WEATHER: unbroken sunshine all day! Fantastic light with no wind. Top temp 6C
A very chilly start to a perfect sun-shiny day. A heavy frost with low, overnight temperatures, of -3C left a heavy frost covering the ground and lots of frozen water. Guy picked me up at 7:30am and 45 minutes later we arrived at the frosty RSPB Greylake Reserve.
We saw Redwings, Fieldfares and Lapwings along the way and a Marsh Harrier as we walked from the car park to the raised hide. In the reedbeds we watched Reed Buntings and a Robin, a Water Rail cried out from further afield.
A 2-hour vigil ensued, we sat in the raised Hide which is open-ended and bright, warm sunlight warmed our backs. There wasn't a great deal going on out there just a smattering of ducks, Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler, Mallard and Gadwall. They were joined by Common Snipe and Lapwings. As the ground warmed up it softened and the Snipe began feeding. There was a constant presence of Marsh Harriers, they provided most of the entertainment, we even saw a food pass between a juvenile pair, it was probably a practice session in preparation for many future 'passes' in their adult life ahead.
Our main target species did not show, we searched for the Hen Harrier, a 'ringtail' (a female bird), that had been seen several times in the past few days, it never turned up for us. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful sunny morning and it was just great to be out there enjoying it. We did see Water Rail, more Reed Buntings, Common Chiffchaffs, Stonechat, Common Buzzard, Common Crane, Common Kestrel and more Fieldfares. Guy saw a distant Green Sandpiper in flight, but no-one else got onto it.
From Greylake we drove to Ham Wall where, after a quick hot drink we walked to View Point number 1.
We spent an hour or so looking for a second Hen Harrier and once again we were frustrated by a 'no-show'. We also searched for a Jack Snipe amongst about 30-49 Common Snipe, and once again we never found it. No many species were out there on the marsh, the water level had risen and the wader habitat was disappearing fast.
For lunch we drove around to the Avalon Visitor's centre where we sat in the sunshine and ate out Toastie sandwiches.
The last three hour of daylight were spent back at VP 1 at Ham Wall, where we enjoyed our most productive and successful part of the day. near the car park we bumped into a noisy Firecrest and had excellent views of it. Then we bumped into in Ollie, a birder local to us in Yeovil. He accompanied us to VP1 and promptly found the Jack Snipe!! We had good, prolonged views of it and helped other birders get onto it.
We waited for the Starling Roost to begin, a murmuration of approx. 400,000 birds have been seen in recent roost from VP1. At the same time, a 'Ringtail' Hen Harrier has been joining the local Marsh Harrier roost but not before taking a 'starling bed-time snack'.
We waited in anticipation, Marsh Harriers, turned up in good numbers and then, as if by magic, our special bird arrived, the Hen Harrier! Hooray!! It quartered the area of reeds that the Starlings had chosen for their roost site, causing chaos and pandemonium and giving us much more 'Starling' entertainment than we normally have had. Great swirling masses rose from the reedbeds as the harrier pursued a snack, this lasted about twenty minutes. The light began to fade, the activity reduced, we lost sight of the harrier and the starlings settled down to sleep, we assumed that the harrier had taken one of them.
We walked back to the car park hoping to see perhaps an owl, or a Woodcock, but neither appeared. I was hope at 5:30pm thanks to the Guru Taxi service.
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