I really do have some catching up to do! October has been a bit of a disruptive month firstly we built a wildlife pond, more to come in another post! Then we managed to get Covid and we are just beginning to come round from that so hopefully I’ll be out and about with my camera soon.

So this visit to Ham Wall and Catcott was in September, we just decided to go for the day, it turned very bright, so a little tricky to take images. We spent some time in the Avalon Hide and it was relatively quiet, we didn’t stop too long as there was a very cold wind blowing straight at us which made it very uncomfortable sitting there, so after a short time we moved on and slowly walked back to the car park, we spotted a few birds on the way and as we crossed the bridge over the rhyne we could see hundreds of small Roach, good food source for all the birds that feed on them. We were surprised to see a Great Crested Grebe with young, we thought it was late in the season, but hopefully with the mild weather we have had they have made it to adulthood.

We decided on a detour to Catcott before we went home, again relatively quiet, it was all about the Egrets, a Great White Egret, Little Egret and a few Cattle Egret. The Cattle Egret have done very well on the Levels there are a great number now, around 400 have been seen roosting, a success story and they can now be seen in South Dorset round Wareham and Poole Harbour.