April 29, 2013 archive

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. Continue reading

Visit to RSPB Ham Wall 29th April 2013

Visit to RSPB Ham Wall 29th April 2013

We had a day off birding on the 28th as we went walking with the friends we were staying with. Even then we did see a Willow Warbler and a Rock Pipit. We left our friends on the 29th but we decided that we could afford another couple of hours visiting the RSPB reserve at Ham Wall and the adjoining Natural England reserve at Shapwick Heath. We hoped to see the Black-winged Stilts for a second time but when we got to the “second platform” they were nowhere to be seen. Still there were plenty of Gadwall and the flock of Black-tailed Godwits we had seen up at Shapwick Heath seemed to have moved over to the marshes here. We did see a drake Garganey however which was the first for us for the year. Continue reading