The English are renowned for talking about the weather. I suppose the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish are more stoical about the weather they get but here in England we live in anticipation of something much better than the reality; and we are constantly disappointed and don’t stop talking about it.
Well for one reason or another I haven’t been able to get out for a week and I have found looking out of the window quite a miserable experience: we have had such a run of poor weather and there’s certainly not been any reason to enthuse about the joys of spring.
However, today we did get out and, although it didn’t rain (until the evening) it was the sort of day that everything looked black or grey and certainly not the sort of day to take photos.
Yet on our short walk along the coast south of Clevedon on the Bristol Channel I did take some photos. Not many to be truthful and nothing I could be proud of, but I did take some. I wasn’t going to publish them because they were so poor. However, Â in the end I decided to as they serve as a reminder of the miserable pascal weather. I also kept hearing in my ear the Duke of Wellington’s quote of “publish and be damned” (https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/rear-window-when-wellington-said-publish-and-be-damned-the-field-marshal-and-the-scarlet-woman-1430412.html).
On the first part of our walk all I saw were shelduck: they were quite interesting to watch and hear as some of the males were being quite aggressive to each other.
Inland I caught sight of a kestrel which hovered and then perched some distance from me.
All along the coast we could hear skylarks which was the most positive aspect of the walk.
We could also see some flooded fields inland with little egrets, lapwings and (because a very friendly fellow birder pointed them out with his telescope) redshank too. A buzzard was then mobbed by a couple of crows.
Little egret
Redshank huddled together with one standing apart
Lapwing
Little egret in flight
Buzzard being mobbed by crows
Just before the end of our walk I could see a couple of curlew and some oystercatchers and then some people acting very strangely on the mudflats (they weren’t fishing or looking for cockles just searching for some sort of treasure).
Certainly better than sitting at home I suppose.
Curlew
Curlew and oystercatcher
Click below for gallery of photos from today:
Martin's Bird Blog & Nature Photos 
One response to “1st April 2018 – Clevedon Bay”
I find writing blog posts encourages me to take photos when I otherwise wouldn’t bother. If they tell a story, or remind you of the day, then taking them is worthwhile – whatever the weather. It’s been just as bad here in Pembrokeshire – I didn’t even bother taking a long lens with me today – but had I gone to the estuary, I would probably have seen and photographed more or less the same as you. Except for the kestrel – they’ve become really scarce here.
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