Today was the only Saturday I had free and with a reasonable weather forecast - warm with some cloud and sunshine - I left fairly early for Glastonbury. It was an easy trip via M4/ M5 then ten minutes of country roads the other end, and I arrived at about 20 past 9.
Having been told exactly where to look, I headed for the boardwalk leading to the island hide, approx 500 metres walk. I noticed a couple of bird watchers waiting there with cameras at the ready, and yes, they were on the same mission as I was. We waited around for 15 minutes or so, we could hear the bearded tits 'pinging' from the reed beds, and once a couple of them flew across the board walk straight into the reeds on the opposite side. We could also hear a cetti's warbler and water rails squealing.
After a further wait, first one or two, then up to 6 birds flitted through the reeds onto the board walk, pecking at the grit that was put down for them ( I must check out why!) After a few minutes they all disappeared, reappearing at a different spot about 5 minutes later. This happened several times, and the last time, we were able to get with in two or three metres of them. I've never seen bearded tits at such close quarters before, and it was a joy to watch them.
boardwalk to the Island hide
bearded tits
My next stop was the RSPB Ham Wall reserve, where I spent the next few hours visiting the various hides. seeing a few more bearded tits, a couple of great white egrets, and a marsh harrier, and various other species noted below:
bearded tits, marsh harrier, great white egret, little egret, shoveler, mallard, gadwall, coot, moorhen, little grebe, swan, greylag goose, cormorant, heron, kingfisher, kestrel, stonechat,
wren
bearded tits Ham Wall
With the mild weather, there were also good numbers of butterflies around, including speckled wood, red admiral, peacocks and a number of whites.
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