4th February 2018

Spent the morning around Yeovil building up my Yeovil year list. First stop was Lyde Road in hope of another overdue patch tick: reed bunting. Before long, I had a bird calling/singing from the undergrowth. Eventually 2 birds flew out and I managed to scope them, a pair of Reed Buntings! Well that payed off quickly. A walk up the river produced a Peregrine (another new bird for the patch year list) and 2 Stonechats.

 

Reed Bunting - Lyde Road

Stonechat - Lyde Road

Redwing - Lyde Road

Headed to Ninesprings next where the regular Water Rail eventually showed in its favoured spot. Otherwise the lake only produced 5 Mandarins, 1 Grey Heron, and the escaped blue-winged goose. The surrounding Woodland produced a Nuthatch, a couple Treecreepers and Marsh Tits.

Water Rail - Ninesprings

Treecreeper - Ninesprings

A trip to Longcroft Wood on the north side of Yeovil to look for Jay and Raven proved surprisingly successful. The first bird I saw was a Stonechat... Up until a few weeks ago, I'd never seen one on patch, but now they seem to be everywhere, even at sites I used to check fairly regularly. A unexpected bonus came in the form of an adult Common Gull, only my second on patch. Nice to get decent views of one too (my only previous record was a flyover 1w bird at dusk). Continuing down the path produced 2 Mistle Thrush and, of course, another 2 bloody Stonechats! Eventually I did get a flyover Raven followed by a couple more on the walk back, but no sign of any Jays.

Stonechat - Longcroft Wood

Raven - Longcroft Wood

 

After popping home for some Lunch, I headed for Blashford Lakes hoping that the thayers would reappear. I half wished I'd gone sooner, apparently the hide was packed before I'd even left the house! On arrival, there was no room in the hide so I set up on the hill behind the car park with the rest of the latecomers. I picked out the Ring-Billed Gull fairly quickly plus 2 each of Yellow-Legged Gull and Med Gull. Eventually someone picked out a white-winger (though communication along the line wasn't great). I managed to find it though, and it was indeed the THAYER'S GULL. Quite a distinctive bird with those chocolate brown primarys and tertials, but overall paler than I expected. A few Pintail, Goldeneye and Goosander were all else of note.

 

THAYER'S GULL - Blashford Lakes

Ring-Billed and Yellow-Legged Gulls - Blashford Lakes