CHEW VALLEY LAKE

 Chew Valley Lake in Avonmouth is a destination that keeps coming up on my birdguides App, it seems to have some really good birds there as well as a few rarities turning up. It's a place that we've never been birding before so my good friend Steve Bool and myself decided to go down there to take a look.

When we got there the water levels were really low caused by the lack of rain fall over the last few months. We got talking to a couple of birders that we had met and they told us to drive over to the other side of the lake to a place called Herriott's bridge. Before we got there we pulled over onto a layby which overlooked the lake as we saw some Glossy Ibis and absolutely loads of Great White and Little Egrets as well as Grey Herons and Cormorants at the waters edge which was quite a decent way out.

never seen so many egrets

We watched these for a while before making our way to the bridge. 

Herriott's bridge runs over the bottom end of the lake, there's a pool the one side of it that feeds water into the main lake. On this pool is a small island that is a haven for many duck species, gulls and waders as well as more Egrets and Herons. Most of the birds are a little to far off to photograph but Steve has just bought a brand new Leica APO Televid 82 scope it's a fantastic bit of kit so with it we were able to pick out Grey Plover, Green, Wood and Common Sandpipers and a couple of a rare vagrant Pectoral Sandpiper a first for both of us. Below is the Wader Island as you can see it's a decent way off, the two birds in the foreground are Greenshanks.

two greenshanks just in front of the island

Here's some footage through Steve's scope of the Greenshanks.

I was lucky enough to get a pic of this Common Sandpiper that came close to the banking.

common sandpiper

 On the other side of the bridge is where the water feeds into the main lake, it channels into a narrow gully with a big reedbed and some trees and bushes because of the lack of rain fall the actual waters edge is about a mile out. We spotted this Peregrine sat on a distant tree stump.

you can just make out the peregrine on the old tree stump

In the gully there were a few Egrets, Herons, and Cormorants all feeding on the abundance of food that must be there for them.

great white egret

great white egret

little egret

little egret (look at them yellow feet)

grey heron swallowing a fish

grey heron

cormorant

There were loads of duck species there including this drake Teal a very handsome bird.

male teal

Steve got some lovely footage of this Grey Wagtail through his scope and I managed to get a decent photo of it.

 

grey wagtail

The highlight of the day for me were the Kingfisher not just to get some incredible views of it but to finally get some decent images.

kingfisher

Steve got some superb footage of this handsome male, again through his scope what a beautiful bird.

There was also a good showing of raptors (birds of prey). As well as the Peregrine we saw Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Marsh Harrier which I managed to get a photo of. There's also recently been Osprey and unbelievably White tailed Eagle there we would have loved to have seen both of those incredible birds but no sign of them on the day we were there.

female marsh harrier

What an incredible place Chew Valley Lake is, it's a massive site and the diversity of birds and wildlife make it well worth a visit can't wait for the next one. We met some really nice people who gave us their local knowledge on the site and the birds there. Once again a massive thank you to my birding best mate Steve Bool for doing the driving and allowing me to use his excellent footage for this blog cheers BM your a star.