Somerset - Day 3 - Ham Wall

Our final day and with the weather looking good we decided to spend the day at RSPB Ham Wall.

The weather was brilliant today although when we were in the 'new' Avalon hide a nasty cold wind blew through the windows across the reed beds. So that's where we started in the Avalon hide, watching the comings and goings across the reed beds and in the open water in front of the hide, I'll start off with a Merlin, but not the feathered variety, the heavy metal variety, the RAF and Navy were out in force today with the  noise of rotors nearly always in the background, even as an avid aviation enthusiast when I'm bird watching it gets a bit much, must right to the Naval Base at Yeovilton, to tell them to lay off too much flying when we are down there!

 Back to the birds, can never resist photographing Great Crested Grebe, such beautiful creatures,

 We had loads of Bittern sightings, though photographing them wasn't so easy!

 Swan and Cygnets are always good for the cute factor.

After a couple of coffees and getting very cold we decided to warm up and go for a walk, stopping fairly soon for great views of this Glossy Ibis,

and from the same spot a very distant Ruff not that you can really tell from this photo, but it looked good through the scope:

We continued our walk seeing loads of Damsel flies, Dragonflies and Butterflies,

 We were worried about this chick on the path, but just as I put my camera down, dad came out of the undergrowth and collected it, before I could pick it up again! It was a Blackcap by the way.

 For completeness here's a Whitecap, sorry not really funny! (we didn't put it there honest)

We carried on to the viewing platform, screens and the 'jetty' hide (don't know what else to call it)
and had some more good sightings,
Loads more Bittern,

 Tufted Duck,

 Hobby,

 Battling Coot,

 Gadwall,

 Pochard,

 Little Grebe,

 Great Crested Grebe, biting off more than it could swallow,

 Goldfinch,

 More Butterflies,

 very obliging Whitethroat,

 Great White Egret,

 and Goldcrest.

A really fabulous time was had, Ham Wall still rates as one of our favourite reserves.

A full list for the three days:

Bittern  ("Botaurus stellaris")

Blackbird  ("Turdus merula")

Blackcap  ("Sylvia atricapilla")

Black-headed Gull  ("Chroicocephalus ridibundus")

Black-tailed Godwit  ("Limosa limosa")

Blue Tit  ("Cyanistes caeruleus")

Buzzard  ("Buteo buteo")

Carrion Crow  ("Corvus corone")

Cetti's Warbler  ("Cettia cetti")

Chaffinch  ("Fringilla coelebs")

Chiffchaff  ("Phylloscopus collybita")

Coal Tit  ("Periparus ater")

Collared Dove  ("Streptopelia decaocto")

Common Tern  ("Sterna hirundo")

Coot  ("Fulica atra")

Cormorant  ("Phalacrocorax carbo")

Gadwall  ("Anas strepera")

Glossy Ibis  ("Plegadis falcinellus")

Goldcrest  ("Regulus regulus")

Goldfinch  ("Carduelis carduelis")

Great Crested Grebe  ("Podiceps cristatus")

Great Spotted Woodpecker  ("Dendrocopos major")

Great Tit  ("Parus major")

Great White Egret  ("Ardea alba")

Greater Canada Goose  ("Branta canadensis")

Greenfinch  ("Chloris chloris")

Grey Heron  ("Ardea cinerea")

Hobby  ("Falco subbuteo")

Jackdaw  ("Corvus monedula")

Jay  ("Garrulus glandarius")

Kestrel  ("Falco tinnunculus")

Kingfisher  ("Alcedo atthis")

Lapwing  ("Vanellus vanellus")

Lesser Black-backed Gull  ("Larus fuscus")

Lesser Whitethroat  ("Sylvia curruca")

Little Egret  ("Egretta garzetta")

Little Grebe  ("Tachybaptus ruficollis")

Long-tailed Tit  ("Aegithalos caudatus")

Magpie  ("Pica pica")

Mallard  ("Anas platyrhynchos")

Marsh Harrier  ("Circus aeruginosus")

Moorhen  ("Gallinula chloropus")

Mute Swan  ("Cygnus olor")

Nuthatch  ("Sitta europaea")

Peregrine  ("Falco peregrinus")

Pochard  ("Aythya ferina")

Red Kite  ("Milvus milvus")

Redshank  ("Tringa totanus")

Reed Bunting  ("Emberiza schoeniclus")

Reed Warbler  ("Acrocephalus scirpaceus")

Robin  ("Erithacus rubecula")

Ruff  ("Philomachus pugnax")

Sedge Warbler  ("Acrocephalus schoenobaenus")

Sparrowhawk  ("Accipiter nisus")

Spotted Flycatcher  ("Muscicapa striata")

Swift  ("Apus apus")

Teal  ("Anas crecca")

Tufted Duck  ("Aythya fuligula")

Whitethroat  ("Sylvia communis")

Woodpigeon  ("Columba palumbus")