Ham Wall National Nature Reserve

Recommended by

Overview

Ham Wall NNR, near Glastonbury, is an internationally important wetland site and one of the largest reed beds in southern England. Restored from old peat workings, the site contains reed beds, wet scrub, open water, grassland and woodland supporting a wealth of wildlife including bittern, marsh harrier, kingfisher, water vole and otter. The reed beds at Ham Wall were specially created to encourage the booming bitterns to breed, which they did for the first time in Somerset for 40 years in 2008. You will often hear the bell-like ‘pinging’ calls of bearded tits in the reed beds long before you see them, as also applies with the explosive song of the rare Cetti’s warbler. Hobbies arrive at Ham Wall in late April and hunt across the reserve for small birds like martins, and dragonflies, which they catch in mid-air with their feet. Starlings congregate in vast numbers, or murmurations, in winter roosts in the reed beds.

Location

Stileway

About the area

Somerset remains rural and unspoiled, and ever popular areas to visit are the limestone and red sandstone Mendip Hills rising to over 1,000 feet, and by complete contrast, to the south and southwest, the flat landscape of the Somerset Levels. Another popular spot, the Quantocks, once the haunt of poets Coleridge and Wordsworth, are noted for their gentle slopes, heather-covered moorland expanses and red deer.