HUISH MOOR
Woodland wonders in this hidden gem
Alittle-known and used Somerset Wildlife Trust reserve, Huish Moor is an intriguing place which always leaves me well satisfied. It lies just west of the delightfully named Huish Champflower in a remote part of north Somerset hill country. Villages like these have remained much the same for centuries and the Brendon Hills are renowned for hiding several. In maybe 20 visits to Huish Moor I have never met anyone else, not even a dog-walker. The reserve lies on a north-facing, steepish, downward scarp of c.275m falling to a lower damp, marshy area maybe 80m below your start point. Paths tend to be the ones you make yourself and this is a walk to enjoy best by frequent pauses to survey the sky and the landscape above and below; as I say, it’s intriguing. Pause on a fallen oak or lean against an upright one and you stand a chance of hearing a Wood Warbler or seeing a Redstart. Warblers are good here because of the thickets, as are other passerine species, while corvids, including Raven, swirl above with Buzzards. Down on the very marshy area offering an ‘over wellyboot experience’ you may well surprise a Snipe in winter or better still Woodcock, which I found regularly. More than once a Green Sandpiper has surprised my visit. Early summer flowers are lovely and this remote and charming spot is good for mammals too with Roe Deer, Badger, Fox,brown Hare and even
Red Deer possible. All five appeared on one walk I did and then a stoat ran beneath the car as I returned to it! I sometimes lengthen my walk by mooching Hart’s path plantation towards Heydon Hill, hoping for Crossbill or flycatchers.