Today Nick and myself both lead tours on the Somerset Levels. It was an early start so we could find where the starling were roosting, we needed to see the Starlings leaving their roost site.
Arriving around 06:45 we made our way to the viewing platform, as we approached we could hear a distant roar from the reed beds and on closer inspection could see a mass of black moving within the reeds.
Just after 07:15 the first wave of birds left the roost and headed straight over us, an amazing sight and sound as they passed. We estimated that around 200,000 birds were in the group, In total five groups left the roost all roughly the same size which would suggest about 900,000 to 1 million birds!
After the Starlings had left the site a fine Marsh Harrier drifted in to clear up any dead birds that had perished over the cold night; this is a common sight here on the reserve and happens most morning after the starlings leave, as the Harriers are always on the look out for an easy meal to start the day.
On the way to the roost site we also heard a couple of Bitterns calling, not quite the loud booming call more of a whuff at the moment, also two birds seen flying low over the reeds before dropping in out of sight.
Another species seen on the day was Great White Egret giving some very close views as they hunted the shallow pools, in total around five birds were seen throughout the day, indeed we saw more of these than the usually commoner Little Egret
There are still plenty of duck spices around with Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Mallard, Goosander, Shelduck and Goldeneye all seen. Both little and Great Crested Grebe seen fishing around the reed fringes.
Heading back to the car park for lunch we picked up a nice pair of Bullfinch eating the early buds, the male looking rather splendid in his peach pink breast.
Also several Robin and Dunnock calling and posturing from the trees.
Back at the car park we found a tiny Goldcrest picking insects from the ivy clad trees, also a couple of Song Thrush and groups of Goldfinch feeding on the alder cones. Two Roe deer where seen crossing the path behind us and a few clumps of Snowdrops under the trees were in full flower.
A Marsh harrier drifted over high as we made our way back to Ham Wall to watch the Starlings come back to their roost for the evening.
Whilst waiting for the Starlings to arrive several flocks of Lapwing arrived to roost on the many tiny islands, also joined by a few Snipe, and a large group of Pochard also dropped in to use the water for the night. Pied Wagtail flocks were flying over to their roost site, several Reed Bunting, a Chiffchaff, flocks of Long-tailed Tit and small flocks of Lesser Redpoll were also noted.
At around 16:45 the first group of Starling started to arrive and sat in the tops of the distant trees, with many more birds passing over our heads the numbers soon built up and an impressive sight could be seen in the sky, the birds did a small murmuration as they all joined together but soon started to descend into the reed bed, and after about five minutes the show was over what an amazing end to a wonderful day on The Somerset Levels!! DT/NA.
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