April 2025

22nd. Ham Wall. Drake ring-necked duck, glossy ibis, bittern, 2 spotted redshank, ruff, 2 hobby, 2 swift, house martins, singing garden warblers and a cuckoo singing. Great egret below.

17th. Marshfield, around Rushmore Lane. 4 red-legged partridge, 1 red kite, 2 yellowhammer (singing), 2 corn bunting (none singing) and 2 whitethroat. Fighting pheasant and brown hare below.

16th. Two mistle thrushes flew over Kellaway Avenue - the first I've seen in the city for a while.

15th. A day out with my daughter Ramona. First we visited North Meadow at Cricklade to see the snake's head fritillaries. Several had gone over, though the Cricklade fritillary watch website anticipated peak flowering in about a week's time. This was my third visit, and I've yet to see a major flowering event - the fritillaries are still quite sparse.

There's a fine display of lady's smock at present.

After lunch we visited Barnsley Warren, and had the place to ourselves, with 6 red kite hunting in the valley. It seems like peak pollination time, with lots of white pollen being picked up by ants and flies.

A white variant.

14th. Dipper and 3 grey wagtail at Snuff Mills. The water quality in the River Frome looks very poor.

A little egret flew in. It is showing the pink lores that appear in courtship.

13th. At least 5 little ringed plover on Pilning Wetlands.

12th: Female greater scaup consorting with a male tufted duck in Heron's Green Bay, male greater scaup with a female lesser scaup from Herriot's Bridge, and a lone male lesser scaup there too. I look forward to the next generation of Aythya hybrids. Also present were 2 little gulls, common sandpiper, 2 green sandpiper.

10th: Chew Valley Lake: drake lesser scaup (Heron's Green Bay), female greater scaup. Lesser scaup below.

A very distant pair of scaup included a greater drake, though some have suggested the female is the lesser. Green sandpiper, 2 common sandpiper, 4 little ringed plover, singing reed warblers and willow warbler.

6th: a ring-necked parakeet, 2 stock dove and a great spotted woodpecker at Stoke Park Estate, Bristol. Probable female lesser scaup, ca. 10 little gull, 5 ruff and hundreds of sand martins from Herriot's Pool, Chew Valley Lake. Two swallow West Harptree.

4th: I walked around Rosewall Hill, over Tregarthen Hill and back to St Ives along the coast path. There were 3 ring ouzel on Rosewell Hill, though they were elusive. About 5 wheatear too. A wheatear and 2 Sandwich tern off St Ives Island. Near Lands End: Short-eared owl, and some great views of sunning adder in the early evening - one solitary male (silvery grey) and 2 females (much browner) together.

3rd: The Island, St Ives: 8 purple sandpiper, 1 sand martin, 1 swallow. I went to Aire Point between Sennen and Nanquidno to see the ALPINE ACCENTOR that was first seen yesterday afternoon soon after we left Bartinney. It flew towards me on arrival and landed on a rock about 20m away.

Afterwards it showed well intermittently on a lichen-covered cliff face. The last Cornish record was in 1990, and this bird is about the 34th recorded in the UK.

A black redstart and a red kite were also present.

2nd: The Island, St Ives: 2 wheatear. At Marazion we saw the long-staying hoopoe (it's been present for almost 2 weeks, and was still there on 4th), and early whitethroat and about 5 sand martins.

We found at least 2 adders at Bartinney in a Cornish hedge along the road. One had just shed its skin, which I collected only for it to blow away.