images-naturally!: floods

Monday, 16 February 2026

The Somerset Levels February 2026

The view from Burrow Mump

The Somerset Levels in winter provide an exceptional setting for birdwatching, offering some of the most striking wildlife spectacles in southern Britain. During this tour, the extensive lowland landscape of flooded fields, marshes, and peat ponds—lying south of the Mendip Hills and the Quantocks—supported a huge concentration of wintering wildfowl, creating superb viewing opportunities throughout the trip.

This February tour with Naturetrek coincided with a period of exceptionally high water levels across the region. A succession of winter storms moving through south-west England resulted in widespread flooding, saturated landscapes, and at times challenging travel conditions. However, these conditions also enhanced the wildlife experience, spreading birds far and wide and emphasising the dramatic character of the Levels in winter.

Starling roost activity proved to be a major highlight of the tour and was considered the best of the entire winter season. With the birds returning to roost at RSPB Ham Wall in exceptional numbers, our clients were treated to truly spectacular murmuration displays.

A few of the reserves were inaccessible due to high water levels, RSPB Greylake was one of them but we explored new areas and found a lot of good wildlife.

RSPB Greylake

The path to the hides at Greylake

Here are a few photos from our time on the Levels.......

Greylag Geese
Starling
Great Egret
Northern Shovelers

The path to Decoy Lake

Glastonbury Tor from Shapwick Heath

Near Decoy Lake

Replica of the Sweet track

Redpoll feeding on Alder

Some of the 500+ Cattle Egrets at Westhay

A screenshot of the Starling display at RSPB Ham Wall.

Checkout my movie clip of the Starlings on my Youtube channel by clicking the following link.......

https://youtu.be/NThByqn2Las

Team photo

Thursday, 25 January 2024

Winter on the Somerset Levels (contd). 17th -19th Jan 2024.

Great Egret

I spent an amazing 3 days last week leading a short tour on the Somerset Levels for Naturetrek tours.

The weather was very cold & frosty with blue skies and bright sunshine although it never reached above 4 deg C.

Water levels have dropped a bit since my last visit before Xmas although some of the hides at RSPB Ham Wall are still unreachable due to flooding and the necessary health & safety checks..

We visited several different reserves and open areas including RSPB Greylake, RSPB Swell Wood, West Sedgemoor, RSPB Ham Wall, Shapwick Heath etc and ticked off 71 different species including many classic Somerset Levels specialities such as Common Crane, Cetti's Warbler, Marsh Harrier etc. There were vast numbers of wildfowl with Teal & Wigeon far outnumbering ducks such as Gadwall, Shoveler, Pochard & Pintail. Sadly we couldn't pin down a Bittern although I did think I caught sight of the rear end of one flying amongst the reeds but not positive enough to record it!

The Starlings flooded into the reserves at sunset and we had great views of their vast numbers. Murmurations were few but the sight of all these birds against a stunning sunset will long remain in my memory.

Here are a few photos from the trip and for those clients that couldn't update their daily list I include a list of our 3rd day birds for you to add to your Species checklist.

There are several more 3 day tours to come so if you're interested checkout the Naturetrek website at...

https://www.naturetrek.co.uk/tours/the-somerset-levels

All are based at the Swan Hotel in Wells directly opposite the cathedral.

The extras to add to our list were:- Raven, Greylag, Goldcrest, Little Grebe, Pochard, Songthrush, Pintail, Cattle Egret & Great-crested Grebe.

Here are some miscellaneous images from the tour.......