1st/2nd March 2018

With snow building up, I decided to walk to work yesterday. This turned out to be profitable with 100+ Lapwing and 13 Golden Plovers overhead, both species I didn't get in Yeovil last year and good additions to the patch year list. However, after hearing how other people scored with large numbers of woodcocks, snipes, gulls and thrushes I felt that my sightings were somewhat average. I decided that if work and college were cancelled tomorrow, I would head down to Ninesprings lake on foot hoping that the water might attract some displaced birds.

With the news I was hoping for I began the trek down to Ninesprings, and on the way had a few Lapwing and a fairly large flock of Golden Plovers over. Most of the lake was frozen over with good numbers of gulls but nothing other than Black-Headed and Herring Gulls. The usual Mandarins were present along with the escaped blue-winged goose. Thankfully the SouthWest corner of the lake wasn't frozen, and a search of the area produced 2 Little Grebes and 3 Water Rails - not the hoped for snipe but still a good number for this site. A walk further up the stream produced little of note other than a Grey Wagtail, but the snow drifts echoing down the small valley were somewhat unnerving! I headed downriver producing virtually nothing of note until I reached Pen Mill, where I had a male Bullfinch, a single Chiffchaff and a few Goldcrests.

Ninesprings

Pen Mill Sewage works was alive with gulls! However, I could, once again, only see Herring and Black-Headed Gulls. Continuing along the river, I had both Great-Spotted and Green Woodpeckers and heard (but didn't see) a redpoll pass overhead. Three Lapwings huddled around a tiny snowless patch in the field was a sorry sight. As I reached Lyde Road, I had a pair of Stock Dove and oddly, a Mute Swan pass overhead before heading east (the first I've seen away from Ninesprings). 6 Golden Plovers frequently pitched around the site as well and I heard a flyover Reed Bunting, but can't say for sure that I picked up the right bird in flight.

At last, I reached the field. 4 times I've visited here and every time I came away with a Yeovil tick, surely my luck had to run out? After the now routine mental deliberation on the footbridge, I stepped into the field and continued along the river. Within seconds, the 6 Golden Plovers flew up, and then a lone Lapwing with a smaller wader. I got it under the bins and it was a Snipe! Lyde Road produces yet another Yeovil tick! Wandering along the river towards where it landed, more snipe flew up until I noticed one with a short bill. All the snipe were frequenting a long ditch which hadn't frozen over. Walking along it flushed several more Common Snipe until the bird flew up again, it was indeed a Jack Snipe! Yet another patch tick, didn't expect to get both today! Amazingly, I also flushed a 2nd Jack Snipe from the ditch - Lyde Road really is the place to be! Heading back to the river, I picked out a female Stonechat. I noticed a number of ducks were occasionally flying back and forth along the river and the wing pattern looked good for Teal. Eventually they flew back and landed down on the river and I was able to nail the ID, another great Yeovil tick considering I've only ever seen mallard and mandarin in Yeovil. Shortly after, another two ducks passed overhead, heading south at fairly high altitude. I got them under the bins and it was a pair of Gadwall! 4 Yeovil ticks!? this is just getting ridiculous now!

Continuing along, I relocated the Mute Swan sat in the field, a bit of an unnusual sight. Presumably it's one of the Ninesprings birds as I didn't see any there earlier. Passerines also featured heavily with a Skylark and 2 Linnet overhead. Some bunting calls drawed me to a female Yellowhammer followed quickly by a male Reed Bunting. Heading back produced a male Yellowhammer overhead, a few Ravens, a Cormorant and the icing on the cake: an adult Common Gull flying through - I think this species must be commoner than I first throught (as with many of my recent Lyde Road ticks!). I had another check of the ditch on the way back and re-flushed both Jack Snipes. They were almost impossible to see when in the ditch, but I did get decent views of one stood out on the snow. Wish I'd brought my scope as I would have managed some pictures. As time was getting on I decided to head home which took another hour.

I put some apples out in the garden to no avail so I decided to shovel out a small square of snow to see if that helped. Didn't get any thrushes but almost instantly a Meadow Pipit dropped in! The square of grass couldn't have been more that 1.5x1.5 metres so it goes to show just how desperate birds are getting.