Avalon Marshes Complex - A winter's walk.

It has been 6 months or so since my last blog post. Back then, in June, it was a scorching hot sunny day and I was to be found looking for large blue butterflies at a mid-Somerset location. It's not that since then I've been stuck indoors, but life has taken a strange turn and sped up considerably. The winter is here and it was high time to re-connect with my blog, posting what is the simplest of an image-driven walk.

We've reached mid January 2022 and I've taken a few days off to have a late Festive break having worked over Christmas. To be honest this morning's walk was simply that, a walk, a chance to get out into the countryside, some exercise and to spend what turned out to be over five hours tramping across the magnificent Avalon Marshes complex, with my wife.   Birdlife was abundant but not exceptional, so much better then to just let the images do the talking. Here we go then... the walk began at Canada Drive on the Shapwick Complex.

Here in Somerset we've had week upon week of dull grey days but this morning a really heavy frost was revealed by clear blue skies and a burst of strong sunshine. The sunshine was actually quite warm, not least as there was not a breath of wind. Underfoot however the distinct crunch of frozen ground broke the silence even after the surface frost had melted. Winter is such a wonderful time to walk, the views open out, there's a chill in the air, and what bird song there is travels far, which today was predominantly from blue and great tits, the latter with their 'teacher teacher' calls, and a number of ravens, cronking their dominance of the airways above me.

Evidence of spring, while still some way off, was emerging, with iris and arum starting to push through the leaf litter.

In this strong light some sublime images were to be had if only we stop and take time to look more intently, such as this back-lit fern on a rhyne edge. Just gorgeous.

I love bare winter trees, and this oak shows why. I tried to take some photographs of long tailed tits flitting through the branches, which became a wasted endeavour, but the realisation this tree is in itself beautiful from underneath wasn't.

Further up the Canada Drive, the strong low sunlight created these wonderful regimented shadow-lines, created from the fence line and trees on the left.  The closer we look the better the connection with nature can be.

Eventually I made it to the Canada Hide itself. This hide is brand new, replacing the one that sank into the peat and became unsafe. It is one of my favourite parts of Shapwick, simply because it is somewhere the hoards of visitors rarely come to. And today I was pretty much on my own, Julie having gone off for a longer walk, and only one other person to be seen for about for 20 minutes. Perfect.

And once inside, with some really swish sash windows to open, the view was what can only be described as 'blue'. A deep calming blue.

There was birdlife there, just a long way off, mute swans, coot, tufted duck, shoveller, gadwall and cormorants the most abundant.

Walking back from the hide a distinct mist drifted across the path highlighted by the sunshine, almost smoky in appearance it added wonderfully to the sense of isolation as I walked.

The joy of light on a mossy log - just as simple as that. 

Further on this track lies the Hawk And Owl Trust reserve, which is where Julie had walked to. I didn't follow, simply spending some time here listening to a great spotted woodpecker calling kik-kik as it flew through the branches. A couple passed me and we had a little chat, they'd heard 'drumming' over at the Westhay Reserve earlier in the morning. I had my hopes raised, however in all the time I was out I never heard any drumming.... spring isn't far away though if woodpecker drumming is being heard.

This reflection in the wet woodland really was that blue - magical, and opposite this decaying trunk had been well peppered with woodpecker holes.

The colours of this ivy just appealed to me.

Retracing my steps I then plunged into the Shapwick Nature Reserve. This image sums up what I love about this site. It's a fairly new path, one of many now connecting the numerous reserves. It feels wonderfully isolated, but the large pipe along the floor reminds any traveller that this entire Complex is man made and man managed. Without the pumping and water management to maintain wildlife, it would drain and be simply wet meadow and woodland, or simply dry out and revert to agricultural land. 

Most of the birds I wanted to photograph were so far away that even for my camera's 200 x lens, most images were just blurred dots. This coot at the Decoy Pool however got close enough to provide a half decent image. Coots are cool.

The view from the Decoy Hide over to Glastonbury Tor never changes winter or summer, different birds of course each season, and dragonflies a-plenty in the summer, but basically it is a time capsule landscape and I never tire of it. Otters are regular here, but never when I visit. One day maybe.

Great crested grebes were around, but still too early for their lovely courtship dance. No booming bitterns either today.

Towards dusk in the final half an hour before sunset we stopped at the Westhay Reserve. Many people visit Ham Wall about 3 miles away for the starling murmurations. This year however the starlings have kept everyone on their toes and have split into three groups regularly... roosting at Ham Wall, Shapwick and Westhay. But not today, not at Westhay, and that didn't matter. The light as the sun set and lit the reeds was compensation enough for me.

4.25pm and the sun was almost down..... and.... if I turned 180 degrees.....

... the Wolf Moon, the first full moon of the year was just rising to the east.

I mentioned this at the top of this post. It is simply, sometimes, the act of being outside that provides the great joy we all attempt to gain from a connected experience outdoors. Today I wasn't interested in finding rare birds, or seeing as many different species as possible, but simply enjoyed walking around, observing and enjoying this quite wonderful, and man made landscape. Humans can create beauty, if they only think about what's needed to reverse some of the ills of civilisation. Rewilding these industrial landscapes from exhausted peat workings, and in doing so creating one of the biggest wetlands in the UK, needs celebrating, mostly as I sit on a log and do absolutely nothing.