AN OUZEL ON THE SOMERSET LEVELS

Myself and my best mate Steve (the digiscoping king) Bool decided to have a days birding at RSPB Ham Wall and West Hay nature reserves on the Somerset Levels. Obviously we'd both been there before but they are such great places to visit and can sometimes throw up the odd surprise. I brought my scope this time as the birds from the hides can be a bit distant and I also want to start using my scope more often on our birding days out.

Surprisingly Ham Wall was fairly quiet but we did both see and digiscope this Marsh Harrier feeding on a dead Canada Goose on the waters edge.

Here's a short video of the scene.

 We didn't see much else there and had decided to go over to West Hay when a birder told us that there was a Ring Ouzel in the Ham Wall car park. I've never seen one and the last time Steve got to see one was years ago. Ring Ouzel's would be on passage now as they stay here to breed during Spring and Summer usually on rocky mountain slopes and then in the Autumn migrate to mountainous regions of the Mediterranean. As we got to the car park there were quite a few birders with their scopes, bins and camera's pointing towards a berry tree. We darted over there and just sat under the tree was a handsome first Winter male Ring Ouzel. 

my first ring ouzel

Steve went around the side of the berry tree and got this stunning footage.

It was so good that I took these two stunning captures from his video.

what a beauty

It stayed either underneath or in that berry tree for about twenty minutes, what a turn up for the books a Ring Ouzel at Ham Wall car park and what were the chances that we were actually going to be there on the day it turned up unbelievable.

Steve's footage was so good the warden at Ham Wall asked him if they could put it on their Facebook page and would give Steve a credit on their page for his video. So we're looking forward to seeing it on there.  

We decided to go over to West Hay now our luck was in and on our way into the reserve on one of the fields we spotted a load of Cattle Egrets a lifer for Steve, but I think he was more excited about the Ouzel.

cattle egret

At West Hay we were hoping for Bittern and Bearded Tit but although a birder said he'd seen a Bittern at one of the hides our luck didn't hold out and we didn't get to see either species. I did photograph a displaying male Gadwall, what a beautiful drake duck he was and also a Heron skulking in the reeds.

handsome male gadwall

grey heron

Although we left West Hay a little disappointed that we didn't see the Beardies or a Bittern I think the Ring Ouzel and Cattle Egrets more than made up for it, a great days birding and how lucky were we to see that Ring Ouzel.

CHEW VALLEY LAKE

 Chew Valley Lake in Avonmouth is a destination that keeps coming up on my birdguides App, it seems to have some really good birds there as well as a few rarities turning up. It's a place that we've never been birding before so my good friend Steve Bool and myself decided to go down there to take a look.

When we got there the water levels were really low caused by the lack of rain fall over the last few months. We got talking to a couple of birders that we had met and they told us to drive over to the other side of the lake to a place called Herriott's bridge. Before we got there we pulled over onto a layby which overlooked the lake as we saw some Glossy Ibis and absolutely loads of Great White and Little Egrets as well as Grey Herons and Cormorants at the waters edge which was quite a decent way out.

never seen so many egrets

We watched these for a while before making our way to the bridge. 

Herriott's bridge runs over the bottom end of the lake, there's a pool the one side of it that feeds water into the main lake. On this pool is a small island that is a haven for many duck species, gulls and waders as well as more Egrets and Herons. Most of the birds are a little to far off to photograph but Steve has just bought a brand new Leica APO Televid 82 scope it's a fantastic bit of kit so with it we were able to pick out Grey Plover, Green, Wood and Common Sandpipers and a couple of a rare vagrant Pectoral Sandpiper a first for both of us. Below is the Wader Island as you can see it's a decent way off, the two birds in the foreground are Greenshanks.

two greenshanks just in front of the island

Here's some footage through Steve's scope of the Greenshanks.

I was lucky enough to get a pic of this Common Sandpiper that came close to the banking.

common sandpiper

 On the other side of the bridge is where the water feeds into the main lake, it channels into a narrow gully with a big reedbed and some trees and bushes because of the lack of rain fall the actual waters edge is about a mile out. We spotted this Peregrine sat on a distant tree stump.

you can just make out the peregrine on the old tree stump

In the gully there were a few Egrets, Herons, and Cormorants all feeding on the abundance of food that must be there for them.

great white egret

great white egret

little egret

little egret (look at them yellow feet)

grey heron swallowing a fish

grey heron

cormorant

There were loads of duck species there including this drake Teal a very handsome bird.

male teal

Steve got some lovely footage of this Grey Wagtail through his scope and I managed to get a decent photo of it.

 

grey wagtail

The highlight of the day for me were the Kingfisher not just to get some incredible views of it but to finally get some decent images.

kingfisher

Steve got some superb footage of this handsome male, again through his scope what a beautiful bird.

There was also a good showing of raptors (birds of prey). As well as the Peregrine we saw Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Marsh Harrier which I managed to get a photo of. There's also recently been Osprey and unbelievably White tailed Eagle there we would have loved to have seen both of those incredible birds but no sign of them on the day we were there.

female marsh harrier

What an incredible place Chew Valley Lake is, it's a massive site and the diversity of birds and wildlife make it well worth a visit can't wait for the next one. We met some really nice people who gave us their local knowledge on the site and the birds there. Once again a massive thank you to my birding best mate Steve Bool for doing the driving and allowing me to use his excellent footage for this blog cheers BM your a star.