The Somerset Levels

 

Friday 14 August

Not  good day. A fresh start was supposed to redeem the mistakes of yesterday, which ended badly.

I noticed what looked like a nice pub in the village where I was staying so decided to ride down and have an early evening pint. The pint was lovely. The pub was OK and the people seemed friendly, but I didn’t try to get any conversation going - too difficult. So, I hadn't been there long when I drank the last of my pint, put the glass on the bar said "Thanks, cheers", and walked out. The world was fine and I was a fine old duffer, but so what. I looked forward to my meal  - bacon and veg, and of course some wine. I parked the bike at the back of the van and lumbered around sorting things out. Before settling in for the evening I needed to get it more level, so I got it going, backed up and moved to a slightly more level site. No, that was no good either, try again. Right, go and get the levelling wedges. Oh my God, the bike! It was lying there in the furrow it had ploughed as it  was pushed back. Damage assessment: handlebars badly bent, front mudguard damaged, otherwise not too bad, but bad enough. I would now have to get a new handlebar. Bollocks!

The day began with drizzle, got into its stride, but never quite hit the hard stuff. It has been raining most of the day - nasty insinuating wet stuff: "Don't worry about me I'm feeble, I'm not your real rain." Oh Yes? Then why am I  soaked to the skin. "You've been sweating - you know, when you did that walk through the  woods in the hope that you would get  a view of the marshes." True, but my shoulders don't normally sweat.  The unfortunate conclusion is that not only was the rain steady and unremitting, but my waterproofs no longer keep out the water. And, how utterly miserable that walk was - designed to punish the real bird watchers for thinking they could get the feel of the place in the rain.

You have to hand it to the RSPB. They are expert at gently persuading their punters to keep away from the places that really matter. What I wanted to do was simply to get a decent view over the West Sedgemoor marshes. Well, they did say on the website that it was probably the most important site in Britain for breeding wetland birds. They encourage you to book a guided walk  - but not in the summer. In the summer there are public footpaths that go round the reserve boundaries. But there are no car parks, and no guided walks; none of the "information centre" infrastructure - the desk manned by charming staff, the volunteers desperate to be helpful, the nice café with only slightly expensive food and drink, and all the display information, the leaflets, the posters, the world of the RSPB.  None of that. Just wet trees.

That was before 9. I pootled around for a while, but then decided to go back to the Shapwick Heath and Ham Wall reserves where I had been last month. On the way is the Graylake reserve - relatively small with just one hide, and I was the only person there. At least I was in the dry. The telescope was unshipped, the cameras prepared, the binoculars round my neck, and now all I had to do was look out at the wet reed beds and hope something would turn up. It did! I had a very good view of a pair of Marsh Harriers hunting - too far away for the cameras, but with my new smooth video head on the telescope I could easily track them as they flew in a languid figure of 8 over territory they obviously knew well. One was dark - almost black, but still with the pale head. He pounced, wings up and then the sudden drop. No obvious result. They don't hunt together, but a while later I found them both perching in a tree, looking like mates.

There were a pair of kestrels hunting much nearer, and I got a few pictures which were "almost" worth keeping when I loaded them in to the computer. Kestrels are rare now in Carmarthenshire, so it was good to see them several times in the levels.
 

Then in the afternoon to Ham Walls, the only place in Britain where a pair of Little Bitterns have nested, another good place to see Marsh Harriers, and an even better one to see Bitterns - the normal ones, the ones which were almost extinct in Britain 30 years ago. And I did! Several times. Once I even got the camera on them but it turned out not to be in focus. I also saw our latest immigrant, a bird that was unknown here only a few years ago - the Great White Egret: lovely heron-sized birds with yellow beaks.

