Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath, 19th June 2005 by Ann Crawford

Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath, 19^th June 2005 by Ann Crawford

This was the day of the Warblers. And there were lots of them – Reed, Garden, Cetti, Sedge and Whitethroat. Not only were they singing with enthusiasm, but also they were showing themselves, which was unusual, particularly the Cetti, which is a great skulker, at the bottom of reeds, or close to the main trunk of a Willow. To make up for the lack of sound, they are certainly very noisy, and if you are walking along side a reed bed, they suddenly start up their short burst of song, which can make you jump. By and large the Warblers are the original L.B.J., as they flit between perches, often staying among the leaves, and with no conspicuous markings. So how can you tell which is which? The Sedge and Whitethroat are the only ones to sing while in flight, which they both did in front of us, the Sedge tending to rather shoot up and sing then drop down again. It has a very obvious pale eye stripe, which can help with identification. Cetti’s is a warmer reddy brown than most of the others and it often raises its tail while perching. The Reed Warbler is pale underneath, but like the Cetti is not striped nor patterned. The Whitethroat is sturdier than most of the other Warblers, and has an obvious white throat, which we saw very clearly, and we also saw a lot of Reed Warblers. We heard the Chiff Chaff, but there did not seem to be any Willow Warblers. In fact I have seen very few of them this year. We heard a Garden Warbler in the car park, and a Black cap at the end of the walk.

We saw several Hobbies, hunting high in the sky, probably for dragon flies, their favorite snack, sadly they are also partial to the passing House Martin. It is a Falcon of the plains rather than the rocks where most Falcons live. They have long narrow wings, held in a scythe-like position, rather like a large Swift. It is very fast and acrobatic, and fun to watch.

We also saw some ducks; as you may know I like ducks, I enjoy watching them diving and upending, and dabbling. There were several very smart Male Tufted Ducks, a few Gargany, a summer visitor. It is a dabbling duck with a white stripe over the eye and down the neck, and is white underneath. There were also Gadwell, Mallard, Teal Shovellor and to my delight a Ruddy Duck, the first one I have seen for about 3 years, so they can not be that common, and they are so smart, with their large white patch on the cheek, and blue bill, and upright stance, and stiff tail, surely they are much to attractive to cull!!! Now that should start a debate.

No. species seen: 55

Birds seen, in BOU order or alphabetic order

BOU order

Mute Swan

Canada Goose

Gadwall

Mallard

Shoveler

Teal

Ruddy Duck

Tufted Duck

Little Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Cormorant

Little Egret

Grey Heron

Buzzard

Hobby

Moorhen

Coot

Lapwing

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-headed Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Stock Dove

Wood Pigeon

Collared Dove

Cuckoo

Swift

Green Woodpecker

Swallow

House Martin

Pied Wagtail

Wren

Dunnock

Robin

Blackbird

Song Thrush

Cetti’s Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Reed Warbler

Blackcap

Garden Warbler

Whitethroat

Chiffchaff

Willow Warbler

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Magpie

Jackdaw

Carrion Crow

Starling

Chaffinch

Greenfinch

Goldfinch

Reed Bunting

Alphabetic order