins and Swifts overhead. I wonder if shortage of water is affecting the birds directly or indirectly by reducing insect food supplies. I have been putting out bowls of water near my bird feeders for a month now. The drought only broke here on Monday and it is still only light showers. Even many of the rhynes are empty.

Had my first Autumnal Meadow Pipit over our Coleford Garden yesterday, as well as a Crossbill low over Stoke Bottom.
Surprised you haven’t seen any on Tealham/Tadham.

Tide quite low. 4 Little Egret, One Wheatear, 2 Common Sandpiper, 2 Rock Pipit. No sign of Meadow Pipits which is a species I have failed to find anywhere in July.