Meare Heath NR and Greylake RSPB - Sat 2 Oct

Having been stuck at work all morning, and knowing htat the weather forecast for the weekend was not at all good, I popped up on to the Somerset Levels for a couple of hours in the hope of connecting with a few good scarcities that had been seen.
Arriving at Meare Heath and parking at the Ashcott Corner car park I looked up to see a large flock of Lapwings and a couple of other waders take off and fly south. These other waders looked rather interesting but were too far away to identify, and unfortunately the kept flying south! On the flooded lagoon there were a large number of Black-tailed Godwits and some returning Wigeon, Teal and Shoveler...a sign that winter is on the way, though a female Garganey was a reminder that it's migration time. Also on the lagoon were two Great White Egrets, one of which had been ringed.


Leaving the lagoon I walked out to the hide overlooking Meare Heath proper, but saw nothing of note, but on returning to the drove I picked out two Black Terns, which I had been trying to track down for nearly an hour.
With time ticking by I left Meare Heath and drove the short distance south to the RSPB reserve at Greylake where a Spotted Crake had been seen a day earlier. I walked out to the hide and spent about thirty minutes scanning the area. There was no sign of the crake, or anything else for that matter, though a couple of Snipe were seen. As I was going out for dinner, I could not linger so came on home.