Visit to RSPB Shapwick Heath 29th April 2013

Visit to RSPB Shapwick Heath 29th April 2013

Flushed with our glorious sighting of three Bitterns at the Ham Wall end of Ashcott Road, we crossed over the car park and onto the Shapwick Heath reserve. We walked up to the pools on Meare Heath and there were a couple of people who had been standing for quite a while hoping to see a Great White Egret that had apparently been seen well earlier in the day. We had a bit of a look but as there wasn’t much on the water and so sight of the Egret we thought we would ead up to the hides at the bridge. As it happens, the bridge was closed ff for some repair work so we did not cross over the water to the woodland hide and instead turned left down to the hide that overlooks “Noah’s Water” Again there were Whitethroat around and Swallows above.At the hide all was quiet for a while with mainly Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the water. We saw a single Great Crested Grebe and then suddenly one, the to, then four or more Hobbies started flying over the water low down giving us by the best views of this bird we had ever had. We watched for a long time but we knew we had limited time to spend before getting on our way and we wanted to stop for a bit back at the pool on our way back. Just before we left the hide however we had the chance to get a good, if short, view of a Marsh Harrier fly low over the hide in the direction of Ham Wall.

As we got back to the body of water, the chap we had seen earlier, informed us that the Great White Egret had been showing itself for frustratingly short periods at the back of the water amongst the reed beds. As we looked on, however, the bird rose up and flew a short distance over the reed bed before coming back down again. It did this a couple of times giving us reasonable if distant views. In fact, although I did not see it myself, others said that there were in fact two of them visible at the same time.

A gentleman we had been speaking to earlier came along and pointed out to us a little bird that we had been to busy looking at the Great White Egret to spot – our first Little Ringed Plover of the year !

Another great day birding. Bitterns, Great White Egrets, Hobbies, Marsh Harrier, lots of Warblers and a Little Ringed Plover to top it all off ! Be that as it may we had to get back on the road so we got back in the car and set off north but again we were going to stop over in Simbridge so that we could pay a quick visit to the WWT reserve before heading off to Manchester.

Bird Sightings : Shapwick Heath