Somerset Levels (Wednesday 10th February 2016)

I had a very pleasant day on the Somerset Levels yesterday with the Spotlight Kid on probably the brightest day of the week. Navigation was difficult because the flooding had closed some footpaths, and boots got very muddy.

I got my first 2016 glimpse of a kingfisher and saw two little grebes, which although they are not rare I had never knowingly seen before. There was at least one bittern around because I heard it booming while I was in the Avalon Hide though it stayed out of sight. We saw marsh harriers, great white egrets and many other birds and ducks.

We hung around long enough to see the starlings roost. Many hundreds of thousands converged at Ham Wall and at one point the sky was full of them for a full 360 degrees around where we were standing.

They did perform some murmurations but for most of the time they were just sweeping from one side of the sky to another, and descending to and ascending from the reeds. Some lapwings joined the flock and there were peregrines, sparrowhawks and harriers all in the sky trying to muscle in. In the blip, taken at dusk, some cormorants can be seen flying above the starlings.

The Extra shows swans on the Discovery Trail in Shapwick Heath NNR.

L.
11.2.2016 (1227 hr)

Blip #1757 (#2007 including archived blips)
Consecutive Blip #000
Day #2148
LOTD #991 (#1115 including archived blips)

Taken withPentax K-50 (Red) and Pentax HD P-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR lens

A Day On The Somerset Levels, 10 February 2016 (Flickr album)

Birds series
Somerset series

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Julia Holter - Everytime Boots (2015)

One year ago:
Smokey 1312 hr