A hint of spring in the west

A trip down to the west country, to join forces with Gareth and Dan again was well overdue and so we were finally all free to meet up on Saturday 07/03 for a birding catch-up.

The first half of the day was spent looking for both Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Goshawk. No luck with the Lesser Peckers, but the Goshawks performed beautifully, with some prolonged views of several birds. 

Much of the rest of the day was spent ambling around Ham Wall RSPB reserve, which proved to be decent. No sooner had we left the car park, Dan picked up 2 Sand Martins distantly over the southern side of the reserve which we soaked up for a few minutes - my earliest ones ever by a couple of days. Several Great White Egret headed over shortly afterwards - a standard sight in these parts. We easily saw double figures by the end of our visit.





A little further on, we caught sight of 2 Chiffchaff flicking about in brambles and trees the other side of the channel that runs parallel with the path. There was also a third, very grey looking bird that, despite not heard to call, seemed to tick all the boxes for a Tristis. A nice surprise!







A wander beyond view point 2 and back, produced 3 booming Bittern, a few brief Bearded Tit calls, a pair of Pintail, several Marsh Harrier and calling Water Rail, plenty of wildfowl and several more Chiffys, including a couple in song. We were also treated to the full Great Crested Grebe display repertoire - weed and everything! If that isn't a sign of spring, I don't know what is!







We finished with a scan across the south side of the reserve, to see if any Cattle Egrets would come into roost. We were luck, with at least 75 birds coming in, in one big lump. Quite a sight!! The end to an ace catch up!