Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath 6th April 2023

After a short visit to Bristol, to catch up with friends, we moved on to Montacute to see our friends who live there. The weather looked a bit uncertain on the day we had planned to go there but we gave it a shot and managed to both avoid any bad weather and get a couple of good year ticks.

We started out at Ham Wall, looking for any of the three species that had been seen recently; Glossy Ibis, Spotted Redshank and Garganey. It turned out that the Garganey were easy to spot – a mixed group of males and females) but the only Redshank we saw looked more like a Common Redshank. The Ibis was in hiding somewhere.

We walked along the main path and diverted down to the hides which were bitterly cold despite the general weather being fairly good; the wnd whipping off the open water was the culprit. Also new for the year were Pochard of which there were a few. There were the usual range of other common ducks etc but the bushes were full of the sound of Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler; the latter the first of our year. Perhaps more striking was the duiscovery of a couple of Redpolls. I had been looking at them for a while but couldn’t quite see what they were until suddenly their red spots were reflecting in the sun. When a local RSPB volunteer asked us if we had seen anything good so far, we were happy to show him his first Redpolls of the year.

We reached the end of the main path so we walked back to the Shapwich Heath reception but we stopped off again at the first viewing platform where in short time I found the Glossy Ibis; it was on a very thin strip of watery grass in the middle of the water. We got good views of it before it flew off in the direction of Shapwich Heath. Having five good year ticks already, we hoped to get more at Shapwick Heath.

Shapwick Heath turned out to be a little less generous to us allowing only the species we had already seen at the Ham Wall reserve. We hoped we might see an Osprey from Noah’s hide but we were out of luck. A different- but also magnificent – site was a huge flock of around 160 Sand Martin hunting for food over the lake. We did get a Marsh Harrier but we only heard one Bittern booming. It boomed two or three times but then fell silent.

We had had a very good day and, although cold at times, the weather was fairly kind to us. We returned to Montacute to find that it had been raining cats and dogs there. We got lucky!

Bird Sightings : RSPB Ham Wall 6 Apr 2023

Species	No
Black-tailed Godwit	50
Blue Tit	2
Canada Goose	2
Cetti's Warbler	4
Chaffinch	2
Chiffchaff	4
Coot	10
Cormorant	8
Dunnock	2
Gadwall	8
Garganey	6
Glossy Ibis	1
Great Crested Grebe	2
Great Tit	2
Grey Heron	1
Lapwing	6
Little Egret	1
Little Grebe	1
Long-tailed Tit	2
Magpie	2
Mallard	30
Marsh Harrier	2
Mealy Redpoll	2
Mute Swan	4
Pochard	12
Redshank	1
Robin	4
Ruff	2
Shoveler	30
Snipe	20
Teal	6
Tufted Duck	40
Willow Warbler	4
Woodpigeon	5
Wren	2

Bird Sightings : Shapwick Heath 6th April 2023

Species	No
Bittern	1
Canada Goose	2
Carrion Crow	4
Coot	10
Cormorant	3
Gadwall	6
Great Black-backed Gull	2
Great Crested Grebe	1
Greylag Goose	1
Herring Gull	4
Lesser Black-backed Gull	6
Mallard	20
Marsh Harrier	1
Mute Swan	4
Pochard	10
Sand Martin	160
Shoveler	6
Teal	4
Tufted Duck	24
Wigeon	30