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).

A few notes on today’s female Baikal Teal at Catcott. Can no-one spot a ring on it please - thank you!

First seen at 12.20 with bins when a small white spot at the bill base was glaringly obvious even at 100m. Couldn’t possibly be a genuine plumage feature I thought, but it was.

Very smart dark scaps with neat, broad buff edges, somewhat reminiscent of drake plumage. Also large rounded upper flank feathers. Face pattern dead ringer for Colling Guide illustration. I think all these are very good features for adult female.

Showed well all afternoon on and off as far as I know.

What may well prove to be Britain’s first accepted female was in Notts/Yorks for a week in Jan23.  I wonder if it might even be this bird.

Also the RND pair 200m east of the Ham Wall railway bridge and the other drake was seen at Decoy.  9 or 10 Scaup seen on Long Drove too, and the female Goldeneye at Westhay.  The 3 Ibis were still at the south end of Lewis’s Drove but now wading in floods and it’s all looking a bit special round there with large numbers of egrets, Lapwing and BHGs in the sun today.

Yes. It looked very like the pictures in that link

Could be a reduction in pigment, approaching leucism: https://community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/photography/282560/hybrid-leucistic-egyptian-goose

7 scaup relatively close mid afternoon at Sharpham Lane.  The 6 barnacles still present. At Westhay a flock of well over 100 cattle egrets southwest of the carpark and 2 Egyptian geese, one with a very pale head.

1-Jan-2024
At Long Drove lake (from Sharpham Lane) this morning: the small flock of Greater Scaup still present although distant at the far end. Also 6 Barnacle Geese nearby with a flock of Greylags on the large grass field alongside the Lane.