18th May - Shapwick Heath NNR, Somerset

A weekend away and true to form the weather looked like it was about to change.  The week had been warm and sunny and even Friday evening we sat in the garden of our hotel with a drink.  That said as we arrived at the car park at RSPB Ham Wall, the sun was out, albeit rather watery sunshine and it was still warm.  The threat was there though of thunderstorms from midday onwards.

We decided to head west along the canal path onto Shapwick Heath and as we came out into the open along the canal we were confronted with dragonflies and this beautiful, male Banded Demoiselle, not to be confused with the Beautiful Demoiselle, a similar species but lacking the dark bands on the wings.

A close up, had it just consumed an insect prey, it looks like legs around the mouthparts.

By far the most numerous dragonfly though was the Four Spotted Chaser.

One of the commoner dragonflies its flight period is late spring into summer.  It is found almost everywhere across the United Kingdom.  Found in almost all water habitats, the largest concentrations are in acidic heathland pools, exactly what we had here.

Walking on a Great Crested Grebe was a lone bird on open water, probably having a mate on the nest nearby.

We were informed of a large concentration of Hobbies being seen from the Meare hide, so we crossed the canal and made our way there.  However when we arrived there were no Hobbies to be seen.  One or two Great Egrets flew across and we could hear a couple of Bitterns booming, but the only bird to show well was this male Marsh Harrier.

We left the hide and decided to walk on, however looking behind us the sky was a very dark grey, and checking the radar, there were storms all around us.  I felt for the time being we would be better off back in a hide and we turned back.

As we reached the bridge we had just crossed there was a lady and a small boy on the bridge.  We were then told the little boy had almost stood on a snake and the lady pointed to a very small adder curled up on the wood beams of the bridge.

It must have been about just over a foot long and still had the pinkish colouring the young adders have when first emerging, so this was probably a male born last summer.  It wasn't bothered by me as I got closer to photograph.

Conscious it was out in the open I tried to move up it on by tapping the ground.  It turned to me and was sticking out the tongue, quite feisty, but eventually it slipped between the gap in the boards and away.

Rather than go to the hide we had just left we walked to the Noah Hide, that looks out over Noah Lake.  Apparently we had just missed a Bittern fly past, but once again there were plenty of Great Egrets.

A pair of Jays flew over.

It started to rain and thunder could be hard from behind the hide in the direction of Glastonbury.  The rain though wasn't very hard.  A Great Crested Grebe appeared below the hide.

A Little Egret flew across the lake, the only one of the day, its thought they have been pushed out by the Great Egrets.  Reed Warbler sang in front of the hide and a Cetti's Warbler sang below the hide.  With the rain easing we decided to return to the Meare hide.  Crossing the bridge there wasn't any sign of the Adder.

It was much as we left it, quiet with distant Great Egrets flying past.  Then a drake Pochard flew in and settled on the open water in front of the hide.

Then came the rain, not too bad to start with.

But then quite violent with thunder and lightning and hail, that turned the water into a swirling mess.

But it didn't stop the Great Egrets from flying past the hide.

The rain eased for a short while and the dragonflies emerged and with them came the Hobbies.  Three were seen at one time, so definitely not the hundreds we were quoted earlier.  Here you make out the water drops on the head of the Hobby.

Once the rain started again, the Great Egrets flew in.

Another gap in the rain saw a male Marsh Harrier come close to the hide, clearly interested in something in the reeds.

It stayed down and we waited to see what would happen.  The drake Pochard was still present looking smart in the reflection of the reeds.

Yet another Great Egret, this time close to the hide.

Then it flew off.

The male Marsh Harrier appeared and flew off, a female then appeared and after perching in a nearby hawthorn bush it tumbled down into the reeds and out of sight.  The male returned and again hovered over the same spot and then dropped into the reeds.  Was there a nest there?

With the radar showing a clear spot we decided to head back to the car.  Despite the weather we had a good day with some great views of Marsh Harrier and Great Egret and a very unexpected Adder encounter