Spring harvest in Somerset

OUR visit to the Somerset Levels reaped rich rewards, with a long list of summer bird ticks and others, including cuckoos, swifts, swallows, hobbies, warblers (reed, white-throat, willow, chiffchaff, garden, blackcap), cattle and great white egrets, bitterns, bt godwits, marsh harriers, plus smooth snakes, (black) adder and grass snake.

One surprise was a predated swift, which we were sure was a victim of a hobby as nothing else could capture one in flight and they would not be on land.  Also we found a discarded clutch of hatched moorhen eggs and another egg not yet identified.

slow worm

white throat

 

 

Moorhen eggs

 

ex-swift

Some record shots:

Hobby

7 (!) Cattle egrets

Grass snake