Cheddar reservoir 2024
Many people are leaving Twitter (I can’t bring myself to call it X) because of the increasing amount of bollox posted on it by Elon musk and other sources, mastodon was supposed to be the next big thing but that has gone much the same way, so some birders have moved to blue sky, but i haven’t seen any evidence of locals using it yet
20-Sep-2024 (10:15 to 11:30hrs)
Couldn’t find the Knot (seen earlier this morning), but c.30 Blk-t Godwits (in tight huddle on the island, so remote poss the Knot could have been among them), 1 Ruff, juv Little Stint, 5 Dunlin, 15 Ringed Plover, 2 Snipe, 2 Avocets, 12 GW Egrets.
Would be interested to learn why Sean and others have stopped posting bird sightings on X (Twitter)?
With regard to the Brean Down thread, and as a daily early morning visitor to Cheddar Reservoir over the last few weeks, I find it difficult to keep up posting interesting birds to multiple places. I inform Birdguides promptly of sightings and also post my checklists to eBird. Here is the link for the county (includes parts of Avon) https://ebird.org/region/GB-ENG-SOM and it would be great if more local birders used this. The records will be picked up by the County Recorder so no need to send separately. I, like many other birders recently, have ceased posting regularly to Twitter.
For the record here are some of my Cheddar sightings for September including all waders:
Black Swan all month
Egyptian Goose 5 on 7th
Ruddy Shelduck 3 on 12th
Garganey 1st to 11th, another 20th
Pintail max 36 on 19th
Black-necked Grebe on 2nd
Avocet 2 on 19th and 20th
Grey Plover 3 on 18th
Ringed Plover max 31 on 6th
Black-tailed Godwit max 2 on 8th
Knot 1 on 20th
Little Ringed Plover 1st to 9th
Snipe max 12 on 2nd
Ruff max 4 on 6th
Common Sandpiper max 11 on 3rd
Green Sandpiper max 2 on 6th
Redshank max 16 on 6th
Greenshank 1 from 1st to 19th
Turnstone 1 from 2nd to 3rd
Curlew Sandpiper 3 from 2nd to 9th
Sanderling max 3 on 7th
Dunlin max 25 on 20th
Little Stint 1 from 2nd to 9th and possibly same 14th to 20th
Great White Egret max 18 on 20th
Osprey 1 on 12th
Hobby on 1st and 18th
Yellow-legged Gull max 2 on 8th
Common Tern max 7 on 5th
Little Tern 2 on 5th
Black Tern on 5th and 12th
Kingfisher 1 on 15th
White Wagtail 1 on 1st
Yellow Wagtail 2 on 19th
Rock Pipit 1 on 19th
Cetti’s Warbler 1 on 9th
Whinchat 1 on 7th
Wheatear max 3 on 10th
Other waders seen this autumn include Spotted Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper and Oystercatcher so, at least, 20 species.
19-Sep-2024
The juvenile Little Stint still this morning on the shoreline close to the Cheddar Inlet Tower (car park next to the small cemetary), also 2 Avocets present. Info from X (Twitter)
You may care to watch these 2 videos of mine, on You Tube, that show some of the waders on Cheddar Res recently. Click on the links below..
2 ruddy shelducks stayed longer today (presumably knackered after their unproven tour of Devon!)
Lunch-time today: little stint, 9 dunlin, 3 ringed plover, ruff, snipe, redshank all between cheddar tower and sailing club, along with several GWE. Black tern seen distantly in flight looking towards the far (west) bank.
10am today - dunlin, curlew sandpiper (I think? - did anybody else see them today or could they have just be more dunlin…?!), 1x redshank, 4x ringed plover, 2x snipe, GWE, little egret, lots of teal, pochard, gadwall, many house and sand Martin
Unfortunately they left at 8.30am, I did try to post on here but didn’t have enough signal. There was also a ruff, garganey & black tern then as well, plus a few wigeon and shoveler, with osprey and yellow legged gull reported earlier still
12-Sep-2024
No sign of the 3 Ruddy Shelduck in a good ‘scope scan from both the Cheddar Tower & the Axbridge Tower 14:30 to 16:00 this afternoon. Only a few waders remaining off the Cheddar Tower: 4 Dunlin, 2 Ringed Plover & 2 Snipe.
12-Sep-2024
3 Ruddy Shelduck reported there this morning on BirdGuides.
A great egret flying over Sedgemoor services yesterday evening was presumably on its way from cheddar to the coast
Blackwit, knot & wood sand makes 18 species of wader there that I know of in last week or so, spot red would be 19.
I finally caught up with a Little Stint for the year among the same variety of waders as previously mentioned from Blackwits at the larger end to Little Stint. Snipe was the only other species not mentioned below but. Duck numbers also continue to rise with some female Pintails joining the usual species today.
13, possibly 14 species of Wader at Cheddar Reservoir, today. 1 Knot, 1 Wood Sandpiper, & 3 Green Sandpipers flew in whilst Stephen Curtis and I were observing the mass of birds. These included : 2 Sanderling ( 1 juv). 3 Curlew Sandpipers. 1 Little Stint. I couldn’t decide if the 11 Ringed Plovers included 1 Little Ringed Plover. Redshanks, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwits, and Ruff all added to the fun.10 Great and 5 Little Egrets with 3 Grey Herons . 1 Wheatear and a small number of Swallows.