Wells

BW-2018-09

Seven of us decided to go to Chew Valley Lake in the hope of seeing some autumn waders on 25 September (although waders have been very thin on the ground this autumn ). When we had got over the shock of discovering that the rate for a daily permit had doubled from £2.50 to £5.00 over the past year, we all had a good time - mainly because the weather was perfect (the shortage of wading birds proved to be true of the lake). We started by going to Villice Bay Hide, which had yielded a female Scaup on the recce. No Scaup but we did see two waders - a Green Sandpiper and a Lapwing. There were also masses of Little Grebe and a large number of duck, including Tufted, Pochard, Mallard and Gadwall. On to Herons Green, which was a brief stay because we added nothing of interest to our list. The Hide at the bottom of Stratford Lane was, however, more productive. Apart from several thousand Coot (among them one pure white albino individual) we saw Four different species of Heron - Grey Heron, Great White Egret, Little Egret and Cattle Egret. And we heard but did not see a Jay. Our final stop was Herriots Bridge, where I had seen a Grey Phalarope on the recce a few days earlier. Alas that bird had flown away, but we did see several Snipe, bringing our total wader "haul" to three! And this at the season when waders are supposed to be most numerous. Our total species count for the morning was a modest 33 - but the sun shone and nobody got rained on!