Here follows a belated report on a restful eleven day stay
in a tent Somerset. Confined as we are to school holidays by my beloved’s
employment, late July and early August is not the best time for birding. All
the tweets are doing very little tweeting and are mainly hidden in the thick
foliage. Wrens seemed to be the notable exception to the rule, belting forth in
full song wherever we went. There is also a close relationship between
campsites and Goldfinches, as usual, we saw loads of them. Being surrounded by
farmland and old barns, Swallows were plentiful over the site.
En route to our camp site, we visited my sister in Reading,
which must be developing as one of the best the Red Kite hotspots in the
country. Kites fly low over their garden most days and the record count is 13
in view at the same time. This is an impressive gathering, given that the
horizon from their garden is truncated by surrounding trees and other houses.
We saw plenty, but only up to three at any one time. Their wild cries carry far
across the town, competing with the ever present hum from the M4.
We had further sightings of Red Kites on the M4 towards
Newbury, but none further west, where Buzzards were ever present.
Our camp site was near to Cheddar Gorge, in which we had
brilliant views of a Peregrine family. We saw at least two juveniles. I will
never tire of watching these magnificent birds, with their wild cries and
powerful swooping flight. The Gorge is a spectacular location, that provides a
perfect location for getting close views of the Peregrines, both in flight and
sitting on the rocks and trees.
Ham Wall RSPB reserve on the Somerset Levels gave us the
first glimpse of Great White Egrets, nesting at Shapwick Heath, which is joined
to Ham Wall. There was also a juvenile male Marsh Harrier showing well.
Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve is an excellent
mixture of woodland, wet marsh and open water, well known for its large number
of dragonfly species. This year, two pairs of Great White Egrets have bred. We
saw at least four adults and one young bird. There were lots of Little Egrets,
so comparison between both species was very easy. I briefly saw a Bittern,
which is one of the target species for the future development of Ham Wall.
Although seeing one of Britain’s latest breeding colonists was
a great pleasure and they are a truly graceful and elegant bird, it was an
increasingly widespread breeder that drew most of our attention. Two Hobbies
quartered the open water hawking dragonflies. Their ability apparently to turn
at right angles when at full speed is remarkable. As with the Peregrines, this
was no fleeting view from distance; they performed just in front of the hide. I
thought one man was going to disappear through the narrow window in his efforts
get a shot with his monster lens!
We briefly saw a Kingfisher. There is little by way of
nesting banks at Ham Wall and Shapwick, so the Kingfishers have taken to the
woods and found a nesting site in the base of an uprooted tree.
It was very noticeable that, whilst there were large numbers
of adult water birds, particularly Mute Swans, we saw few young, apart from
Moorhens and Coots. We saw only one family of Swans at Shapwick. This was
repeated at Chew Valley Lake, one of the best places in the country for Great
Crested Grebes. At Chew Valley we saw over 50 adult Mute Swans and only two
young. We saw over 60 Great Crested Grebes and no young. It seems that the wet
weather has drastically affected some waterside nesters. Happily, Swans and
Grebes live quite a long time, so this is just a blip in their fortunes.
We visited Wells, where there is a large Swifts population,
aided by the widespread use of pantiles. Wells is England’s smallest city and
very attractive.
Beyond Bridgewater, at Steart Point, the water authority is
developing new flood meadows. This involves creating new retaining banks and
the removal of some existing sea defences. Some of the land will be new salt
marsh and other areas will become new fresh water marsh. It is already a
promising area; we saw a number of waders, a Little Egret and a large number of
Shelducks.
We saw just over 60 species and it is obvious that visiting
the same area earlier in the breeding season would produce a very impressive
list. The Somerset Levels and surrounding area provides a very wide range of
habitat and some of the most spectacular wetland in the UK. One day, when we
eventually retire, a return visit in May/June will be high on the agenda.
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