A skyfull of Starlings

Tour Leaders: Stephen Moss & Graeme Mitchell

Wednesday 11th January

The word ‘blooter’ is a good Scottish word which can describe a stormy or forceful downpour, and my goodness we enjoyed a few ‘blooters’ which rolled in from the west on our first birdwatching excursion of the new year.

All guests arrived promptly at 2, suitably togged up ready for the worst of the wintry weather, and we heading off full of optimism to the nearby moors and Levels just below the Isle of Wedmore, namely those of Tealham and Tadham Moor. The rain was horizontal as we saw our first egret, a rather elegant, Great White Egret hunched up against the wind in a flooded field next to a similarly hunched up Grey Heron. We tried to get out of the van for a better view, however the wind was gusting so violently we gave it up as a bad idea as it would not have been the best start to our trip if any of our guests had been blown into the deep flooded ditch at the side of the road – known locally as a rhyne – pronounced ‘reen’.

Back in the safety of the van we continued across Tadham Moor stopping in a slightly more sheltered spot to look at a small grouping of Egrets – 3 Little Egrets and 3 Cattle Egrets.

Seeking some proper shelter and to get out of the weather we called in at the Somerset Wildlife Trust’s reserve at Catcott Lows. The hide was empty – just going to prove that no-one else was daft enough to be out birdwatching in weather like this! But outside the hide the flooded fields and scrape was rammed with ducks, geese and swans. There were many Wigeon, Teal and Shoveler feeding and bickering with each other so close to the hide that we hardly needed to use our binoculars to enjoy these colourful birds. Canada Geese were in large numbers along with huge flocks of Lapwings coming and going, however the highlight of our visit were the 6 pairs of smart Pintails.

The hide at Catcott never disappoints and its view of a distant Glastonbury Tor coming out of the rain clouds lifted spirits somewhat as it looked like the weather may improve as we headed over to RSPB Ham Wall reserve in the hope of seeing some Starlings. The weather did not clear that much, and it was a wet and blustery walk from the car park to the first viewing platform where we saw a couple of hunting Marsh Harriers, Grey Heron, Great White Egret and several more flavours of duck – Gadwall, Tufted and Pochard along with several Great Crested Grebes. One Marsh Harrier flushed a large flock of around 100 Snipe which split into two groups, one of which flew low over our heads giving us a wonderful flypast.

The first Starlings appeared just at 4.00pm, flying in out of the darkening clouds, and going straight down into the reeds. This continued for wave after wave, with numbers constantly building until the reedbeds were a solid black with the sheer density of Starlings. The scene has been compared to looking like iron filings being attracted to a magnet. By 4.30 all the birds were in, tightly packed together a short distance from where we were standing. There was no ‘murmuration’ as such, probably because the weather was so bad, however the sheer number of birds, guessed by the RSPB at around 600,000, still put on a memorable show and was enjoyed by all.

Sadly, no Barn Owl appeared on our drive back to Walls Farm, however that evening after we were joined by Stephen, we all enjoyed one of Kay’s delicious meals and had good chat talking birds and setting out our plans for the next couple of days.

Thursday 12th January  

After the very strong overnight westerly winds, we thought we would head down to Burnham seafront for high tide, where we watched – in quick succession – flocks of Shelducks heading upriver and across the point, a dozen Oystercatchers on the Huntspill Sea Wall, 80 Canada Geese across the Brue, 8 Skylarks passing overhead, 1 Great Black-backed Gull bathing on the river, and 75 Lapwings overhead. Then, to our great surprise and delight, 2 Kittiwakes – one adult winter and one juvenile – very low over our heads, before we decided to get out of the wind!

We then drove through Bridgwater (past a Little Egret and some Great Black-backed Gulls in a field en route) to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve at Steart. Again, we were lucky with the weather, as the rain stopped just as we arrived and didn’t start again until we were inside the Quantock Hide! Mrs Moss’s famous ‘the best birds are in the car park rule’ applied as we spotted a flock of Goldfinches, a Marsh Harrier female, and then a Kestrel harassing a larger bird, which turned out to be one of the Short-eared Owls overwintering here! We walked down to the hide past an immaculate pair of Mute Swans, a pair of Brown Hares doing some leaping activity, and some Fieldfares and Redwings. From the hide itself we had wonderful views of several thousand Lapwings and a few hundred Golden Plovers, lots of the usual ducks, including Teal, Wigeon and Shoveler. Then we popped into the Mendip Hide (‘the Gobi Desert’!) where Stephen had brief views of a Merlin and we saw another female Marsh Harrier.

