NOAH'S LAKE AND DECOY LAKE ON SHAPWICK HEATH - CATCOTT LOWS
WEATHER: dull and overcast - lots of rain with some dry spells
It was raining when we got up, it was raining when we left the hotel and it rained during our walk to Noah's Lake, but it wasn't heavy rain and it stopped whilst we sat in the hide.
Despite the inclement weather the group enjoyed the walk and we had some interesting sightings, enough to keep us happy. The Pool at Meare Heath held a few species of duck, just the usual species Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Gadwall, Mallard, Coot and Mute Swan. We found a stonechat and some of the group notched a brief sighting of a Reed Bunting.
We bumped into small flocks of Long-tailed Tits with accompanying Blue and Great Tits and we had brief encounters with fly-over Marsh Harriers, a Jay, Cormorants and a Little Egret.
Noah's Lake was covered in birds, thousands of them. Mainly Wigeon, Shoveler, Teal, Tufted Ducks, Gadwall, and Mallards but we also found smaller numbers of Pintail, Great Crested Grebes and Coots. We searched for a Ring-necked Duck but found out from a local birder that one hadn't been seen there this year!
Three of the four Whooper Swans seen today on Noah's lake
The best bird on the Lake was Whooper Swan, we saw four of them, pointed out to us by the local guy who was there doing a bird count. Outside the hide Sian found a flock of Siskins, they were coming down to the ground but by the time we got down from the hide they flew up into the trees and we lost them. Whilst outside the hide we saw Treecreeper, Chaffinches, more Long-tailed Tits, Robin, Wren and a small flock of Goldfinches.
The walk back to the car park was interrupted with sightings of Marsh Harriers but not a lot else. From there we drove around to Catcott Lows and along the way we stopped to watch a huge flock of egrets feeding in a field. We counted over 100 Cattle Egrets in one field and more in a second meadow with Little Egrets and a single Great Egret.
100+ Cattle Egrets were seen in a field near Westhay
A little further along the road to Catcott we stopped to look a small flock of Redwings and had good close views of a couple of them, whilst there we found 3 Chiffchaffs flitting arouns in a hedgerow.
We sat in the hide at Catcott and apparently we had just missed the sighting of a Green-winged Teal! Nevertheless we enjoyed good close-up views of the Wigeon, Shovelers, Eurasian Teal and we had better views of Pintails. Three Great White Egrets were out there in the marsh and we saw our first Canada Geese.
this is how close you can get to the Wigeon from the hide at Catcott
Our lunch stop was taken at the Avalon Visitor’s Centre, along the way a Bullfinch flew along the hedge in front of the bus but I was the only one to see it!! Whilst eating our sandwiches and taking a hot drink we notched our first Pied Wagtail and saw a few Blue and Great Tits visiting the feeders there.
For our afternoon walk we decided to visit the Decoy Hide on Shapwick Heath, we were told that a Ring-necked Duck had been seen there a few times recently. The walk through the woodland, during a dry spell was lovely, we didn’t see much but the woodland landscape was interesting and some of the oak trees were enormous. We saw more Long-tailed Tits, another Jay called without showing and the usual Robin, Wren and Dunnock.
A Goldcrest was seen by some of the group and we found a few Chiffchaffs not far from the hide. Other interesting sightings were of the human making, we saw the constructed replica of a 3000 year old neolithic walkway and we vowed to look at the 6,000 year old ‘Sweet’ Trail on the way back.
From the Decoy Hide we saw very little, the lake was devoid of large flocks of duck, we just found small groups of them. We searched the Tufted Ducks (all 13 of them) for the Ring-necked Duck but found zilch. Shovelers were nice to see, we also watched Gadwall and Wigeon. A Marsh Harrier flushed a lot more birds from hidden pools but not that many.
Tufted Ducks on decoy lake
Jeremy got us all onto a very distant Common Buzzard and we saw a pair flyover Greylag Geese but not much else. On the way back we had a close encounter with a Cetti’s Warbler, or at least we heard one close by but never actually saw it.
We crossed a meadow heading towards the ‘Sweet Trail’ and two Ravens came over cronking, most of the group had entered a wood by then and missed the sighting.
It was now approaching 4pm, the light was fading so we decided to go back to the hide at Catcott to look for a Barn Owl, the rain had stopped but threatened to return but we gave it a shot anyway.
A favourable result ensued because not long after arriving at Catcott the Barn Owl appeared, we saw it for less that a minute but everyone got it in their sights, hooray a modicum of success!! The drive back to hotel was in the dark so our sighting ending there.