At Ham Wall Friday evening after the rain, 3 cuckoos calling, 4 hobbies behind VP2, which at one point clubbed together to mob a female marsh harrier, behaviour I’ve never seen before. Barn owl from VP1 and lots of young, including a newly fledged family of whitethroats right next to the path.

3 Redshank were on 2VP lagoon this evening with a handful of Blackwit. Habitat shaping up very nicely. There were 2 Redshank on Catcott a couple of days ago but I suspect they are breeders.

Imm Purple Heron on Noah’s around 8pm viewed from the main path, before flying across to Meare Heath West and landing in a dead tree. 3 Eg Geese still. Maybe there are just 3 (I saw 3 a few days ago but suspected a 4th was hidden away somewhere).

I guess that will go down as ‘the Spring that never was’.  But moving on…

Yesterday evening on the 2VP lagoon, Ham Wall, an LRP and a Green Sand were a most welcome sight.

Robert Kelsh has seen a drake and 2 duck Garganey at Greylake this pm, so presumably there are 4 birds total today. He also saw a Ruff.

Small group of sand martins at Ham Wall this afternoon.

Shapwick first thing today:  2 Eg Geese, a pair of Goldeneye (!), and swarms of Sand Martins. Thought they were Starlings when I first saw them, there could easily have been 1000.
Ham Wall:  1 Red Kite just to the north, and the hybrid aythya still.
Greylake:  a pair of Garganey in front of the hides and a second drake on the floods behind the hides.
Westhay:  15 Goosander from London Drove and 51 Cattle Egrets with cattle a mile to the east by the road.

Thursday - Female Hen Harrier flew south through Catcott at 3pm. Bitterns booming on Shapwick (SH) / Meare (MH) Heaths & Ham Wall (HW) - also Greylake on Wed eve (4 Lapwings displaying there) - 4 Sand Martin over MH pool, lots more at Noah’s. Chiffchaff singing in MH woods, others calling at HW. It was noticeably quiet, from a human point of view, which meant 2 breeding condition GW Egrets were stalking along the canal & a G Heron fishing by Noah’s Hide. Wigeon numbers are definitely dropping everywhere, but still plenty to be seen, along with 3pr of Pintail at Noah’s. A couple of cut out Bittern pics by the SH walkway threw me for a bit (lot less mobile than the weasel we saw there in Jan). Wed pm the water levels at Muchelney were dropping fast, but the RN Duck was showing well & an adult Med Gull flew over calling (thanks to DC for pointing them out), also a couple of Curlew, hopefully on breeding territory ( 9 Redshank at Oath on Sat were presumably also heading back to summer).

Shapwick hides have signs on the doors asking you not to enter if you, or people you know, have cough or high temperature & saying you must wash your hands immediately upon entry! HW toilets are open, so you can do it there. SH & HW car parks are both currently free to use (I guess they don’t want machines broken into, as that will cost a lot more than they’ll collect). At least Greylake still has the shelter next to hide, if latter closes (the ducks have been sheltering to the right side, as cold wind coming from that direction).

19-Mar-2020
c.20 Sand Martins at Ham Wall this afternoon, over Waltons; 2 Grt W Egrets & 5 Little Egrets on Tealham Moor.

Noah’s early morning: 4 very lively Egyptian Geese - surely they’ll attempt to breed - 2 Whoopers and 1 drake Goldeneye still.
Hybrid duck still Ham Wall but it has a v dark grey back so good call Mike M, probably is Pochard x Tufted.  3 Cattle Egrets were with 2 Littles in the field next to the car park.
A smart drake Garganey appeared in front of the Greylake hides at midday shortly after a Peregrine had shaken everything up, plus 2 Redshank.  Someone else there had also seen Peregrines copulating today on a pylon.

The ringtail Hen Harrier I’ve seen twice at Catcott this winter is almost certainly an adult female. Whitish ground colour to underparts, no warm tones, crisp dark secondary barring…  (and well done Dave on a great RBGull find today)

Brief visits only today:
The ringtail Hen Harrier flew through Catcott reserve east to west at midday.
A Red Kite was just north of Ashcott village late afternoon. Also around 70 Cattle Egrets in fields south of Ham Wall but impossible to count them properly.

3 Sand Martins over Noahs this morning, Also the 2 Whooper Swan,1 Firecrest, 2 Bearded Reedlings, 3 Lesser Redpoll + singing Chiff chaffs and booming Bitterns.

Avocets can regularly be seen swimming on the Exe at high tide.

& Tufted x Pochard are often mistaken for RN Duck: http://birdhybrids.blogspot.com/2014/04/common-pochard-x-tufted-duck.html
See Paul Chapman’s photos from a couple of years ago at 220: https://ebird.org/region/GB-ENG-SOM

Here we go!  1 Sand Martin was on Shapwick this morning briefly.
Also an Avocet that flew round Noah’s Lake, dropped behind the reeds in the SW corner and finally ended up swimming out in the middle with the Wigeon.  All very bizarre.
2 Whoopers still, a drake Goldeneye and 2 Egyptian Geese.

On Ham Wall, an aythya hybrid showing well just to the east of Tor Hide.  Looked very good for a Ring-necked Duck x Tufted Duck drake just going by the Collins guide.  Would be good if someone else saw it though and could give an opinion.

Still loads of wildfowl on Greylake but I couldn’t pick out a Garganey.  And no Stonechats anywhere today.

Seems the GWTeal was a one day bird, and probably now residing at Chew.

Today, 70 Blackwits on Ham Wall and 3 on Greylake. Huge flocks of Lapwing and Golden Plover distantly at Greylake, maybe 1000 of each. Bumper berry crop on the Shapwick main drag and c100 Redwing taking full advantage. 4 Cattle Egrets with the cows near Ham Wall car park.

GWTeal 2VP…
Also a Water Pipit from 1VP, 2 Grey Wag, plenty of Chiff-chaffs, a few Redwing around the car park and a Redpoll;  plus a few Cattle Egrets in with the close cows from the railway bridge but hard to know how many.