Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash 23rd Sep 2025

The first birding group outing of the autumn 2025 year was a trip to Pennington Flash on a nice sunny day following some weeks of heavy rain. We didn’t see an awful lot but it was nice to get back into some birding after a long period off

The water levels were back to normal; the last time we were here it was so low that you could walk ten feet from the edge out into where the water usually would be. Thanks to a prolonged period of wet weather, the flash was full again. The primary outlook was onto very large numbers of Coot and Tufted Duck; possibly 300 of the former and 200 of the latter. There were also Great Crested Grebes and Mallard and Canada Goose. At the Horrocks hide the scrape of lad was largely under water and what was above water was densely vegetated so not too many birds to see. We did get a nice group of half a dozen Little Grebes and there was the odd Grey Heron.

At the new hide (the next one after Horrock’s) we got good views of a pair of Kingfishers who remined perched for a considerable time showing well. There were the expected Robins, Wrens, Dunnocks and Tits and we also got some Long-tailed Tits and a Cetti’s Warbler (heard) at the Bunting Hide. Before I got to the Bunting Hide, I decided to take a detour off the main return path which I had seen often enough but I decided to follow it this time. I did think that it was a short semi-circular path that returned to the main path before you reach the Tel Hide but in fact it led down to the stream and followed that all the way along. The only point where you can return to the path is by the right turn that brings you out at the Bunting Hide. So, I missed the hides in between – I was told I hadn’t missed anything.

At the Bunting hide, all the ground was deep under water and there was no food on the tables. There were odd birds popping in including Chaffinch, Blue and Great Tits, Robins and Dunnocks but not the usually busy place that we hope for.

So, not a spectacular haul of species but it was nice to start birding again..