SOMERSET LEVELS TOUR 1 – JAN 31ST 2011

Ham Wall Nature Reserve and Bridgewater Bay at Steart Point.

We were so pleased with the Starling roost of last night that we decided to try it again this morning. What a great idea, although the sky was clouded over we had a fantastic time. We left the hotel in the dark and arrived at Ham Wall as it was getting light. We could see tens of thousands of Starlings settled in the reeds very close to the pathway and over the next 30 minutes they erupted into clouds several times before eventually flying off to feed. The noise was incredible, it sounded like huge waves rolling over in the sea and the sheer numbers of birds was mind boggling. A couple of Buzzards and a marsh harrier added to the furore, the harrier took a starling quite close to us.

The six Great White Egrets flew from the reeds and landed on the main pool, which was covered in ice, we also heard a couple of Water Rails and as we departed a female Hen Harrier flew over us, all in all a great start to the day.
After breakfast we set off for Bridgewater Bay at Steart Point, it took about an hour to get there and our first stop produced some new sightings for the weekend list. The tide was well and truly out - in fact we couldn’t see the sea! On the mud we saw good numbers of Curlew and Common Shelduck with a few Redshank. We parked the bus and took to the coastal path which ran along the shore towards Steart Point where a series of hides can be found. A small flock of Greenfinches, then Linnets held our attention for a while, we also watched Skylarks, Lapwings, Song Thrushes and Fieldfares.

From the hides we located Grey and Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Cormorants, Canada Geese, Curlew and lots of Shelduck. The main tower hide was our lunch venue during which time we found an obliging Merlin, a very closely perched Kestrel, a couple of Great Black-backed Gulls and lots of Starlings.

On the way back to the bus we found another Merlin (or possibly the same one) and a large flock of Golden Plover that passed over our heads. Before we left the area we were told of a location where a small party of Pink Footed Geese were to be found, so we stopped to look for them . They were found not too far from where we stood and we all enjoyed the sight of a fairly uncommon bird fore the region.

The Geese were our last sighting, we then drove back to Yeovil Train Station for the journey back to London, a tired but a happy group boarded the train for home at 4:30pm.