My good friend and birding buddy Steve Bool and myself decided to spend a day at RSPB Ham Wall in Somerset last Sunday 2nd March again hoping to see a Bittern and some other good birds that were at the reserve. The weather was glorious for the beginning of March so hopefully we were in for a good day.
Walking into the place I couldn't believe how tame the commoner passerine species were you could have photographed them with your phone some of them came in that close.
song thrush
Just as we were walking over a small bridge over one of the reens Steve spotted a Mink under the bridge. We stood back and waited, it soon came out first of all very wary but then it came out in full view.
wren
looking out from under the bridge 
out in full view
Although very cute these animals really shouldn't be in the UK, they've been introduced by activists who set them free from fur farms. They are deadly predators and are the main reason for the crash in the Water Vole population. They are very good swimmers and climbers and can also cause chaos in the local bird population. They should be irradicated from areas where there are breeding Water Voles and birds.
Great Crested Grebes are a beautiful bird and are fairly common but in the 19th century were killed and skinned for their beautiful feathers to adorn ladies hats. They were down to just 42 pairs, great conservation work by the RSPB and the flooding of gravel pits allowed the Grebes to make a comeback and by 1996 they were back with a sustainable population.
In the early Spring they play out an amazing courtship ritual where both male and female birds face each other and shake and twist their heads then the male will go under and fetch some vegetation and both birds will rise right up together with their bodies nearly completely out of the water as if dancing an incredible site which we were both lucky enough to photograph whilst it was happening.
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| facing each other ready for the dance |
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| a bit of head twisting |
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| rising right up with the vegetation |
male pochard 
great white egret 
male gadwall
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| cormorant |
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| little egret |
We also spotted this female Blackcap it came out from a thick hedge to give us some great views. They're a migrant species usually so it's either a very early arrival or it's over wintered here.
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| female blackcap |
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these long tailed tits are beginning the construction of their nest
Ham Wall has extensive reed beds where the Marsh Harriers make their home both male and female were on show.
male marsh harrier 
and the female
We finally made our way back to the car park to grab a coffee and a bite to eat when Steve spotted a male Bullfinch eating the buds of a fruit tree, before long it became like a Bullfinch twitch where everyone at the car park had their binoculars and camera's aimed towards the bird. It just stayed there eating away not bothered by all the commotion it was causing.
male bullfinch
We had a great days birding even though once again the Bitterns didn't show but like Westhay there were booming males everywhere. Ham Wall is a fantastic place to visit and hopefully we'll be visiting there again what a fantastic day.
