Visit to RSPB Ham Wall 27th April 2013

Visit to RSPB Ham Wall 27th April 2013

Part of our holiday involved staying with friends in Montacute in South Somerset and, as we had been reading a lot recently about the RSPB reserve at Ham Wall and the adjoining Natural England reserve at Shapwick Heath, this seemed like an ideal opportunity to check these reserves out. As we approached the sites our friends commented that the times they had been here before it had been more or less deserted so when we arrived at the car park and it was full to overflowing we realised that something was up – that something was an ongoing “twitch” The question was what species had been spotted ?We enquired of a chap in the car park and he told us that everyone was here to try to see the Black-winged Stilts and also possibly the Pied-billed Grebe the latter of which had been around for several weeks. The Stilts were new however. We raced off down the path to the second platform where we hoped to find them. It is quite amazing how well tall birds like Stilts can hide themselves but, with the help of another birder, we eventually located three Black-winged Stilts – a “life tick” for us. We also enquired about the Pied-billed Grebe but it had not been seen by anyone that day. We stayed for as long as we could before deciding that the wind was too bitter to bear for long.

We walked back much more slowly and down at reed bed level it was more protected and actually quite warm. The reed beds were full of the sounds of Reed and Sedge Warblers and we saw our first Swifts of the year swooping around high up. The bushes and trees were full of Blackcaps, Tits and Wrens.

We stopped off at the hide that is deep into the reed beds and from here we could hear Bitterns booming ! – but still no sight of one. I could have spent all day just wandering up and down and slloking across the marshes and reed beds but the others were getting hungry and wanted to go off to Glastonbury to get some lunch. I preferred to keep on birding so I suggested they they went off and came back to pick me up later while  I crossed the car park to walk along the path of the adjoining Natural England reserve of Shapwick Heath.

Bird Sightings : RSPB Ham Wall

Map of Ham Wall

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