9th and 10th April 2026 – Avalon Marshes, Somerset

We have spent a couple of days on the Avalon Marshes, a group of nature reserves in the Somerset Levels, about an hour south of our home city of Bristol.

We stayed overnight in Wedmore (a large village situated on raised ground in the Somerset Levels) and this was my first night away (other than in a hospital bed) for 6 months.

The day before our trip we were enjoying temperatures of over 20 degrees celsius in our garden but we were sharply brought back to reality with temperatures at least 10 degrees less and with a cold wind to boot.

The poor light was not ideal for photography but I am not complaining in the least and we both thoroughly enjoyed our short break and saw some lovely birds.

The first reserve we visited was RSPB Greylake, a small reserve to the south of the Avalon Marshes. Here we had good views of common crane, little and great egrets, a few waders including northern pintail, shovelers and teal; and heard lots of Cetti’s warblers.

After RSPB Greylake we moved on to RSPB Ham Wall to the north. We restricted ourselves to just one hide here, mainly because it was so cold. However, despite the poor light we did see great crested grebe, tufted ducks, sand martins, grey herons, cormorants and a marsh harrier. Glastonbury Tor is always a nice backdrop from this hide.

Our second day we only spent a short time birding at Somerset Wildlife Trust’s Catcott Nature Reserve. The best here was a solitary (and very secretive) black-tailed godwit and a pair of Egyptian geese,

On the way home we stopped in Glastonbury for a cream tea (just as good here in Somerset as the Devon and Cornwall ones) and meandered back through the lanes of North Somerset rather than take on the motorway which might have been congested with end of Easter holiday traffic.