I know Dan released the news a couple of weeks a go about our exciting new breeders for the reserve, but I thought i'd give a quick update on progress and how our other herons have got on this year.
Firstly, the cattle egrets: They're still feeding chick(s) - it's difficult to say for sure exactly how many chicks they've got, but there is certainly one, and it is still being looked after diligently by it's parents. The adults are coming down onto the scrape, and even into the neighboring farmer's fields to feed with the cattle. There are at least 3 birds still around.
Cattle egret. Alasdair Grubb
The cows will be going back onto the wet grassland as soon as the last lot of nests have hatched, so hopefully we will get a great spectacle, like last year, of the egrets running around after the cattle feeding on the frogs they disturb!
Surveying the heronry here has always been a tricky business. They nest very high up in dense pine trees in a woodland owned by our neighbour Alex Crossley. He kindly let us go in to the wood to count the nests, but the battle against nettles, brambles, boggy pits and hidden badger holes makes the whole experience a bit of an ordeal - and even once you do get under the trees, the pines are so thick, its very difficult to get a true idea of how many nests we've got! Nonetheless, we always gave it a go and got a good idea of nests.
After battling away for a couple of years, this year i thought i'd try a new method... a drone! (or UAV - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). Drones have had a lot of bad press, but when used responsibly, we can use them as a fantastic tool for conservation; monitoring vegetation change, hydrology surveys, erosion monitoring and even nest finding!
I had some hesitations about flying something like this so close to breeding birds, so i was very careful and flew over very high initially, but it soon became clear the birds really weren't bothered about a square-shaped, buzzing egret flying overhead. Obviously, I still didn't go too close, but was able to drop it close enough to get some images suitable to count nests from.
Heronry. Alasdair Grubb
I was able to count 83 little egret nests, and 24 grey herons! This is well up on last year (69 and 15 respectively), however last year's count may have been underestimated due to the difficulty in seeing some nests. I wanted to compare the results from the drone survey with the old method of walking underneath, so carried out both methods this year: I only counted 65 little egret and 13 heron nests from the ground.
This graph shows the history of breeding little egrets on the Dee Estuary. They have now started breeding elsewhere on the estuary, and we have cattle egrets and great whites sniffing around the main site. These numbers make the Dee estuary is one of the top three estuaries in Britain for egrets, which is mainly due to the plentiful source of food on the reserve and the undisturbed roost/nesting sites.
The drone also gives some stunning views of the reserve:
Elsewhere on the reserve, we've still got plenty of wader chicks on view from all of the hides. We carried out our final redshank survey on the saltmarsh too, and it looks to have been a great season. We've had 2 other "New Breeders" for the reserve this year: Black Swan and Mediterranean Gull. The black swans had one cygnet, but this seems to have disappeared. The Med Gulls still seem to be taking food into their nest site, but we still haven't seen chicks - the grass is too long! The wildflowers are coming in to full swing now and the associated insects are gorging on them. Although the marsh orchids are past their best, the Bee orchids are still in full bloom. Some lucky visitors have even been treated to views of Badgers underneath the bird feeders in the evening. The reserve is open till 9, so if you fancy your luck why not pop down for an evening picnic.