06-July-2024 (10:00 to 12:00 hrs)
This morning, during strong winds, there were 21 Cattle Egrets (largest group 10), mostly flying around distant grazing cattle; 3 Little Egrets, 1 GW Egret, 2 Grey Herons, and a Bittern that made two brief up & down flights north of the central drainage rhyne and eventually flew low L to R across in front of the hide at 11:15 hrs, disappearing from sight. Otherwise c.20 Swifts, 3 House Martins, a Stock Dove, 3 Reed Buntings, 2 Common Buzzards and 4 Mallards - the only ducks present.

There is now a decent amount of mud in front of the Lows hide. This evening it held seven lapwing and a green sandpiper, with two little egrets and a cattle egret also giving good views.

Three cranes from the Lows hide at 2045 hrs this evening. All three wing-flapping and jumping together. Watched for 5 minutes before they flew in to denser vegetation and disappeared.

Short-eared Owl was seen from the hide at about 6pm on 1st April.

Ring tail Hen Harrier showing Saturday 30th in the morning just briefly . And the Male Hen Harrier appeared briefly Sunday 31st early afternoon.

Male hen harrier hunting over the Lows at 0830 this morning. My first willow warbler and swallow of the year too. Duck numbers continue to reduce: 8 mallard, 15 shoveler, 40 wigeon, 25 teal.

Ringtail Hen Harrier flew E to W at 3.45pm this afternoon. Also Bullfinch pair seen along track to south hide. Sparrowhawk and Marsh Harrier also about.

Tuesday 26 December. 0910hrs. Four Cranes flew in from the west and landed close to the bridge towards Shapwick. Viewable from The Lows hide. Good numbers of Wigeon & Teal, some Shoveler, Lapwings and a Little Grebe from the hide.  Ten plus Siskins and a Kingfisher along the track east of the car park.

Always worth walking down the track to the Lows hide: a goldfinch charm in the alders, also dropping down to feed on the track; the three lesser redpoll and single siskin with them preferring to stay up in the trees. Approaching the hide a scan of the marsh picked out a peregrine which stayed for a few minutes, as well as the usual marsh harrier. Duck numbers similar to 9th December, although twice as many teal and a few mallard.

Plenty of duck from the Lows hide this morning: 400 wigeon, 70 teal, 35 shoveler and a single male pintail. Two marsh harriers putting up small groups of snipe.

6 days ago just a handful of mallard from the Lows hide. This afternoon 125 wigeon and single figure teal and shoveler.

A lovely male hen harrier drifting over the Lows this afternoon. Two marsh harriers and a few fieldfare. Still no duck…

Arrived at the Lows hide at 1720 this evening where a fellow-birder had just seen a ring-tail hen harrier. Hoping that it would show again we watched a barn owl hunting over the Lows for half an hour. Not sure if the owl put up the harrier, but it did reappear for 5 minutes, pursued some of the time by the owl. Harrier dropped into the vegetation about 1750, quite probably to roost.

A busy 10 minutes at the Catcott Lows hide yesterday evening (12th).  A hobby hunting over the far end towards Canada Farm at 2115 hrs (this seems to be a favoured area). A few minutes later a barn owl drifted past, a few yards from the hide window. Then a female sparrowhawk landed in the rushy margins on the far side of the pool and sat there for a couple of minutes, presumably contemplating the kill it had missed. The barn owl, meanwhile, had returned to sit on a fence 150 yards away. It was still sitting there when I left at 2150.

4 Glossy Ibis were present this morning before flying off and circling around a few times before heading off in eastwards. Also 5 Redshank present.