4th Jan - cloudy, 8C, light SW

Today I made my way to Cardiff for a planned meeting tomorrow so it was an ideal opportunity to drop in at a few places on the way.  Cutting across country I stopped at Stow on the Wold to see the Blue rock Thrush that was still present hoping for some further photos.  The bird was found, sitting on top of a chimney, it did not show very well and with dull cloudy weather photography was not good.

So, after a short while I headed off towards Saul and Armingham that are small villages on the Severn meander, here several Cattle Egret have been regular for the winter.  None were located and I decided to head off to the Severn bend bank where a Richards Pipit has been for several days.

I walked out to the bank along a restricted by-road, there were plenty of Redwing and Fieldfare around the fields, plus other usual residents.  Once on the bank I headed off in the last known Pipit location looking and scanning as I went.  On the Severn mud banks a few Shelduck were feeding.  Two other birders had been looking and had said they nhad just seen the Pipit fly over and head to an adjacent field, searching focused on this area.  Searching for an hour did not locate it so we broadened the search area back to where it had flown from.  It was nice to see two Stonechat (m&f) and plenty of Meadow Pipits here.  One of the birders found it feeding along the tall grass on the edge of the Severn bank, popping in to view then disappearing again.  So, although seen the views were limited, it finally disappeared in long grass.

My next plan was to go to the Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetland trust reserve but more time had been spent here than planned.  The local birders told me where Cattle Egret went to roost so I decided to have a look back at the first site then go to the roost site.  Again  none seen at the first site, so I hoped for the roost site.

In place at the alleged roost site, a large lake with tree covered islands, I waited patiently, a Nuthatch and Great-spotted Woodpecker were heard calling in the woodland and on the lake two each of Teal, Gadwall and Shoveler were messing about, a Kingfisher was busy feeding along the edge, a pair of Mistle Thrush were on the adjacent parkland field.   Several Cormorant had taken up their roost sites in the tall trees and a Little Egret flew in and roosted on a low branch.  Alas, no other egrets came in this evening so I headed off to the car to continue to Cardiff.