Avalon Marshes

I have been working in the South West and we were flying back to Newcastle on Sunday afternoon so the only way to get rid of our fuzzy heads was to do a little birding. Being closeish to Bristol airport, the Avalon Marshes seemed ideal to get stuck into and so we did. One of our triumvirate hadnt really been birding in the south before and wasnt a twitcher in any way shape or form so we were hoping that Cetti's Warbler, Great White Egret and Glossy Ibis would possibly be on the menu. Sadly the Ibis was nowhere to be seen but we fared a little better with the other two.

We wandered up the footpath between Ham Wall RSPB and Walton Heath and every few yards a Cetti's Warbler piped up. Needless to say we didn't see them but for me the song is all you need really. Every ditch and reed cut held Gadwall and Shoveler but little else. Stumbling across a decent expanse of water sat bang in the middle was a handsome Great White Egret foraging. Certainly some of the best views I have had of this species as it gave some really cool behaviour bouncing its back end whilst feeling with its feet.



A Kingfisher tootled up and down repeatedly and there was a better selection of floaters but little else to get the heart going so we turned round and headed onto Shapwick and Meare Heaths. Aside from a Marsh Harrier and Pike chasing fry in the shallows there wasn't a huge amount to get excited about but I very much enjoyed the constitutional.