Somerset Wild Walks: Shapwick & Ham Wall 27/2

An early start for a drive to Ham Wall, a lovely sunrise but still bitterly cold with a strong wind. A trek to Tor View hide first where we again saw the Grebes but little evidence of the nest they were building yesterday. A Marsh Harrier went down into the reeds, and we saw just one Cattle Egret fly over fairly high in the sky. From the first platform a Great Egret was seen plus Pintail, Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler, Gadwall etc plus about 20 Black tailed Godwits. Leaving the area behind we caught sight of some Goldfinches in the Alders and on closer inspection a few Redpolls as well.

Over to Shapwick side and we followed the track down to Meare hide. A few more duck species on the Scrape now Pochard, Tufted and Gadwall. Walking through the woods down to Mere hide a Sparrowhawk flew past us, no wonder there weren't any birds in the woods! At Meare hide we had our coffee. It was good to see that the reeds had been cut giving a slightly better view. Not too much to be seen though the most exciting being a flock of Gadwall chasing around.

At Noah's the water level was pretty high and frozen around the edges but wow what a sight and sound of 1000's of Wigeon. A few Pintail were seen as well as Tufted and Shoveler. A couple of Cattle Egrets flew low across the water and Marsh Harriers came over a few times. A Heron settled in the corner near the hide disturbing a Snipe that was quite settled feeding. The Kingfisher flew past a few times but didn't settle.

We left Noah's hide and walked back to Ham Wall car park. After some lunch we decided to return to the Tor view hide area. Around the carpark we had some great views of Bullfinches feeding on the new buds and a Goldcrest foraging in the low stems for food.

Waltons trail next as we had heard that the Ferruginous Duck had been seen. Unfortunately it was in hiding when we reached the area. Continuing around Waltons the skies started to turn grey and there were a few bits of snow falling. We quickened our pace and reached the screen with cover just before a beautiful heavy snow shower took hold. It only lasted a few minutes but in that time covered the ice that remained. Quite surreal to watch the birds in the snow including a Kingfisher that hovered in the sky as though it wondered what the hell was going on!

Our last visit to Tor View hide and this time we got a great view of a Water Rail feeding around the margins. 50 bird species seen today ..... Not a bad days birding!