Sunday 15 December 2013

Desert Wheatear on Severn Beach

 Desert Wheatear
Stonechat

The appeal of seeing my first Desert Wheatear and a good forecast at the end of poor week at work was all the motivation I needed to head down to the Severn Beach in Gloucestershire.  The Severn beach is a costal village at the top of the Bristol Channel thats attracts a great selection of birds all year round. The journey down was better than expected as the roadworks at Cribbs Causeway had finally ended.

The Wheatear was easy enough to find as I could see a crowd of birders waiting for the bird. It seemed to have spend the night in some garages and duly made his way from the garages past the substation along the sea wall and down on to the beach.  Viewing was very easy and the bird certainly didn't mind the attention.  The bird looked to be feeding on earwigs and small insects.  Looking at the reports this morning it may well have been the last day the bird was seen. The Desert Wheatear became number 225 on my year list.

I then walked up to New Passage where I took the third of the above photos. Sighting there included 35 Canadian Geese, 60 Shelduck, 500 + Wigeon,  Teal, Curlew, Dunlin and 90+ Oystercatcher.

I then took the short drive to Aust Wath on the passing chance a Short-eared Owl was about. Sadly no sign of the owls but 3 Stonechats were showing well on the fence posts whilst 2 Twite were in the trees  about the speed sign at the end of the slip road.

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