20th/21st January 2018

Headed to Pen Mill sewage works this morning in hope of an overdue patch tick - reed bunting. I headed around the west side and then started down the very rough track down the east side. I never even realised it was here. I quickly found large numbers of Goldcrest present and eventually ran into my first patch Chiffchaff of the year, followed by many more. Quite a few looked brown or greyish, but there were no obvious candidates for siberian chiff (I'm reluctant to count any that don't call anyway). Eventually I picked up a firecrest call, however I failed to locate it. After a fairly long wait it started calling again and I managed to pick out the Firecrest up above my head.

With no sign of any reed buntings, I continued along the river towards Lyde Road end, all of note being 3 flyover stock doves - it seems this species is much commoner along the Southern Outskirts. With nothing more of note in the Lyde Road area, I decided the cross the wooden bridge, new I think since my last visit? I was able to continue along the river bank until I noticed a group of birds back along the river. Through my bins I could make out Goldfinch and another brown bird, perhaps even a reed bunting? I got a closer look and saw they were 2 Lesser Redpolls, still not a bad bird for the patch. I accidently flushed them trying to get a closer look at the whole flock, and several birds flew down the stream back towards the bridge. I had several views of them as I walked back, counting at least 3 birds. Eventually they settled by the river, with some birds coming down onto overhanging vegetation to feed giving much closer and prolonged views. I counted at least 5 birds. Checking through the birds on the river again, I noticed one was much paler and colder-coloured than the others. On closer inspection, it showed gleaming white wing bars with no trace of brown or buff on the wings bars or underparts. I didn't have my scope on me, so I quickly grabbed a few free-hand shots through the bins. After a while, the bird with 2 lessers came up into the adjacent tree, and now I was certain this had to be a Mealy Redoll! It was strikingly pale, especially when the birds were viewed head-on where it had an all-white appearance.

 

Mealy & Lesser Redpolls - Yeovil

I knew that this is a real rarity for Yeovil, but it wasn't until I got home that I realised that there had only been 10 previous Somerset records. I hoped the bird might remain until the following day so someone else could connect. I headed back with my scope between heavy rain showers in the hope of some better pictures, but only had a single flyover Redpoll. A little compensation was had with a long-overdue patch tick in the form of a pair of Stonechats by the river, followed by a third bird at the car park (on any other day I'd have been over the moon!). Also good to run into Adam and Richard whilst on site today.

Stonechat - Yeovil