A VISIT TO CHEDDAR RESERVOIR AND HAM WALL RSPB RESERVE ON THE SOMERSET LEVELS
WEATHER: cloudy to start, then broken sunshine all afternoon. Top temp 20C
After a long break I met up with my birding pal - The Birding Guru from Yeovil - Guy Campbell. Guy collected me from home at 7:30am and by 8:30am we were watching birds at Cheddar Reservoir from the Cheddar Tower area.
Looking over Cheddar Reservoir from the Cheddar Tower
The water level was extremely low with many mud-islands and dry areas, the whole area was covered in birds. We were particularly interested in the waders that were present, also a couple of duck species. As you know, I love wader watching and so that is what we did first of all. It took just a few minutes to locate three Spotted Redshanks, about half-a-dozen Ruff and a similar number of Dunlin.
The only Pintail on the reservoir - swimming behind the Cormorants
Our main target species was Little Stint, which was eventually found a little further clockwise around the circular perimeter of the reservoir. We had very close views of this tiny wader, it fed alongside Ringed Plovers and a couple of Ruff.
Little Stint
a Ruff
A Ruff and a Little Stint
a Little Stint and a Ruff
Ringed plover
Ringed Plover and a Little Stint
The duck species present included: a single Pintail, Shoveler, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Gadwall, Mallard and hundreds of Teal. The Teal were a problem for us because we were trying to locate a Garganey (an eclipsed male) which blends in with the hoards of similar sized, Teal. Finally, we found it, quite distant, but in good light we could see the relevant markings.
The right hand duck is the Garganey - it was quite distant
One other species on our 'most-wanted' list was the Red-crested Pochard, a female. We spent another hour there looking for this bird, but it never showed up (or had left overnight). We enjoyed views of many Great Crested and Little grebes, thousands of Common Coots, Grey Herons, Cormorants, Little Egrets and a single Great White Egret (the first i have ever seen at this location).
Several Gull species loafed around or searched for food in the shallow pools, Lesser Black-backed, Herring Gulls and Black-headed Gulls were noted. We also saw Grey and Pied Wagtails and we heard a Green Woodpecker calling from the cementery behind us.
At midday we gave up and drove back to the 'Levels' stopping at the Avalon Visitor's Centre for lunch where we both devoured a very tasty, toasted sandwich, and we downed a nice coffee. Whilst we sat and ate, a Hobby flew over, how cool was that?
The Guru feeding his face - its the only time he was quiet!!
For the afternoon we drove around to Ham Wall, along the way we saw Cattle Egrets in the fields with some cattle, where else would they be?? We went directly to the Avalon Hide, because over last few months a rare Purple Heron had been seen from there, on a daily basis. No particular time was best, the bird appeared in flight on a completely random basis.
Glastonbury Tor seen from the Avalon Hide
From the busy hide we listed a few more waders species: Green Sandpiper, Common Snipe and Lapwing. Two Glossy Ibis were also on show with Great and Little Egrets and various common duck species, Swans and Canada Geese.
Green Sandpiper
We searched and search and waited and waited...........the Purple Heron failed to show. We had also just missed an Osprey flying over the car park when we arrived, and as we reached the car park on our way back a message pinged on our phones to say an Osprey had just flown in front of the Avalon Hide, just where we had come from!! Doh!!
Glossy Ibis
Several butterflies were seen during the day especially a fair number of Clouded Yellow Butterflies, also Peacocks, Small Whites, Holly Blue and Red Admirals. A lot of dragonflies zipped around too.
I love the eye on this Shoveler - but just look at that bill!!
a very distant Northern Wheatear - the only bird found by the ex-Guru today!!!
We were home by 4:30pm, it had been an excellent day out, it was nice to meet up with the Guru once again even though I had to put with his wind problem all day!!