Beckingham Marshes is still looking fabulously wet at the moment, with water levels still rising over the reserve, full scrapes and lovely large areas of flooded grassland. All this water is attracting hundreds of birds to the site and makes for quite a spectacle!
Most of our visitors are wildfowl, comprising several species such as wigeon, teal, gadwall, shoveler and mallard. However, we have had a few scarcer visitors in the last couple of weeks too. Mute swans are few and far between at Beckingham, but we have seen a pair on the deeper areas of the wet grassland fields recently. Shelduck too are seen infrequently on site and three yesterday was a nice surprise, viewable from the platform across the wet grassland.
In addition to this, we have also had a couple of firsts for the site – it’s always great to see the reserve developing and attracting more and more great wildlife! The first of the two ‘firsts’ were a pair of pink-footed geese that have made the site their home for the last two weeks. We are used to seeing and hearing groups of them overhead as they move in and out of the country on their migration, but to have some on the ground is great. Our other ‘first’ was a stunning male pintail, seen by one of our volunteer wardens, Simon. Another nice addition to the Beckingham bird list.
It’s a great time on site for plenty of other species too, with 300-400 lapwing frequenting the wet grassland fields, tree sparrows in the hedgerows, skylarks in full voice, grey partridge, snipe, oystercatcher and a very welcome record of a curlew back on site – fingers crossed for the forthcoming breeding season!
Lovely wet areas attracting loads of wildlife at the moment!
Pretty pintail is a great addition to the site's list! Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)