Somerset.... mainly Ham Wall RSPB

 So still catching up with stuff from June! We booked a week in Somerset in between visits to Birmingham. Ham Wall is one of our favourite reserves in the UK, mind you we do have lots of favourites 😂

Ham Wall:

Marsh Harrier

Dragonfly, not sure of species,

Growing up fast! A young Great Crested Grebe,

Great White Egret,

Broad-bodied Chaser,

Glastonbury Tor,

Dragonfly (species?),

At Westhay Moor, Great Crested Grebe, with chicks,

Dad bringing lunch home 

that was way too big! Eventually 'mom' had to eat it

Marsh Harrier back at Ham Wall,

Tufted Duck,

Little Grebe with two youngsters,

Merlin!

Black-tailed Skimmer (female),

Swans on one of the channels.

Black-tailed Skimmer (male),

Plenty of female Mallard, theres a few Gadwall in there too.

Grey Heron,

Mallard young at Chew Valley.

Gatekeeper Butterfly,

Common Blue Damselfly,

Broad-bodied Chaser,

Little Egret,

and a very distant blurred shot of a Bittern! We had quite a few Bittern sightings at Ham Wall but this is the only photo that is vaguely identifiable 😌

A few Days on the Somerset Levels

So with being retired and a week free, we booked a last minute cottage down in Somerset near RSPB Ham Wall and all the other fantastic reserves down there. Our main focus was Ham Wall but we also visited RSPB Greylake, SWT Catcott and SWT Shapwick Heath, (SWT = Somerset Wildlife Trust)

We only had 3 full days and visited Ham Wall each day, the first day was just Ham Wall. The weather was kind to us in that we were always in a hide when it rained! We did start with a bit of a hiccup though, I left one of the food bags in the house before we set off, so instead of putting our feet up when we got there on the Monday afternoon, it was a quick shopping run to Lidl near Glastonbury. Mia Culpa!

So day one at Ham Wall...
Great Spotted Woodpecker at the Visitor Centre,

Sparrowhawk,

 Coot,

 Great Crested Grebe,

 Tufted Duck,

 Rain!!,

 Great Crested Grebe and Chicks in the rain!,

 Cormorant & Mallard having a dry out after the downpour!

 Lapwing,

 Crow,

 Glastonbury Tor,

 Great White Egret,

 Pochard and ducklings,

 Reed Warbler,

 Great Crested Grebe again!

 Gadwall,

 Garden Warbler

Of course more were seen with a glimpse of Cuckoo and Bittern to add but no decent pics.

Day 2 we popped to Catcott First before going to Ham Wall and were rewarded with some
Cattle Egrets,

 Whitethroat,

 Reed Warbler,

 Grey Heron and

 Willow Warbler.

 A Bittern and Goldcrest were seen too, but both were too quick and flighty for me to get a picture. Calcott is a lovely reserve, with great walks and good hides, well worth a visit. So after a couple of hours there we spent the rest of the day back at Ham Wall.
Marsh Harrier,

 Pterodactyl, I mean Grey Heron!

 Great Crested Grebelet!

 Cygnets,

 Marsh Harrier,

 angry Coot,

 Reed Warbler,

 a snapshot of a retreating Bittern,

 Canada Geese.

 Great Crested Grebe (again!!)

 Black-tailed Godwit,

So day three took us to RSPB Greylake firsst, it's been as few years since we last visited, and to be honest we were a bit disappointed. The fields in front of the hides were a bit overgrown, I remember watching Lapwings and some waders here, but not a sign this time, although we did see a Cetti's Warbler from the path.

The only other bird of note was a distant Marsh Harrier.

So we headed back to Ham Wall, but parked first at the opposite car park for Shapwick Heath and just had a shortish walk to the first tower hide, what we thought would be overlooking the muddy shores of the pool, but the water level was high and no mud, so no waders which was again disappointing! Having said that we did get a Bittern flying across,

in addition there were plenty of Damsel and Dragonflies about,
Blue Azure Damselfly,

 Black-tailed Skimmer? (not good at Dragonfly id!)

 Great White Egret,

 Marsh Harrier.

 Four Spotted Chaser,

 and ?

We stayed about an hour then went back over to Ham Wall for the rest of the afternoon.
?

 Marsh Harriers passing lunch

 Bittern fly by,

 Grey Heron

 and a Chinook to round off the day!

So that's a round up of three days in somerset, 60 species of bird in all.