HAM WALL STARLING ROOST – CHEDDAR RESERVOIR – CHEW VALLEY – BARROW GURNEY TANKS
WEATHER; a glorious winter’s day.
It was another fantastic winter’s day, wall to wall sunshine, crisp and frosty with no wind. Some of the group wanted to see the starling roost dispersal so we arrived at Ham Wall just before dawn and surprisingly at least 50 other people did the same.
The landscape at Ham Wall was picture postcard perfect, Jack frost had woven his winter-wonderland magic, we had the most incredible morning light, with the frosty ground covering, it was breathtaking and simply exquisite.
Glastonbury Tor at first light this morning
As the light improved the colourful horizon exploded into bright orange and red and purple, silhouetting Glastonbury Tor and enshrouding the surrounding landscape with a magical orange glow.
sunrise at Ham Wall
the break of day
The Starling murmur grew to a climatic crescendo just as they took to the air and left their overnight accommodation deep in the reedbeds, they left in groups of thousands, not tens of thousands as we had hoped for. It was impressive but not overwhelming. I think the Marsh Harrier dispersal was more interesting, we count about 15, they flew over the top of us. Great White Egrets arrived on the marsh, as did Lapwings and Grey Herons, duck started flying around and Robins began to sing.
We left at 8:20am and after an hour of standing in freezing conditions we needed a hot drink and a bowl of hot porridge which was duly served back at the hotel.
It was nearly 10am by the time I dragged the group out of the hotel and into the bus, we set off to Cheddar Reservoir where we spent a good hour watching many species in perfect conditions. I have never been to Cheddar Reservoir when the water was flat calm like it was today, birds were easy to pick out over a vast area of water. Parking at the Cheddar Tower we quickly located a Black-necked Grebe, then we found two very distant Greater Scaup, a pair.
Black-necked Grebe
Walking round to the Yachting Club Centre buildings we had much better views. We added Grey Wagtail, Lesser Black-backed Gull and most of group notched up their first Common Pochards. I found a third Scaup-like bird, it is shown below.
can't tell whether this is a young female Scaup or a young female Tufted Duck, it has characteristics of both - perhaps a hybrid.
Driving up through Cheddar Gorge and across country we dropped down into West Harptree and onto Heron’s Green at Chew Valley Lake. It was disappointing as far as seeing new species was concerned, we only added a couple of Ravens. We did enjoy watching quite a few Goldeneye, lots more Great Egrets, dozens of ducks of several species and lots of gulls to sift through.
In West Harptree we bought our picnic supplies for lunch and drove round to Herriot’s Bridge to eat it. Whilst there we dipped on a Kingfisher but added Common Shelduck and Common Gull to the list. It was a little chilly there with a very cold breeze coming off the main lake, so we didn’t stay too long.
Common Gull taken at Herriot's Brdige
A visit to the very crowded main car park gave us an opportunity to view the area of water around the dam. We searched for Common Sandpiper and Goosander, we found only the latter. We had very distance scope views of about 15 Goosanders, we also noted another Raven, Reed Buntings and more Common Gulls.
flat calm water of Chew Valley Lake taken at heron's Green
A brief visit to the Orchard at the entrance to Woodford lodge produced our first Mistle Thrush, we also saw Redwing and few common species. Just before we left we spotted 6 Cattle Egrets feeding on the side of a grassy hill with two Little Egrets. This changed our plans somewhat, so, instead of going back onto the levels to look for Cattle Egrets we decided to drive over the large ‘Tanks’ at Barrow Gurney to look for a Great Northern Diver.
We parked at Tank No.1 and walked the short distance to Tank No.2 and quickly located the Diver, in the meantime we also spotted a dozen or so of Little Grebes, more Goldeneye, Tufted Ducks, Pochard, Gadwall, Teal and Great Crested Grebes. On the very far bank of the reservoir we found a Common Sandpiper! Some dipstick left his phone in the minibus so there are no pictures of the Diver! Doh!!
Cheddar Reservoir - I don't think that I will ever see it flat calm like this again, especially during January
The sun was now dropping low on the horizon, it was another colourful end to the day. We arrived back the hotel just before 4:30pm, it was still light, huge flocks of Starlings were flying over us as they sped off to the Ham Wall roost, we were happy to get into the very warm hotel for a hot cuppa.