I'm still not sure whether talking to the big handsome man with the Cannon gear was a good thing. The Canon men are the elite of the birding fraternity, the ones with the kit the pros use. This one was a prince amongst them - no binoculars, no telescope, just the EOS camera - the big square ones with the 35mm sensors, and the huge lens covered with camouflage material. Camera - around 2k, lens probably 5k, and he's not getting massive close-ups with it, only the kind of magnification you get with a normal pair of binoculars. What he is getting is the holy grail: the detail. He's a very nice man this member of the elite, and he lets me have a go. It's ridiculously heavy but he has no tripod. The image stabilisation is so good and the sensor is so good that he can work at an ISO of 1200  (what used to be called a fast film), a fast shutter speed, and still get crisp detail.

I am discouraged. Why have I decided this is what I want to do? I have so much to learn it's ridiculous, and I'm not even sure I have the temperament for it - all that waiting around doing nothing.

Meanwhile I framed a common summer visitor, a whitethroat,  in a typical August habitat - cow parsley. Slowly the life of the plant is moving out to the seeds and then sinking to the roots, ready for another year. It's just rough brown and green but so much part of the season it's beautiful.
 

Take heart. The forecast for tomorrow is good. I have found a little camp site which charges £7 without electricity, and I will get up early and be back here by the time the gate opens at 6. Good plan.

 

Saturday 15 August

I got lost. There were road diversions and the satnav was not help. In the end I trusted to my own sense of direction and set off at high speed down a little road which seemed to wind for ever, but did finally get me where I thought it would. I was amazed! It was 6:30 when I finally got to the reserve car park, but there was only one car there and the light was stll good.
 

I should explain that there is a golden rule in photographic circles that if you want to do wildlife and landscape you need to catch the early morning or late evening light. I's a rule made in countries with lots of strong sunlight. In Britain, and especially in Wales, the light can be special at any time of day, but very early is still the specialest.
 

Disappointingly there was little activity on outside the main hides - lazy little sods couldn't be bothered to get up and get to work feeding. I went to find a new hide on the other side of the reserve. It had not been built yet but on the way I saw something quite astonishing. There, hiding behind the reeds on a narrow patch of open water and mud were three heron species. The common Grey heron was there with a mate. There were lots of little egrets - dainty pure white birds with a black beak and legs. They have a charming way of feeding by pushing their big feet to and fro in the mud to stir up the crawlies. The real surprise though was the much bigger bird sharing their feeding ground - no less than 5 Great White Egrets. The name sounds ominously sharkish but they are harmless heron-like birds with very long necks, yellow beaks (at this time) and brilliant white plumage.

The Great White is an important bird for the RSPB for it was their long display plumes which used to be used to decorate hats and almost led to their extinction. The RSPB was founded to protest against the trade. They were succesful an dhave never looked back.

I wasn't quite close enough, but there was nobody around so I decided to do some stalking. Crouching low I trod carefully through the shoulder-high reeds until I was much closer. However, there was a dip in the ground and even standing I could not get a good view. Fortunately my Panasonic has a tilting screen so I was able to hold it way above my head and frame the picture.

Walking back, a young man on a bike came towards me. He had a special back-pack which held a tripod with a telescope across the top of it.

"The best place for the birds today is over on the other side." He gestured behind him. "I've just come from there. We've just lowered the water level and there are hundreds of birds there."

"Thanks, but I was hoping to get a shot of a bittern where I saw them last night."

"Oh, there's bitterns, great whites, godwits, all sorts."

"Right - over on the Nature Conservancy side? Which hide?"

"You don't need a hide just walk along the main track and  you will see them - on the right hand side."

It's a fair old walk, stepping out smartly with the heavy kit on my back. After 10 minutes yomping I see a little group with tripods and optics. The man on the bike overtakes me and points up ahead -

"Just by those people there".

Well, he's right in a way. There are great egrets and godwits and greenshank and little egrets, but no Bitterns and they are all too far away to get decent shots, even through the telescope, but again the new video head with the telescope enables me to get some really good views of some pretty spectacular birds. Good enough for the day. Now I need some coffee and a route for the long drive to Combe Martin.