Another week has flown by here at Ham Wall and there's a general feeing that, for many birds, the breeding season is just about at an end. Most of the great white egret nests have now fledged - a very successful season with around 75 chicks recorded across the Avalon Marshes reserves with 14 of these birds ringed by the team. Look out for the red rings with white lettering on the legs of birds when you visit the local reserves or even if you're elsewhere in the country - some of the previously ringed birds have been quite adventurous and been recorded all over the country. You can report any sightings you have on line - this will help us learn more about these birds behaviour and how they colonise new areas.
This bird was photographed by John Crispin this week - one of this years youngsters (ABT) ringed on Ham Wall. He has zoomed in on the second image to show you what to look out for. Thanks John:
Bittern activity has also slowed right down, although there have been a few great sightings from the Avalon Hide recently. On Monday evening 2 birds were reported sitting in the reeds for nearly 3 hours and yesterday there were several short flights and a bird feeding out on the edge of the reeds yesterday - a good chance these were young birds, hanging around close to the nest site.
The Avalon Hide is also a good place to see marsh harrier. Two of the four nests on Ham Wall have fledged - with hopefully more to follow. A male marsh harrier was flying quite close to the hide at times yesterday, whilst slightly further west an adult was seen performing a food pass to a youngster. Thanks to John Crispin for his shots of some young marsh harriers and then the food pass:
Interesting to see this behaviour from both adults and youngsters. Look out for the browner birds with gingery coloured caps - these are the juveniles. Some of the newbies were still finding there feet - quite literally, as they were witnessed trying to land on small tree branches rather clumsily, falling off on several occasions - guess it takes time to work out what can support your weight and get your talon/eye coordination worked out. One was also seen flying low over the reedbed and paused slightly in flight to investigate something when a bittern popped up and scared it off.
You will often see the adult birds carrying prey at present - with hungry mouths that still need feeding. Unfortunately, sometimes it's nit the outcome you wanted as these photos show:
This appears to be a young redshank chick taken from in front of the first viewing platform (VP1) on Saturday. We think it had considered by the parents to be fledged as only lapwing were around trying to see it off (no redshank, although they had been present of Friday) - lets hope they had more than one chick and any others have survived.
Thanks also to Jonathan Cuttle for his close up shots of a male marsh harrier from his recent visit to the reserve:
VP1 has also been a good place to catch the busy marsh harriers and it now looks as though the lapwing may also have left (successful fledging we hope), although I did see a few flying in front of the Avalon Hide yesterday. The only other wader seen this week has been black tailed godwits - a fair sized group was spotted flying over VP1 last weekend and snapped by John Crispin - some have landed at times this week at VP1. It's hard to see there now, but there are still bae patches on the islands - it's the taller reeds around the edges of the islands that are obscuring views. We can't start any cutting work until at least August, when we can be sure all breeding here had ceased. With the reed being so sparse after repeated annual cutting it will only be ground nesting species in here.
Look out also from VP1 for whitethroat - still seen flitting about here this week.
On Wednesday a good number of swifts were flying about along with a few swallow and some martins. With the wet weather bring insects a bit lower this offered much better views of these birds. With bird life becoming a little quieter you could turn more attention to the plethora of insect life that the reserve holds - butterflies and dragonfly/damselflies a good place to start.
Butterfly numbers still seem low - although it hasn't been the best week weather wise for sightings. Red Admiral, green veined white, small tortoiseshell, painted lady, speckled wood, meadow brown, ringlet and comma all seen this week. Thanks to John Crispin for his shot of a comma butterfly seen at VP1:
In terms of dragonflies and damselflies look out for emperor (our largest dragonfly - apple green body and blue tail), a few four spotted chasers, black tailed skimmer, southern hawker and brown hawker. For damselflies: blue tailed, azure, common blue, red eyed and banded demoiselle (best place to look for these is probably up on the road bridge and the first stretch inside the wooden gate on the footpath side of the main drain). Thanks to Jonathan Cuttle for his image of a blue tailed damselfly peering over a leaf:
Reed warblers have been seen this week flitting around and catching beakfuls of damselflies for hungry chicks - all part of the Ham Wall food chain. You can still hear a few chattering away in the reedbeds along with the odd sedge warbler. Yesterday reed buntings were perched up on reeds calling too and bearded tits were heard 'pinging' from the Avalon Hide.
