A Few Murmurations @ Shapwick!

Date: 9th Nov - Early Evening

Location:  Shapwick Heath - Somerset Levels

Observation:  A late start to the day only meant one thing... Starlings! We had an hour before the starlings were due to start roosting, so popped to the hides at Shapwick (thinking the Starlings were roosting at Ham Wall). Meare Heath Scrape had a few Snipe, Great White Egret and Teal. 

We visited both Meare hide and Noah's Lake hide and stuck to our new 5 species ruling, where we need to see 5 species before moving on. Meare hide showed well for our count which included Teal, Gadwall, Cormorant and Grey Heron, we were amount to move on when a Grey Heron flew in from the left and landed on the island in front which then spooked a Great White Egret in the reeds, amongst all the movement in the reeds and low-flying Marsh Harrier came and had a look what was going on, flying straight towards us and over the hide...! Nice to see one close range for once, shame the light was fading so pictures not brilliant. 

 

On to Noah's Lake hide, there was alot of flyover gulls roosting with the first groups of Starlings gathering so we spotted our 5 species and mowed on. 20+ people were waiting at Meare Heath Scrape for the starlings, we carried on walking back to Ham Wall and spotted the RSPB guiding people to the best place, the night before starlings were 50/50 over both Ham Wall and Shapwick. We chose to watch from Ham Wall, but just before entering the reserve thousands of Starlings were flying towards us so changed our mind (again) and headed back to Shapwick. Although the Starlings didn't put on much of a display, was still nice to see them back and never gets boring to watching them roosting!! We will be back in a few weeks to watch them again I'm sure!

Weather:  Blue Sky, Rain Showers, Warm

Other Species: Buzzard, Marsh Harrier, Great White Egret, Teal, Snipe, Starling, Goldcrest

Thanks For Looking!