Thirteen members enjoyed a weekend’s birding in Somerset. This was our fourth visit as a group to this area and this time we stayed at The Sidcot Arms Hotel near Winscombe. The hotel was fairly central for all the sites that we visited, we were well looked after and we can highly recommend it.

We met mid-morning Thursday at New Fancy Viewpoint in the Forest of Dean and as there weren’t many birds, we made our way down the road a few miles to RSPB Nagshead where we spent a couple of hours in one of the hides overlooking a small drinking pool. Highlights here included Spotted Flycatcher, Firecrest. Mistle and Song Thrush, Treecreeper, Goldcrest, Nuthatch, and a few other woodland birds. Returning to the cars, we had our lunch and set off back towards the motorway to travel south to Somerset. We checked in at the hotel mid-afternoon and travelled a short distance to Chew Valley Lake. There were a few hirundines over the south end of the reservoir at Herriott’s Bridge and other highlights included various wildfowl including Shoveler, Pochard, a pair of Egyptian Geese with nine goslings, a pair of Garganey and Little Ringed Plover. We returned to the hotel for our evening meal.

After a hearty breakfast on the Friday, the group travelled down to the Somerset Levels to RSPB Ham Wall. This reserve is one of the flagship reserves on the Levels and we had great views of Kingfisher, Blackcap, Garden, Reed and Cetti’s Warbler, Great White Egret, Black-tailed Godwit, Bittern, Marsh Harrier, another pair of Garganey and distant flight views of Hobby. Invertebrates were to the fore as well with Red-eyed, Common Blue, Blue-tailed and Azure Damselflies: Hairy Dragonfly; Black-tailed Skimmer; Banded Demoiselle and Four Spotted Chaser and on our way back to the car park there were Grass Snakes sunning themselves under a bridge. After eating our lunch, we walked across the road to Shapwick Heath NNR. On Meare Heath scrape we had stunning views of Hobby with one bird sat in a bare tree and others skimming the pond in front of us catching dragonflies. Other highlights included Great, Little and Cattle Egret, Common Buzzard and Red Kites. Our final destination for the day was Westhay NR (Somerset Wildlife Trust) where the highlights were Marsh Harrier, Cuckoo (calling), Bittern (booming) and stunning views of a Kingfisher catching small prey. We all returned to the hotel for another evening meal.

Another excellent breakfast on the Saturday and we then made our way south-west to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Reserve on the River Parrett at Steart, near Bridgewater. Highlights here included Stonechat, Swift, Avocet, Yellow Wagtail and a flying White Stork. One of the yellow wagtails that we saw was one of the grey-headed races and on the subsequent two days an Iberian or Spanish Wagtail was reported there and on reflection that was probably what we saw on the Saturday – not a tick but a nice bird, nevertheless. Other highlights included another Red Kite, Kestrel and Little Ringed Plover. We drove to RSPB Greylake (some arriving earlier than others), another reserve on the south side of the levels, where we ate our lunch. We had further views of Great White Egret, Hobby, Marsh Harrier, Reed Warbler, an unseasonal drake Wigeon and Common Crane. On our way back to the hotel we called at Cheddar Reservoir where we had good views of Swift, House Martin and Great-crested Grebe but little else. It was still early, so a decision was made to have a recce at Stockhill Woods on the Mendips, a potential site for Nightjar. Our evening meals were taken at various local hostelries and a few of us reconvened at Stockill at 8.30 pm. Paul had gleaned some local information on our first visit earlier, and we made our way up a track to some clearings. There was no sight or sound of the birds, and we decided to call it a day and were on our way back to the car park when a male nightjar flew across us and landed on some bare branches at the top of a tree. Excellent views were had by all. The evening ended with a ‘night-jar’ back at the hotel.

After our final breakfast on the Sunday and saying our goodbyes to our hosts we parted company with Andrew and Jackie who were travelling on to France, and the remainder of us travelled to WWT Slimbridge on the River Severn. The highlight here and the highlight of the whole weekend was a White-spotted Bluethroat. This small passerine has just returned for its fifth summer at the reserve - wintering down in Iberia or North Africa, a stunning little bird and our whole group had excellent telescope views. Other highlights included further Common Crane, Red Kite, Avocet, Black-tailed Godwit together with Spoonbill, Barnacle Goose, Mediterranean Gull and Little Grebe.

We ended up with 90 species for the weekend. The sun shone all weekend, shorts and T-shirts were the order of every day. It was the first time we had stayed at this hotel and it was ideal for our needs. Everyone enjoyed their weekend’s birding, with good company and some outstanding birds.

 Ray Evans