Barn owl has also been spotted from the Avalon Hide this week but are far less active - either down to wet weather in which they cannot hunt or the fact that youngsters have left the nest boxes. They were pretty well developed a couple of weeks ago as you can see. This was the only owlet we managed to ring - we abandoned any other attempts as we didn't want the others to bolt and be put in danger - wildlife comes first, always. Thanks to Chris Sperring for sending me the photo - I cropped myself out as I'm sure you don't need to be looking at my ugly mug, when there's such a cute barn owl to look at:
Other birds of prey are being seen - a couple of reports of red kite in the past week, including over the car park, tawny owls are often heard calling in the evening, a sparrowhawk seen several times yesterday (including from the Avalon Hide and VP2) - they have nested in woodland to the east of the reserve in recent years so perhaps they are again, buzzards are seen daily, a peregrine was also spotted several times yesterday by different volunteers who were surveying for bitterns - it was obviously working its way across the reserve and there have been several sightings of hobby from both viewing platforms and the Avalon Hide. Thanks again to Jonathan Cuttle who has sent in photos of a hobby catching a damselfly in flight:
Great action shots there!
Plenty of other interesting sightings to report - a grass snake was seen swimming from the old rail bridge on the main track yesterday by the RSPB Dorset team who cam to visit for the day, the recorded over 50 bird species and also found a smooth newt and enjoyed the great bittern sightings from the Avalon Hide. We also found hatched grass snake eggs in the pile of soil conditioner (which we make from all the reed cuttings from the reserve management) - it gets pretty warm in there as it breaks down.
On Tuesday, we cleared back a small fallen willow which was leaning across the main track and found several of these on the leaves:
We think it is a type of gall -perhaps caused by a sawfly species - so called due to the saw like appendage at their tip which they use to insert eggs into leaves. If anyone is any wiser and knows different, I'd love to hear from you and I can report it back in a future blog.
There are still lots of young birds hanging out with parents around the reserve, in Waltons coots were quite visible, hen pheasants reported on 2 occasions, once with 10 young and another with 6, young pochard reported from the Avalon Hide, young moorhens at the car park pools, several groups of mute swans with young and great crested grebes with young reported from Waltons and the Avalon Hide yesterday. Thanks to Jonathan Cuttle for his grebe shot taken on his recent visit:
Also this week: Jays reported in the wood near the Avalon Hide along with great spotted woodpecker, a young blackbird hanging around the Tor View path and a young robing spotted along the boardwalk near the pond, water rails heard calling right by the Tor View Hide - perhaps young birds here, a lesser black back gull seen carrying what looked like a moorhen chick, kingfishers spotted at several locations including Waltons and the old rail bridge, little egret from VP1 and the Avalon Hide, raven seen flying over the reserve on a couple of occasions and these black headed gulls having a difference of opinion at Walton this week. Thanks to John Crispin for his photo:
Before I finish, we’ve got some great events coming up in July. This includes:
A ‘myths and legends guided walk’ at RSPB Ham Wall on 9 July from 10 am to 12:30 pm. Join us to learn about the history of the reserve, spot some of the wildlife spectacles and learn about some of the famous myths and legends of the local Glastonbury area. Tickets cost £8.50 for adult RSPB Members and £10.50 for adult non-RSPB Members (please note booking fees apply Booking fees included in price listed). For more information and to book visit: https://events.rspb.org.uk/events/17392
We also have ‘Magical moths - trapping and guided walk’ at RSPB Ham Wall on 17 July from 10 am to 12 pm. We’re co-delivering this event with the Somerset Moth Group. We will spend some time exploring and identifying the different moths from a moth trap. Once these have been released, we will go on a short walk, trying to see if we can spot any moth caterpillars or daytime flying moths. Tickets cost £8.50 for adult RSPB Members and £10.50 for adult non-RSPB Members (please note booking fees apply Booking fees included in price listed). For more information and to book visit: https://events.rspb.org.uk/events/19696
That's it for this week. Thanks for reading and have a brilliant weekend!