Steart Point

Steart Point

Saturday 17th January

Our group met at the car park on the foreshore for a quick look out to sea. Sky Larks were up and singing. High tide was due about 11.30 am. It was a frosty, but sunny, morning with a slight breeze blowing. After a short period we moved on to the main car park about a mile down the road and met with the remainder of our group consisting of 20 or so members.

A short walk to the foreshore was interrupted by a return back along the path on the discovery of a Little Owl well camouflaged and tucked in under a barn roof. The walk along the foreshore to the saltings and hide was bounded by reed beds down to the sea on one side and open fields on the other. With the sun behind us, many hundreds of waders wheeled and turned in the sky above the reeds giving a spectacular display. Knot, Dunlin, Curlew and others flew up and down the seashore.

A trip up the tower hide gave good views of the land around. A Peregrine was perched upon a low post, while meadow and water pipits were feeding within yards of this predator. Lots of Redshanks were feeding in the pools around and one particular Redshank caused much debate. After a while we decided this was a Spotted Redshank, and very nice too! A walk around some of the hides on the salt marsh produced a few Wigeon and a Reed Bunting. By now the sun had gone and the wind was strengthening. While taking lunch in one of the hides I was lucky enough to watch a Peregrine drop out of the sky onto an unsuspecting Redshank. The Peregrine flew off with the unlucky Redshank calling from beneath.

The return produced Redwings and Fieldfares, showing well on a fence a few yards in front of us; Long tailed Tits, Finches and a Kestrel sitting on various chimney pots. In the distance many hundreds of Lapwing took to the sky.

We took a short drive to Stolford beach. A walk along the sea wall produced 20+ Pintail, a Heron, Curlew and some Ringed Plovers. Further out to sea towards Hinkley Point three rafts of Common Scoters showed well, numbering 50 or more in just one group.

On return to our cars a small intrepid group carried on to Greylake while the rest of us decided to call it a day. And a good day too!

Number of species seen: 52

Lyndon Savage

Birds seen, in BOU order or alphabetic order

BOU order

Brent Goose

Shelduck

Wigeon

Mallard

Pintail

Common Scoter

Cormorant

Little Egret

Grey Heron

Buzzard

Kestrel

Peregrine

Oystercatcher

Ringed Plover

Grey Plover

Lapwing

Knot

Dunlin

Snipe

Bar-tailed Godwit

Curlew

Spotted Redshank

Redshank

Turnstone

Black-headed Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Feral Pigeon

Wood Pigeon

Little Owl

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Sky Lark

Meadow Pipit

Pied Wagtail

Wren

Dunnock

Robin

Blackbird

Fieldfare

Redwing

Goldcrest

Long-tailed Tit

Great Tit

Magpie

Carrion Crow

Starling

House Sparrow

Chaffinch

Greenfinch

Goldfinch

Reed Bunting

Alphabetic order