Ooops, forgot to add…  On the 5th a single Brambling with a few Chaffinches that flew up from the roadside as we approached driving towards the South Drain just north of the entrance track to Catcott Lows.

05-Mar-2024
The winter plumage Spotted Redshank still from the car park hide at Catcott Lows this morning. Found y’day by Alan Ashman.

Today, with no wind, no rain and plenty of sunshine:
2 Whoopers still, Noah’s, and very close to the canal footpath for a change.
A Common Lizard basking at the Ham Wall railway bridge and a Blackcap close by.
A Pochard/Tufted hybrid on 2VP lagoon - we seem to have 2 now, on and off.
A female Ring-necked Duck on Glastonbury Heath found by Sean D (and no RNDs at Decoy or Westhay’s roadside pools).
Many egrets of 3 species spread from Sweets Cafe to beyond Westhay reserve car park were impressive, with 10 Egy Geese.

4 ibis reported again south of Noah’s, and a Firecrest at Ham Wall car park.

More of the same recently and more flooding.  Water everywhere - again!

At the Tealham/Westhay T junction, a mass of Cattle Egrets and BH Gulls had 3 Med Gulls with them (heads varying form nearly all black to just a big black mask).
The 4 Glossy Ibis are now commuting between Noah’s Lake and the field immediately adjacent to the south, which can be viewed from the road with care.
4 RND still on Decoy apparently, and Whoopers have been at Sharpham and Noah’s.

23-Feb-2024
Two Hen Harriers, ring-tail and adult male at Catcott Lows this afternoon. Ring-tail seen twice, putting up Teal, and male seen once as it flew thro’ low to the west at 15:5 hrs.

Shapwick Heath this morning, 16 February. 
Decoy Pool: 1 drake + 2 female Ring-necked Duck close to hide.
Male Hen Harrier ‘harrying’ Marsh Harrier, close to junction of the track to the hide and Sweet Trail.
On Noah’s, two Whooper Swan towards western end and a female Mandarin perched on a broken stump above rafts of Pintail and Wigeon.
Bittern booming continuously.

All our regular winterers present and correct with some back in, and we seem to be on 2 male Hen Harriers.  Reported over the weekend (and I only saw some of them):

Ring-necked Duck, probably 2 drake and 3 duck shared between Noah’s and Decoy
A Mandarin at Decoy apparently (I’ve never seen one on the Levels)
3 Glossy Ibis Westhay and 1 Sharpham, the latter the bird that roosted at Noah’s tonight perhaps
c200 Cattle Egrets around Westhay with decent numbers of Greats and Littles too with masses of birds in the area (Lapwing, Mute Swans, etc)
1 Egy Goose there and 2 at Noah’s
2 Whoopers on Noah’s and 1 Sharpham
4 Scaup on Long Drove
Masses of Pintail still on Noah’s, probably as many as 1900 (a Somerset record I believe)
Seems to be 2 male and one ringtail Hen Harriers popping in and out at Catcott

Just down the road, the drake Baikal Teal still at Greylake and slightly further south, an American Wigeon (‘the’?), Little Gull and Turnstone on Wet Moor.  Nice.

A friend of mine saw an ibis at Long Drove yesterday, seems one at least is back now that it’s warmed up.

There were masses of wildfowl on Noah’s midweek and Sean D has counted 1468 Pintail today.

22-Jan-2024
The drake Ring-necked Duck still this morning with Tufted Ducks on the large pool (south of the road) along Westhay Moor Drove - just east of Westhay Moor NNR car park, before Lewis’s Drove.

Best for me today were 3 Ruff and 11 Blackwit asleep on the ice at Noah’s, surrounded by masses of wildfowl that included 2 male and 1 female RND (latter per Sean D).

Otherwise, odds and ends for the last few days inc reports of:
1 G Ibis on floods by the Railway Inn and on the canal near Noah’s, and 2 to 3 at Westhay
1 Whooper with Mutes in fields at Westhay and the regular 2 on West Waste (plus W Pipit)
2 Waxwings flew over Ham Wall
1 Scaup Long Drove
Ringtail Hen Harrier at Catcott

I’ve heard a couple of reports of a small adult Goshawk that sounded good too.  Could be last winter’s imm male all grown up…

Previous 2 days the glossies have been further up Lewis’s Drove

Also drove past looking for the ibis this morning: no luck, but the pool on the south side of the road between Lewis’s Drove and the Westhay NNR car park held a goldeneye and a scaup, both female, as well as the usual tufted. Several 100 golden plover and lapwing on adjacent fields.

4 Egyptian geese at Ham Wall.

Redpoll amongst the siskins at Shapwick.

No sign of the glossy ibis at Westhay (11am), but 21 cattle egret in the flood south of the car park, and 2 more nearby. It looks as if they are installing a parking meter at the car park. Maybe in return for the income they could do something about the approach road!

Great find Andy - in addition to your observations, when I saw it it was associating with Widgeon, not Teal, it is noticeably larger than a Teal, approaching Widgeon size so anyone looking for it should also scan through the Widgeon and not give up if the main Teal flock are not easily visible at the back.

As far as I know, the big groups of Teal all stayed well away from the hide and out of view at Catcott all day today but they were present. The BT may well still be there I’d suggest…

If anyone wants to get the impression of the white face spot at distance, check out Andy Slade’s flight shot on twitter (and enjoy a quick game of Where’s Wally too).