Summary April 2025
New “Year Ticks” in April 2025: 19
New “Life Ticks” in April 2025: 0
Total Species for 2025 so far: 103
We managed to fit in a visit to Burton Mere Wetlands and Parkgate on the 1st of April. At Burton we got our first Little Ringed Plover of the year but also a had a few other nice birds but nothing else particularly special. It was a lovely, sunny day though. We had to go to Bristol to visit some ill friends so we decided to stop off there for a night and then move on to Montacute. On our way down we gor a pair of Red Kites whilst having a cup of tea at Gloucester Services, with Tebay, one of the nicest motorway services in the country.
While we were in Montactute we took advantage of the chance to visit RSPB Ham Wall reserve and the neighhbouring Shapwick Heath on the 5th April. It was another unusually nice day though there was a cold wind coming off the lakes there. The whole area was alive with bird song and the sound of booming Bitterns. The Bitterns were year ticks but we also got a couple more.
We left Montacute on the 7th April and headed off for Slimbridge where we were staying at the Tudor Lodge Pub. As you would expect we visited WWT Slimbridge on both the 7th and 8th of April and got a paticularly close view of a flying Crane, just a few metres from us at more or less head height. Other good birds were Russian White-fronted Geese, Barnacle Geese, Kingfisher and Black Swan.
We managed to fit in the last birding group outing of the month on 29 April at Leosowe Lighthouse where we didn’t see the Whinchat or Ring Ousel we hoped for but we did get year tick Wheatear and Whitethroat and on a beautiful sunny and still day we discovered a whole new part of the site we hadn’t know about before.
In the garden the birds are very busy collecting their nesting material and a Dunnock was singing all day for the first few days of the month. We continue to get a good range of birds though the smaller ones are in low numbers.
Our hedghogs probably put in their first appearances whilst we were away but I put the cameras out as soon as we got back and straight away we got, first one, then a couple of days later, a second hog. I gave them a new clean feeding box this year and they seem to have accepted it whereas when I tried this last year they wouldn’t go near it. I assume becasue it did not smell “right”. Anyway they are around for a brief visit every night now but, at least in the first two-thirds of the month usually more often around 3am which is later than I would have imagined. There is one that is much smaller than the other. As the month wore on there seemed only to be one hog and he started to shun the food – perhaps he doesn’t like the new box or perhaps the food is a bit ild – I will experiment.
New Sightings for April 2025
| No | Species/Place |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cetti's Warbler Burton Mere Wetlands 1 April 2025 |
| 2 | Rook Burton Mere Wetlands 1 April 2025 |
| 3 | Little Ringed Plover Burton Mere Wetlands 1 April 2025 |
| 4 | Red Kite En Route to Somerset 3 April 2025 |
| 5 | Kestrel En Route to Somerset 3 April 2025 |
| 6 | Swallow En Route to Somerset 4 April 2025 |
| 7 | Greenfinch Montacute 5 April 2025 |
| 8 | Bittern RSPB Ham Wall 5 April 2025 |
| 9 | Willow Warbler RSPB Ham Wall 5 April 2025 |
| 10 | Blackcap RSPB Ham Wall 5 April 2025 |
| 11 | Crane WWT Slimbridge 7 April 2025 |
| 12 | Barnacle Goose WWT Slimbridge 7 April 2025 |
| 13 | Black Swan WWT Slimbridge 7 April 2025 |
| 14 | White-fronted Goose WWT Slimbridge 7 April 2025 |
| 15 | Reed Warbler WWT Slimbridge 7 April 2025 |
| 16 | Sparrowhawk WWT Slimbridge 8 April 2025 |
| 17 | Kingfisher WWT Slimbridge 8 April 2025 |
| 18 | Wheatear Leosowe Lighthouse 29 April 2025 |
| 19 | Whitethroat Leosowe Lighthouse 29 April 2025 |