The ideal holiday destination for migrant birds and insects.

Somerset’s tapestry of watery habitats – wet peat meadows, shallow pools, connecting rivers, rhynes and streams, and rich, estuarine mud – is not just a picturesque landscape; it is home to a dazzling array of waterbirds and a vital refuge for other wildlife such as fish. In particular, the county is an international staging point and hotspot for overwintering bird species, providing a smorgasbord of food – from aquatic invertebrates to succulent grasses – and a safe refuge from harsh winter weather elsewhere. Meanwhile, as the first leaves burst from the ancient oak woodlands of Exmoor and the Quantock Hills, robin-size birds - wood warblers, pied flycatchers and redstarts - arrive from West Africa to nest. Across the county, swallows, house martins and swifts also arrive in spring, eating emerging insects that help them pile on the calories before heading further north or remaining in the county to nest. For many animals, Somerset is more than just a summer or winter retreat; it is their lifeblood.

Wildlife spectacles

Each autumn, Somerset witnesses a remarkable spectacle. Tens of thousands of birds, many of which have flown thousands of miles from breeding grounds in Iceland, Greenland, and Scandinavia, descend upon its shores and further inland to the Somerset Levels. These areas pulsate with life, serving as a vital and haven for a dazzling array of birds. Wigeon gather in their thousands, grazing on short vegetation – their distinctive whistle echoes across the landscape. Others, such as tufted ducks and shovelers, mostly sleep by day and feed at night. Alongside ducks, Somerset’s mudflats and flooded meadows provide a wintering ground for thousands of waders, including lapwings, golden plovers, dunlin and curlew. Equally spectacular is the million-strong starling murmuration that performs a ballet over the Somerset Levels each evening – most of these birds have come from eastern Europe and Russia to seek food and shelter.

The waterways are also internationally important for fish. Eels travel to Somerset from the Sargasso Sea off Florida/Caribbean while salmon, which feed off the shores of Greenland and Iceland head back into the Severn Estuary to spawn up the rivers alongside the lesser known twaite shad. While all three species have sharply declined – the eel is now critically endangered – the estuary and rivers are still crucial to all three species’ long-term survival as well as other species that rely on their existence.

Why is Somerset so special?

“Somerset’s coast, the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel provide nutrients and food across their many rich and varied habitats from mud flats to salt marshes which allows so many migratory species to call this area their winter home, explains Mark Ward, Wilder Coast Project Manager. “Raising awareness of the importance and diversity of the Somerset coast is an important goal for Somerset Wildlife Trust through our Wilder Coast project. As more people know about the international importance of our local rich marine and estuarine environment, the more – collectively – we can protect it.”

The magical lure of the mudflats of the Severn Estuary lies in their diversity; their thick, gooey mud is packed full of food like an all-you-can-eat buffet. The mud is glued together by diatoms, microscopic single-celled organisms, that sit on its surface and photosynthesis like plants. They are in turn grazed on by abundant populations of tiny invertebrates such as snails, no longer than a grain of wheat, which are then picked off by birds such as dunlin and shelducks. Meanwhile, down in the mud there is a multitude of worms, shellfish and other delicacies that are probed and tugged out by long-billed waders such as curlews, godwits and oystercatchers.

The plant life here is an essential and increasingly fragile, rare habitat known as saltmarsh – it is the part of the shoreline that contains plants and animals highly-adapted to high and low tides, high salt levels, rainwater, gale force winds and blistering hot sunshine. In turn these are grazed by ducks such as wigeon or dabbled by teal and mallards, which commute from the Somerset Levels and Moors to the estuary each night. By day they can be seen resting and sleeping before deserting parts of the levels once it is dusk.

“Somerset’s Brilliant Coast is a critical landscape due to the function it plays for not just breeding but also migrating species, explains Simon Clarke, Head of Nature Recovery. It provides an important pit stop for rest, recovery and refuelling for a wide range of species and, as such, it is critical we all do our bit to support this myriad of species. It also emphasises the need to consider the importance of Somerset’s nature recovery at a national and international scale.

Protecting Somerset’s wildlife requires a concerted effort from individuals, communities and policymakers to ensure that by 2030 30% of Somerset has healthy, connected habitats available for wildlife”.

Somerset’s ancient sessile oak woodlands provide a similar food bonanza for migratory birds. As the buds burst and bright green leaves expand, they are quickly by hungry moth caterpillars, offering a spring feast for birds such as pied flycatchers, redstarts and wood warblers, who make the long journey from West Africa for the plentiful food and long daylight hours.

Nightingales find scrubby woodland or hedgerow habitats while tree pipits do aerial display flights across woodland openings and commons. Cuckoos also join the throng, feasting on hairy caterpillars and laying their eggs in other birds’ nests. Nightjars follow a similar journey from the savannahs of Central Africa to ‘churr’ on heathland and common land.

However, this cycle is threatened. Declining insect numbers and habitat loss in Somerset and along migration routes and wintering grounds are impacting long-distance migrants like spotted flycatchers and cuckoos. The reasons for some birds’ long-term decline, like the wood warbler, remain unclear. Meanwhile, blackcaps and chiffchaffs, with their shorter journeys from the Mediterranean, are faring much better and thriving in our woodlands, parks and hedgerows.

Our changing climate

As more southern countries in Europe become drier and hotter each spring, birds are heading north to Somerset such as black-winged stilts and night herons. Bats are also on the move – the rare grey long-eared bat is moving into Somerset as it escapes dry, hot conditions further south in Europe. “Butterflies and dragonflies are showing similar trends, and species that were once rare migrants such as the long-tailed blue butterfly and the lesser emperor dragonfly are being recorded more often in Somerset”, says Anne Halpin, Monitoring Ecologist. “Recent studies have shown that insects, such as hoverflies, moths, butterflies, and even aphids, can migrate over the Alps, so it should come as no surprise that they are also capable of migrating to the UK from mainland Europe and even North Africa.

It is possible that, as the UK climate heats up, obligate migrants (species in which migration appears to be a ‘hard wired’), such as clouded yellow and painted lady butterflies, or moths such as the Silver Y, will become more common in Somerset. It is even possible that populations could become established in the southern counties of the UK, with the summer migrations pushing further north into counties where they have not previously been recorded”.

A bird’s eye view of Somerset

High in the vast expanse of the sky, wetland birds can detect meandering rivers and shimmering stretches of water from a long way away. Wigeon migrating south from Iceland may fly at 1,000 metres above the ground, yet Bridgwater Bay and the Avalon Marshes are potentially visible as far away as Builth Wells and Cheltenham. Even at 500 metres, shoveler and lapwings arriving from north and eastern Europe are likely to see the Somerset Levels from Tetbury, the Forest of Dean and Bannau Brycheiniog National Park.

Summering migrant butterflies and moths also take to the skies, using the fast currents of high-altitude winds to assist them on their return migration from Somerset back to southern Europe and northern Africa. Painted ladies and silver Y moths may fly anywhere between 500-1,000 metres above the ground!