I had a wonderful weekend birding in Somerset with my husband, visiting 3 new-to-us reserves: RSPB Ham Wall, RSPB Greylake and Shapwick Heath - a national nature reserve.
On Saturday we visited Ham Wall - this is my new favourite RSPB site.
We had 5 target birds: Bittern, Glossy lbis, Garganey, Ring-necked Duck (which would be a lifer) and Spotted Redshank.
As soon as we arrived the booming Bitterns made themselves known, and just afterwards we heard our first singing Blackcaps of the season.
Early on we found the hoped for Ring-necked Duck (our first target bird), distant views but unmistakable with its domed head, grey sides and white patch at the front of its wing. This is a vagrant from North America so we were lucky to see it.
Ring-necked Duck
We stood for some time at the first viewing platform and, amongst the Black-tailed Godwits, Shovelers, and Coots we saw 3 Redshanks - 2 Common and one Spotted Redshank (target number 2).
First viewing platform
I also had a brief view of a Bittern flying into the reeds (target number 3).
We carried on walking around the reserve seeing lots of other species and checked out the Avalon Hide. It's a lovely big hide with windows in every direction. Although I could hear a Bittern booming close by, there were not many other birds visible from the hide. I did, however, hear one hoot from a Tawny Owl as I walked back down the path - it was only mid-afternoon, so a little unexpected.
There are nice views of Glastonbury Tor from the reserve.
Glastonbury Tor
Returning to the first viewing platform we had amazingly close views of both Glossy Ibis and a drake Garganey (targets 4 and 5)!
Glossy Ibis
Garganey (drake)
Someone I chatted to as I walked around recommended another, smaller RSPB reserve close by, Greylake, which they said was good for Barn Owl and Snipe. We decided to stop off on our way back to the hotel and were very pleased we did.
It was approaching dusk, with calm conditions, and as the sun was setting it gave us beautiful lighting on the close by birds, like this Wigeon.
Wigeon (drake)
We did, indeed, see Barn Owl and Snipe. Most unexpected were the distant Common Cranes coming in to roost! A welcome addition to our year list, and awesome to see!
Common Snipe
Next morning we returned to Greylake. The conditions were quite different - windy and bitterly cold. A surprise sighting in the car park was 5 Redwings - possibly the last time we will see these winter visitors until the end of the year.
From the hide, which unfortunately was in the direct path of the cold wind, we could see lots of Wigeon, Teal and Shovelers, and a few Greylag Geese. We also spotted 3 Curlew.
Curlew
We headed back to RSPB Ham Wall, but before entering the reserve we went across the road to the Shapwick Heath national nature reserve. We walked a long way along the single track until we reached the Noah's Hide. From the hide we saw Kingfisher, hundreds of Wigeon, Tufted Ducks, a Pintail, and another Ring-necked Duck (it may have been the same one although another birder mentioned that there were two)! We also saw Sand Martins feeding over the lake. We had seen our first returning birds the day before, but very high up in the sky. It was good to see them at lake level.
Finally we headed back to Ham Wall where we had a good view of a Bittern flying by, but much worse views of the Garganey than the previous day as it was amongst the reeds at the back of the lake, showing just how much luck plays into our bird sightings.
We spent the rest of the afternoon slowly meandering around the boardwalk and screens, watching a Marsh Harrier resting in the reeds and seeing a Great Crested Grebe pair building their nest.
Great-crested Grebe
We spent a very happy weekend at these 3 reserves, finding a total of 76 species.