RSPB Ham Wall: light and wonder at sunrise

RSPB Ham Wall: light and wonder at sunrise

This site-specific project comprises landscape and wildlife images celebrating the wonder of nature in the solitude and stillness of sunrise. Time spent in natural environments benefits our health, inviting us to slow down, quiet the mind and pay attention, practices of benefit to photographer and those who view the work. RSPB Ham Wall is a restored wetland landscape on the Somerset Levels created from former peat digging sites. It is known for its wildlife and conservation work, and particularly for the thousands of starlings that arrive in the winter months, and for their murmurations as they return to the reed beds at sunset. I visited Ham Wall on several mornings, arriving in time to witness blue hour, sunrise, and the starlings ‘dawn lift-off’. The theme of my images gradually emerged. Whilst sunset murmurations have become a significant tourist attraction, ‘dawn lift-off’ is equally spectacular and not so commonly photographed. As dawn breaks and light emerges the starlings begin to stir until all at once they take off, a black mass and then disperse. It is then that the marsh harriers are seen, hunting the starlings that have not survived the night or are too weak to fly. Each image has been selected to visually communicate the exhilaration and joy at witnessing this amazing spectacle, a story of light and wonder.