Starling Trail
Shapwick Heath – Avalon Marshes, Somerset, UK. ID IMG_7572
Shapwick Heath and Shapwick Moor
I arrived too early to wait for the starlings so set off on a walk around the Canada Farm end of Shapwick Heath and Shapwick Moor. The heath is owned by Natural England and the moor by Hawk and Owl Trust.
The day started with a fantastic rainbow over Station Farm. This was only a few yards away from my car parking spot at the side of the road opposite the entrance to the drove down through Shapwick Heath.
Station Farm Rainbow – Nr Westhay, Somerset, UK. ID IMG_7595
There were plenty of opportunities to photograph birds around the hides. Although, I did not see much from Canada Farm hide that looks out across open water. Just a group of wigeon and a lone shoveler far off in the distance.
Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) – Shapwick Moor, Somerset, UK. ID IMG_1099
There are a series of large fields around Canada Farm on Shapwick Heath. The goats were good fun to watch.
Bagot Goat – Shapwick Heath, Somerset, UK. ID IMG_0632
I felt one of the problems with the large nature reserves is access. There are a few tracks but much of the area of out of reach. This is confusing as it is marked as open access land on my Ordnance Survey map.
Highland Cattle
Shapwick Heath has a Highland and Devon red cattle to graze the fields.
Highland Cattle – Shapwick Heath, Somerset, UK. ID IMG_1296
Bird Feeders
Around the hides on Shapwick Moor I spent a few hours watching the tits, and robins feeding from the nearby feed stations.
Blue Tit – Shapwick Moor, Somerset, UK. ID IMG_0325
I was particularly pleased to see this lovely wood pecker.
Great spotted woodpecker – Shapwick Moor, Somerset, UK. ID IMG_0738
Starling Murmurations
The flocks of starlings roost overnight amongst the feed beds. The seem to use Shapwick Heath as much as the more famous RSPB Ham Wall reserve that is just down the track.
Today the starlings were a bit to far away from the main track but the sky had some nice colour.
Starling Murmuration – Shapwick Heath, Somerset, UK. ID JB_4261
And finally…
I finished the day watching the sunset over Noah’s Lake on Shapwick Heath.
Sunset at Noah’s Lake – Shapwick Heath, Avalon Marshes, Somerset, UK. ID JB_4346
