MORNING VISIT INTO YEOVIL AND AFTERNOON WALK TO NINE SPRINGS, YEOVIL VIA BARWICK HOUSE
WEATHER: grey and overcast, rain to start then sunny spells, still windy and chilly. Temp 8-10C
After a tip off from a Local birder from Yeovil I set off in the car and drove to the east side of town to look for a BLACK REDSTART that has been over wintering around one particular area. I was delayed a little by Fez, my almost tame Pheasant, who was waiting outside my door to be fed which I duly obliged. Of course when I got to where the Redstart was supposed to be, the bird was nowhere to be seen, but at least I tried and now I know exactly where to look. The trouble is that the site is right next to a primary school and I didn’t want to loiter near a school with my bins and telescope!!
the main pool at Nine Springs, you can see that the sky cleared in the afternoon
After lunch Dawn and I set out for Yeovil Nines Springs, we walked towards Barwick House passing by the small horse paddocks where we saw a few Redwings feeding on the grass and a Green Woodpecker feeding on ants nearby.
Barwick Lake had a few Little Grebes, a couple of Moorhens and four Mallards, we heard a second Green Woodpecker calling and we watched a large mixed flock of Jackdaws and Rooks feeding in the Barwick House meadows.
In Nine Springs we saw very little in the woodland, but the lake was buzzing with Mallards, Mandarins, Moorhens, a Little Grebe and a few Herring Gulls. Our journey back home produced nothing of note, it was really quite windy during the return to home.
the Weeping Willow is one of my favourite trees
Back home I sat on my bench for a while, I saw 5 species in the meadow: Red-legged Partridges, Jackdaws, Crows, Wood Pigeons and Common Buzzard. Two Lesser Black-backed Gulls circled over, they looked smashing in the afternoon sunlight with a dark sky in the background.
looking over my fence into the meadow I saw these two Red-legged Partridges