Burrow Mump

After our usual excellent lunch at the King Alfred Inn, Burrow Bridge, we called in to the Burrow Mump car park to look over huge floods from the adjacent rivers Parrett and Tone. As well as lots of Lapwings and ducks, we caught sight of the six Whooper Swans that have been here for a week or two now. In the car park itself, as the sun came out, we enjoyed excellent views of a Mistle Thrush and male Blackcap, both feeding on mistletoe berries!

Greylake

On our way back north, we popped into the RSPB reserve at Greylake – where as ever we had excellent close up views of flocks of Lapwings overhead against the bright blue sky, ducks including Teal and Wigeon, several Snipe feeding very close to the hide, and a distant male Stonechat in almost full breeding plumage; all a wonderful sight and sound on this now lovely winter’s day. On our walk back, Graeme heard a Cetti’s Warbler and spotted a fly-over Sparrowhawk, while in the car park we watched a lady trying to lure a Robin to feed from her hand, and a Dunnock and flock of House Sparrows – the only ones we saw all trip.

Our final visit of the day, like yesterday, was RSPB Ham Wall, now much sunnier and brighter than yesterday. One again we enjoyed views of Snipe flocks passing overhead, and several splendid Marsh Harriers in lovely light, including a cracking male. We also met our old friend Mike Dilger and his bird tour group along the path, where we saw Chiffchaff and heard Little Grebe and Water Rail calling. From the first viewing platform we saw more Marsh Harriers and lots of Lapwings, Little and Great White Egrets, Snipe, and the usual ducks. There were lots of Gadwall, Coots and Shovelers on Loxton’s Marsh (along the path to Tor View Hide, a breeding plumage Great Crested Grebe, and a male Pied Wagtail near the hide. We then returned to the main path, just in time for the first group of Starlings to arrive at 4.10pm. Over the next half hour or so we were treated to a splendid display: not many birds at first, but gradually more and more arrived, staying in the air and flying in close formation thanks to the presence of a Buzzard, and an adult male Peregrine, which harassed the birds four times but never managed a kill. Finally, after sunset the birds landed in the reedbed close to the path, beginning to call to one another, and eventually turning the whole side of that reedbed black! By 16.40 all were in, including a massive flock whooshing over our heads, as the Peregrine finally flew off at 16.50 – a splendid end to a packed day!

Friday 13th January

Our final morning dawned very windy (again!) but fortunately not too wet, as we headed down to the coast; Stephen and Graeme’s ‘coastal patch’, in fact. This time we started in the comparatively sheltered churchyard at West Huntspill, where despite the weather we saw some good birds, including a calling Great Spotted Woodpecker, and better views of an overwintering Chiffchaff (unusual here) and a singing Coal Tit. After a short detour inside the medieval church (with a recital of Philip Larkin’s poem ‘Church Going’ from Stephen), we then drove the short distance to Sloway Bridge, over the River Huntspill. Here we saw three Redwings in the adjacent field, a few Goldfinches, Great Crested Grebe, Cormorant, a pair of Moorhens flying (unusually) and a very brief view of a Kingfisher which flew out from beneath the bridge. Finally, looking east, we noticed half a dozen Goosanders directly underneath the A38 road bridge!

We then headed down to the Sluice, where in a very strong wind we saw about 50 Canada Geese with Shelduck and Mallard on the grass; 6 Cormorants, 1 Avocet, Teal, Wigeon and Redshank on the muddy bar; and thousands of Dunlins, Grey Plover, Avocets etc all swooping around in the wind; a Grey Wagtail (seen by Graeme), about 30 Linnets, and a distant but very active young female Peregrine chasing a panicking Black-headed Gull, which landed on the river to try to escape!

For our final visit we drove north up the A38, and through the medieval town of Axbridge, to Cheddar Reservoir. Much fuller with water than recently, there were plenty of gulls of four species (mainly Black-headed, with about a dozen Common, some Herring and a single Lesser Black-backed, along with Pochard, Tufted Duck, lots of Cormorants and Great Crested Grebes, and a single female Goosander; along with a Goldcrest in the pine trees behind us. We then drove back to Walls Farm to end a damp, windy, but very productive and enjoyable tour!