Trip report: Shapwick Heath (7 May 2013)

26 members met at Natural England’s Shapwick Heath car park on the first hot day of the year. In the morning we walked towards Noah’s Lake but the way was barred as the bridge to Meare Hide had been removed for maintenance and the main path closed just before the lake. After a picnic lunch in the car park we headed towards the RSPB Ham Wall reserve. Altogether 50 species were recorded during the day with the highlights being a Garden Warbler and a Cetti’s Warbler singing in view, a pair of Great White Egrets getting ‘cosy’, a pair of Marsh Harriers soaring over the reed bed, up to 15 Hobbies feeding on the wing in one group, a flock of eleven Bar-tailed Godwits in summer plumage and a Cuckoo calling and posing on a branch close to the path. A brilliant hot day birding.