We visited Ham Wall yesterday to see the starling murmurations for the 1st time since last year...and yet again we were blown away by the spectacular display! As we walked along to the viewing platform from the car park, I casually commented how amazing it would be to see a bird of prey come in to feed among the starlings as they came in to roost. Well, can you believe our surprise when TWO marsh harriers appeared among the murmurating starlings and joined in the display???!!!!! The roost was a fair distance from the viewing platform - beyond the water tower, but the display was fantastic. Sadly the hint of sunset was in the opposite direction, so photos were pretty dark as the starlings displayed against the background of the hills. Here are some of the photos...the Marsh Harriers are 'dots in the distance' but it was exciting to see!
Can anyone tell us whether the starling murmurations are still happening at Ham Wall now please? We just missed them last year but we are in Somerset this weekend so could arrange to visit as we would love to see the spectacle.
Thanks for any information on this.
Pubwalker,there is a Starling hotline to ring to find out the latest about where they are roosting,think it is probably on main Ham Wall website.
Many thanks Sooty, I found it under the Blog section in a post from October 2012. It also comes up on the Visit Somerset site. Unfortunately I tried it a few moments ago and got the message "The hotline is now closed". I'm hoping that is because it was nearly 4:30pm on Good Friday than because the season is over! I will try it again tomorrow anyway and fingers crossed.
Thanks again for taking the time to steer me to it.
P.S. In case it works later and anyone else is looking for it, the number is 07866 554142.
I tried the number again yesterday and got the same "hotline closed" message so guess the spectacle is now over for this year. A reason to return to Somerset another time ...