Yesterday morning I walked out of the House in the early hours to be greeted by a distinct beautiful dawn chorus of robin's, song thrushes and blackbirds, consciously this is the first time I've noticed a distinct togetherness of song and it certainly gave me one of those small but welcome smiles that unexpected wildlife moments like this can often give.

(And just to say at last the road works have finished so now access should be from any direction. A big Hooray!)

I've certainly been enjoying the sunrises recently in thanks due to some early work starts. Does it get any nicer than this anywhere in the World?

And on the reserve there were more signs of spring with at least 8 quarrelsome coots on the lagoons, a species that leaves us in late Summer and only returns in late January to late February depending on the weather, this year they seem to be a tad early. Can you spot the snipe!

And last but not least a single Skylark flew north mid-afternoon while we were working in the reedbed, was it on its way back to its Pennine breeding grounds?

Certainly over the last week the weather has been far from seasonal at times but its definitely been varied what with fog, bright warm sunshine and then the odd frost, but apart from last weekend the reserve lagoons have been mostly frost free and this has also meant there has been some varied wildlife to see. 

Willow catkins starting to emerge

Bird wise there's been some interesting sightings and a few late bits of news that has particularly pleased me! 

Our resident barn owls have been particularly good this winter with last weekend seeing me sitting in Xerox hide with some nice visitors to chat to and watch at least three hunting over the reedbed. Interesting that one returned towards the owl box with food, are they storing food or are they trying for another brood? Barn owls have been known to breed all year round.....

Barnie over the reedbed, the views can be much better than this!

Plenty of buzzards around the place with possibly yesterday a bit of migration through site (yes another sign of spring!), while the marsh harriers have been a bit subdued in this still calm weather, seemingly either sitting around or moving off site to feed on some days. No reports though of the hen harriers but then we've also not had much time to check as the team are extremely busy with the winter work programme at the moment. 

Buzzard

And a bit of video of it eating as buzzards do - seemingly nothing!

 For a big bird they do seem to eat a lot of small bits and pieces, worms/insects but certainly small!

Good numbers of duck continue to use the lagoons with recently first lagoon suddenly blooming into life, funny how some lagoons go unused for ages and then suddenly start attracting birds? Plenty of teal and wigeon, also shoveler, gadwall, mallard, and then a few tufted duck, and two goldeneye on Townend yesterday morning. Still little grebes and now they have been joined by the coot while the greylag geese are prospecting for nesting sites. Still the odd Whooper swan or two turning up from time to time on the lagoons. 

Tufties and wigeon

Goldeneye

Gadwall

Earlier in the week there were 1000 pinkfeet over the reserve out to feed on the arable while in nearby Whitgift there were 2 white-fronted geese with them. 

Pinkfeet - always a pleasure to hear and see

Late news of the first bittern sighting of 2020 from the 9th January was very welcome especially as the habitat that we created during our 'Back to the Future' project is looking superb this year. We created deeper water that would be colonised by reed to create rich feeding areas where bitterns could nest. female bitterns really like plenty of food near to the nest as the males play no part in the nesting or brood rearing, so if they can sit on the nest and feed then the eggs and very young stay safer from predation.

Our star shaped bittern pond created within the larger lagoon - ideal for feeding and breeding?

Also nice to record a couple of little egrets flying over, they have been scarce this new year preferring to feed over Alkborough way. 

A few waders as per usual at this time of year with lapwing being the most numerous, then a few snipe, redshank, plenty of curlew on the grazing marsh, and fly over golden plover. Make sure you check out any snipe as we did have a couple of jack snipe out in the reedbed while we were inspecting some of our tidal ponds, typically rather than being in the ponds they were feeding right on top of the spoil banks that cover the sluices! Funny little things Jacky's.

Snipe on Townend in the fog

Pictures of our shallow lagoons created a year and a half ago out in the reedbed out towards the apex, they are designed to flood on the higher tides particularly in the spring and autumn which would push food like sticklebacks, eel and shrimp into them but also allow annual weeds to grow to feed wildlfowl. The aim was to give something a bit different that would have benefits to a wide range of species but also not be disturbed. 

  

With a bit of cold a few bearded tits have been tempted to feed around the edges of the lagoons, listen out for there calls that often help you to locate them. Also an increase in singing Cettis warblers, and a few water pipits flying about particularly around Ousefleet. 

This was one of the water pipits that was feeding in the cut reed plots, they do seem to like the wetter plots rather than the dry ones.

Bearded tits Xerox - there are 3 beardies in this photo (honest!) I wonder if you can spot them all?

And one of the males feeding

With all the mild weather the stonechats are doing well with plenty of pairs around site, often following us while we reed cut the 'robin of the reedbed' loves to find food we uncover, just look at this big hairy caterpillar that this one emerged from the ground with!

Foraging

Bingo - lunch time

Early in the week there was a distinct passage of blackbirds and song thrushes as the blackbirds fed on the berries in the fog and the songies foraged on the ground under the scrub. 

female blackbird 

Other birds to look out for on your visit include some lovely goldcrests, plenty of tree sparrows (although note we have moved the feeders now) but you can still get good views particularly around first hide along the path. Also still kingfisher but it can be elusive! 

Tree sparrow

Mammals have been good with both stoat and weasel quite regularly around the paths, also plenty of roe deer. This stoat actually sat still for me to take its photo, I had been struggling this last few months but patience pays off. 

Stoat - you can see the black tip to the tail

I'll finish where I started this week with a few landscapes. 

The start of the Humber, with the river Trent on the right and Ouse on the left

Rainbow over the Footpaths

Morning moon from the car park

The fog - eerily beautiful