19th April 2026 – Pilning Wetlands, Severn Estuary, Gloucestershire

We had a Sunday morning walk along the Severn Estuary between the two bridges that cross the River Severn from England to Wales. We had underestimated the warmth of the sun and had too many warm layers on – it’s not very often you can say that along this stretch, especially in April.

The best of what we saw were a northern wheatear on the warth (the grassy bank next to the river) and a pair of linnets. To the right of the footpath there is a private wetlands (Pilning Wetlands) which you generally need a good telescope to see birds but, by venturing along another footpath, we did get close enough to photograph some little ringed plover and pair of avocets (but not very well). Along the path there were also common whitethroat and another linnet.