SHAPWICK HEATH - CHEDDAR RESERVOIR - HAM WALL
WEATHER: dull and overcast, mild with light rain at times, very windy.
Ducks and more ducks is what we were after today. Guy had not seen the Shapwick Heath Ring-necked Ducks this autumn and so that is where we headed for first. He picked me up at 7:30am, it was wet and windy, perfect for birding..........not!
The walk from the roadside parking area at Shapwick to the Decoy Pond was about 1km, the track took us through marshland and woodland and marsh-woodland. We saw groups of Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits as well as Goldcrests, Chiffchaffs and we saw one female Blackcap.
From small gaps in the reeds we saw our first ducks of the day on the Decoy Pond. Shoveler, Teal, Gadwall and Mallard. A few Mute Swans were also visible in the distance. As we approached the hide Guy scanned the pool and delcared that he had found one of the Ring-necked Ducks! A minute later from inside the hide we both scoped two male Ring-necked Ducks in with a group of Tufted Ducks and unlike my last visit the birds were fairly close.
can you spot the Ring-necked Duck here amongst the Tufted Ducks? Bill pattern, head shape and flank colouring are clues!
Ring-necked Duck, a winter visitor from North America, now a regular sighting on the 'Levels'
We watched them for quite a while and logged Wigeon, Great crested Grebe, a Great White Egret, two Marsh Harriers and a Kingfisher. After an hour we made our way back to the car, more of the same birds were seen but we also heard a very close Water Rail and a Cetti's Warbler, both of which failed to appear.
Ceddar Reservoir - a view of the Mendip Hill with Cheddar Gorge on the right, The Cheddar Yeo river cutting a swathe through the limestone rock.
Guy forced me stop at the Avalon Marshes Visitor's centre where we sat outside and enjoyed a lovely, very hot, chocolate drink with a taosted Teacake for good measure. We then set off for Cheddar Reservoir where we hoped to see more ducks, including Greater Scaup. Along the way we counted a couple of dozen Cattle Egrets and a single Little Egret.
My god was it windy at Cheddar, we parked near the Cheddar Tower and walked around the raised embankment of the Reservoir where we thought the Scaup had been seen last. It very hard to keep upright let alone keep a scope still enough to use. We found about 1,000 Common Coots, some Common Pochard, Tufted Ducks and to our great surprise there were at least 6 Red-crested Pochard. Although Cheddar reservoir has been a regular wintering spot for the Red-crested Pochards, they had not been present for a couple of years, so it was nice to see them back.
Greater Scaup, a male
see the black 'nail' at the end of its pale bill, this is one of its ID pointers
With no sign of the Scaup we got back into the car and drove around to the Axbridge entrance, what difference it was there, absolutely no wind, fully sheltered by the tall trees there!! We found a male Greater Scaup within minutes and found another pair of RC Pochards, that was 8 birds in all.
two more shots of the Scaup
A second, female type Scaup, eluded us. At least five species of Gulls were out there: Black-headed, Herring, Common, Lesser & Greater Black-backed Gulls. also Cormorants, Great Crested Grebes, Coots and Moorhens. We added Common Pochard to our duck list which now stood at 10 species.
a pair of distant Red-crested Pochard
We decided to finsh our day at Ham Wall, hoping for a cup of coffee at the kiosk in the car park, but it was closed. A walk to VP1 produced sightings of a couple of Common Snipe, Great White Egret, Lapwings in flight and several Marsh Harriers.
Another Scaup and another Ring-necked Duck were present at Long Drain at Sharpham which is just a short drive from Ham Wall. For some reason Guy wanted to go there and so that is what we did. We saw zilch, the wind was in our faces and the ducks were sitting on the water as far away from us as they could possible get.
We were home about 3pm, a little chilly but with some nice sightings in the can.