A fine time to go birding is Christmas Day. Away from the excess and hypocrisy to celebrate in my own way. And where better than the Somerset Levels? Especially as they’d flooded, and evidence of that surrounded me on the way from Glastonbury to Meare. Indeed the road itself had clearly been inundated.
Wet weather from the beginning of the year was repeating itself. Was this the pattern for the future? Only my later readers will know.
Shapwick Heath was the first stop and now had three great white egrets in attendance. Farther in, Noah’s Lake was higher than I’d ever seen but somewhat bereft of waterfowl. One kingfisher compensated.
There was then time to catch only my second visit to Westhay Moor. In the gloaming, snipe flew in convoy as skeins of starlings arrowed in and swirled a while above the reeds. A sprinkling of pied wagtails also formed a roost, as did a cacophony of jackdaws and rooks in the distance. A single tawny owl whitted and was silent. A fourth great white egret laboured away and closed proceedings for the day.
Twenty-four hours earlier little owls had entertained me at Portbury Wharf. There I’d also had to christen my wellies and wade in to the reward of hearing my first water rail for the reserve. Earlier still a kittiwake off Battery Point had flown on to my Portishead list. The nearby boating lake had overflowed so all around were signs of the deluge and high winds.
These continued into the New Year, to the extent that a spring tide up the River Avon flooded parts of Bristol. This bodes well for seabirds and waterfowl. Not so well for humans and other creatures.