An Excellent Day Out

As a full time carer, its been quite difficult of late to get out of the house to do a good days birding. But with Dawn my fiancée at home today, I managed to take a day off and join Richard Williams on an excellent day out at Northwick Warth. We set off in the drizzle at around 9:00am which then got worse as we approached the Severn Estuary. However once parked up in New Passage Road, it started to ease off and in fact the whole day was pretty dry more or less with the odd light shower passing through.

We made our way onto the Severn Way just northwest of where we parked the car and headed north up the path to where The Pill flows out into the River Severn (Here). The tide was just turning as we got there at about 10:15am and a lot of waders were up on the fields. There were Curlew, Oystercatchers, Redshank, hundreds of Dunlin all milling around in the grass waiting for water to drop away.

The view is looking north with The Pill flowing out into the River Severn. Though not obvious in the photograph, the water close to the bank centre of picture was full of Wigeon, Teal and a few Shoveler.

On the fields here there were a few Canada Geese and a lone dark-bellied Brent Goose, which was left there when all the geese decided to have a swim in the estuary. Other birds on the grassland were a single Little Egret that just about popped every where we went, 20+ Lapwing, lots of Pied Wagtails, dozens of Meadow Pipits and 70+ Starlings.

Good numbers of Canada Geese

And the wandering Little Egret that covered most of this area as we walked up the estuary and back.

The dark-bellied Brent Goose, seemed very happy to graze alone, even when all the Canada Geese took off to go for a swim.

As we made our way up to the sluice gate a Water Rail called out but try as we could we couldn't locate. And then we came across a really bizarre incident involving a Mistle Thrush dive bombing a pair Redshank. Every time they tried to land on the bank he would take off and chase them. Eventually they flew off and the Mistle Thrush flew up onto a fence post, before flying off with his mate in the opposite direction. As we walked over the sluice we came across a Grey Heron waiting patiently by a small pool for his meal and then out of nowhere a Kingfisher flew across the pool over the path in front of us and down The Pill, before disappearing up towards another smaller sluice.

A Grey Heron waits for his meal to come to him.

The Severn Way then bisects the Pilning Wetland on you right and New Passage & Northwick Warth on your left. The pools of Pilning (Here) had a few Lapwing, Redshank, Curlew, Black-headed Gulls, 4 Common Gulls, Mallard a pair of Gadwall, plus a pair of Coot and several Moorhens. In the reedbeds there were at least 2 Water Rail squealing away.

One of a couple of shelters along this stretch, which came in handy with the rain coming down. This one overlooked Northwick Warth.

We decided to walk on another half mile or so through a couple more gates and see if there were any Merlin's or Short-eared Owls about. To cut a long story short we failed. Whether it was the wrong weather conditions I dont know, but there were certainly none around today. However the hedgerows proved quite interesting with Goldcrest, Redwing, and both Blackbird and Song Thrush in sub-song. A LBJ caught my eye and a Stonechat landed on the brambles up in front of us (Here), before disappearing over the hedge. Fortunately when we back tracked, having reached the second gate and not seen anything else to add to our list, the Stonechat gave a star performance and gave me a few poses to photograph. A quick "chat" alerted me to a Blackcap, but it neither showed itself or called again. Likewise with a Fieldfare that called just once.

A male Stonechat

A slightly different pose

And the reason he was dipping and looking anxious was because the "local" Robin was not happy about his presence in his hedge.

 As we headed back towards the car we could see really good numbers of waders in flight and then disappearing below the fields and back up again, before alighting on the mud flats. By the time we got back to the mouth of The Pill, the tide had dropped an incredible amount and the whole length of the beach was covered in waders, ducks and a few gulls.

Just a few of the waders in flight..........

Mainly Dunlin and a few Redshank and at least 2 Turnstones in amongst them.

The tide drops to reveal the beach and mud flats, covered in waders.

Before we left Northwick Warth we also recorded 3 Chiffchaff and a few Bullfinches. There was a Kestrel sat in a tree, which spotted something in the grass, dived down onto it and wasn't seen again. However it must have caught something as the local Magpies were trying to get in on the action. Apart from the Short-eared Owl and Merlin that we missed out on, the only other bird we thought might come across was a Black-tailed Godwit, unfortunately that eluded us as well.

Once back at the car we headed off to Severn Beach for lunch and then a walk along the promenade. This stretch is in complete contrast to Northwick Warth and alas there wasn't that much to see, though we did see at least 5 Curlew, 6 Shelduck, a Grey Heron and a few gulls.

As the light was fading we decided to call it a day and retraced our journey back, driving back along Passage Road in the hope of a Short-eared Owl. Unfortunately yet again we drew a blank. However after recording 55 species throughout the day I don't think either of us minded that much, especially when we expected the weather to be a lot worse than it was. All in we had an excellent day and I would like to say a big thank you to Richard for taking me to an excellent bird watching spot. I will be coming back that's for sure. Thank you Richard.

Bird species recorded: 1 Cormorant, 1 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron, Canada Geese, Greylag Goose, a dark-bellied Brent Goose, 6 Shelduck, Mallard, Gadwall, lots of Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler, Tufted Duck, 1 Kestrel, at least 3 Water Rail, Moorhen, Coot, Oystercatcher, 20+ Lapwing, dozens of Curlew, lots of Redshank, at least 2 Turnstones, Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, 5 Common Gull, Wood Pigeon, 2 Collared Dove, 1 Kingfisher, Meadow Pipit, lots of Pied Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, Dunnock, Robin, 1 Stonechat, Blackbird, possibly 1 Fieldfare heard calling, Redwing, Song Thrush, 2 Mistle Thrush, possible Blackcap calling, 3 Chiffchaff, 2 Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Carrion Crow, 70+ Starling, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Linnet, Goldfinch, Greenfinch and Bullfinch.