HAM WALL AND MEARE HEATH POOLS AT SHAPWICK HEATH
WEATHER: dull and overcast with some light rain.
Dawn wanted to go to Clarke's Village at Street to empty my wallet again in the pre-Christmas 'Black Friday' sale ( I'm not gonna say how much her 'birthday boots' were the other day, but there wasn't any change out of £300! - now I know why they call it Black Friday!!)
I seized the day! Dropped her off around 11am and shot off to Ham Wall to park the car and walk to Meare Heath Pools, a few minutes away. The last time I came here, (with Guy), we missed the AMERICAN WIGEON, it simply wasn't there! Now, without Mr bad-luck, I was sure of seeing it!
It took me all of 30 seconds to find the bird, it was sitting exactly where I expected it to be and where it should have been a few days ago when we dipped it. It was fast asleep, ha! All I got was partial views of its head and chest.
standing out like a sore thumb - American Wigeon . after a few minutes the bird stood alert (as shown) and showed off all its colours, clickety click, in the can!
I walked back to the car, well pleased with myself, I knew that Whooper Swans and a male Hen Harrier was just down the road at Catcott, but that was pushing it, so I went back to the Clarke's Village.
As luck would have it, again, my wallet was still pretty much intact, a big parcel under my wife's arm was, in fact, a present for me! Furthermore, lunch was sitting on the table waiting for me at Pret's, life is looking good!! Bird in the bag, lunch on the tabler and wallet relatively unharmed!!