Birdwatching 1 - England 0

While the rest of the country was glued to their T.V. sets to watch the Rugby World Cup Final a bold group ventured out into the teeth of a gale to look for some birds, with the proviso of a comms blackout so as Graeme could watch the rugby in the evening.

By the time we had reached Steart Marshes, the weather had eased somewhat and we were welcomed by what seems to be our usual welcoming committee of a pair of Ravens, and as we walked along the path to the Quantocks Hide, skirting the large puddles, an obliging male kestrel hovered close by. It is really amazing how still this little falcon can hover in such strong gusting winds.

The high grassy bank that surrounds the lagoon teased us with just the odd lapwing taking off, but if you stood on tip-toes, there were more goodies hunkered down out of the wind. Michelle had treated her dad Paul, for a special 70th birthday treat and he had travelled down from Yorkshire, and Margaret from Towcester could not quite peep over the grassy bank, so it was a trifle unfair for the taller amongst the party to coo too much about the two large white birds that were lurking there until we reached the comfort of the hide. Fortunately, the two spoonbills had not moved an inch and were settled with their long bills tucked initially under their wings enabling us to zoom in on them with the telescope to get great views of these wonderful rare birds. On the lagoon were large numbers of Lapwing and Golden Plover. Other waders included good numbers of Dunlin along with some redshank and one solitary Greenshank. There were Herons, Little Egrets and a good number of ducks including Wigeon, Mallard, Teal, and Shelduck. 

spoonbills

“What’s the large red bird?” Michelle’s dad asked.

“That’s a plastic bucket, Paul…. but always good to check…”

Michelle had a good giggle at her poor dad’s expense.

Something must have passed overhead, as all the birds took off together, showing the quite different wing shapes between the various birds. Often it can even be just a passing Kestrel that can spook the birds, although I would guess they do not want to take the chance should that dark shape turn into a Peregrine.

Walking up to the Mendip hide we were followed by the liquid call of a large flock of Skylarks and some Pheasants were strutting their stuff in a nearby stubble field. The view from the Mendip hide was pretty bleak across to Brent Knoll in the distance. The rain had come on again and we sheltered from the worst of it in the comfort of what are possibly the poshest hides in Somerset. Outside more Little Egrets seemed nonplussed by the rain and in the distance, some Canada Geese flew over in perfect formation.

Walking back to the van we enjoyed a nice group of Linnets and a singing Cetti’s Warbler calling from the depths of a reed bed - heard but not seen.

Fortunately, the rain eased enough for us to have a warming cup of tea at the back of the van whilst watching a ‘Charm’ of Goldfinch on the birdfeeders in the car park. 

Sadly Graeme’s joke of guaranteeing to see some cranes in Somerset again was met with similar derision as from previous groups when he pointed over to the construction site at Hinkley Point Power Station.

Wot? That’s my best joke…..

We soon headed off back inland to try and find the real thing.

Somerset Cranes have had a good season with approximately 24 pairs attempting to breed - and a Crane is indeed the tallest bird in Europe….. however, the Somerset Levels is a big area…

When we got into position close to the River Parrett there were no Cranes to be seen anywhere, we did, however, get good views of Fieldfares our largest winter thrush and in the distance was a lone buzzard looking for earthworms. We agreed to give it one more go from another nearby vantage point. In travelling there we had the added bonus of seeing a distant grouping of around 8 Cattle Egret, our second Egret of the day. After scanning for only a couple of minutes Graeme gave a cry that he had spotted them….loads of them… the largest group of Cranes he had ever seen on the Levels. We all had great views through the telescope of 15 Somerset Cranes – not bad, out of a total local population of between 40-50 individual birds.

Cranes

Warmed by our sighting, we went off to King Alfred’s favourite pub after visiting the spot where he is reputed to have ‘Burnt the cakes’.

After a lovely lunch, we were back out in the field visiting the RSPB’s reserve at Greylake. There were many ducks of varying flavours especially good views of Shoveller, Gadwall and Teal. In the air were large flocks of Golden Plover and Lapwing wheeling overhead and we saw our first Great White Egret of the day, along with 4 disappearing Snipe that shot off when we reached the hide. 

A really unexpected sighting was a juvenile Hobby which sat for the best part of 15 minutes on a fence post enabling us to get close views via the telescope, indeed at one point, we had the Hobby on one post and a Buzzard on the next post - both in the telescope viewer at the same time. It had been relatively mild autumn up until now, however, we all agreed the young falcon was looking rather perplexed with the current wintery weather, and should probably be heading south to look for some sunshine pretty soon.

At the Somerset Wildlife Trust reserve at Catcott we had terrific views of both male and female Marsh Harriers quartering the watery landscape in front of the hide. There were good numbers of Greylag Geese (which breed here) and a little wren was mousing around just outside the hide.

Our last visit was to be a quick stop off at RSPB Ham Wall to see if any of the growing numbers of Starling flocks we had been seeing all day were going to come in and roost in one large murmuration. When we got into position the Starlings did indeed come in in large numbers, many many thousands, but while this was impressive enough they did not swirl around as they can do later in winter. They simply flew in and went straight down into the reeds - I wonder why this was?

In addition to the Starling action, we saw a few Pochard and Tufted ducks along with our first Coots of the day, and as a last-minute treat, Mary pointed out a tern that was flitting around one of the ponds. The Tern was, in fact, a Black Tern which was very exciting (for Graeme), and marginally puzzling for Michelle as it was not black. Trust me, Michelle, it was a Black Tern, just in its winter plumage.

Once the World Cup Rugby Final was viewed that evening it was agreed that we had had a much better day out birdwatching, rather than being sat on the sofa watching a rather miserable losing match.