What an amazing month we've had for waders - up to 2 ruff, 3 green sandpipers, 3 greenshank, 5 bar-tailed godwit, 20 black-tailed godwit, a wood sandpiper on 19 August, up to 60 dunlin, up to 4 curlew sandpiper, a golden plover over on 7 September, 2 knot on 9 September and a little stint on 10 September. And, best of all, most of these birds have been actively feeding on the lagoons. We've managed to achieve our ideal water levels on the Shallow Lagoon this year, gradually letting the levels drop each week to expose fresh, wet mud for the waders to feed in, and they've certainly been feeding busily, staying on the lagoons all day rather than just popping in to roost at high tide. Walking round the lagoons a few weeks back, it was great to see all the little holes left by their probing beaks - it made an amazing pattern on the mud. And interesting to see that they all seemed to be feeding on their right hand sides, as all the footprints were on the same side of the beak holes! So what are they finding to eat? We think it's mainly chironomid (non-biting midge) larvae. We survey the densities of these tiny red worm-like creatures in the mud each August, and the results this year were brilliant - an increase of 3-fold in densities on the Deep Lagoon and 5-fold on the Shallow Lagoon over last year! Just shows how good our lagoons can be if we get the water levels right.
But it's not just waders that we've been seeing just now. The bird of the month was undoubtedly a citrine wagtail, found by Rob Hughes, on 22 August, but there was a good supporting cast of 2 redstarts on 14 August, a nuthatch on 26 August, an osprey over on 7 September, a female marsh harrier on 11 September and a few white wagtails. And always a sign of approaching winter, the kingfishers returned in early September to delight us with a flash of blue whizzing past.