Somerset Ornithological Society - Bird News
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Cheddar Res

Still a little quiet for the time of year, but the highlight this evening was a Yellow Wagtail in with a flock of c50 Pied Wagtail and 3 Grey Wagtail. Coot numbers building up quickly now with 720 present.

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Singles of Little Stint, Ringed Plover & Common Sandpiper - now at Cheddar Tower

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15-Sep-14
The juv Little Stint and juv Ringed Plover still feeding by the Cheddar inlet-tower this afternoon.

Couple of close-up photos of the stint on my website

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Could not find the Little Stint this evening, but Ringed Plover and Common Sand present. Coot numbers building up quickly now with 1250. Also 45 Pochard, 3 Wigeon and 6 Teal my first autumn records.

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Flock of 8 Egyptian Geese turned up this evening. All unringed so presumably some wandering feral birds.

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Tawny owl calling very loudly this morning [07:00] in the lane just off the res

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Good numbers of Coot now with 1700 + present. Big influx of Pochard this week with over 300 this morning.

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last two days at around 07:00 gathering of some 40+ swans with the addition of at least 10 cygnets, and in excess of 90 canada geese

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pair of Tawny owls in the same lane early this morning

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No sign of the Diver this morning, but big increase in Pochard during the week, now up to 493. 1 Red-crested Pochard and 1 Little Grebe. Still no Goldeneye!

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First Goldeneye of the winter, a male, yesterday morning along with 2 Red-crested Pochard.

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Single Goldeneye and Red-crested Pochard along with 535 Pochard this morning.

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The two female-type Red-crested Pochards still present this afternoon. Also a probable Tufty x Pochard hybrid which had me going for a while - looked like it could be a 1st-winter drake Lesser Scaup while asleep, but when I finally got a good look at the bill-tip pattern a hybrid origin seemed much more likely.

3 Goosander noted near dusk, but nothing unusual picked out of the gull roost.

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2 Red-crested Pochard again this morning along with singles of Goosander and Goldeneye. Excellent count of 650 Pochard.

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2 Red-crested Pochard this morning again. Still good numbers of Pochard with 550, single Goldeneye and 2 Peregrine on the Fry's Hill mast.