Here on the reserve its looking very verdant at the moment with the reed growing like mad in the warm and dry summer weather. We are very much in the middle of the main breeding season too with marsh harriers feeding young, bearded tit broods alongside the lagoons and duck broods appearing everywhere with the first gadwall young out and on Marshland yesterday.
Marsh harrier food pass
Its also interesting this year that the black headed gull colony is managing to hatch a few young and that some of the clutches have three chicks indicating that there is a good food supply. Maybe this is why at least two avocet chicks are still running about with their parents and there are at least 8 other nests on the go.
Avocets with chicks
Black-headed gull chicks
But its a bit of a funny year with the heronry at Hook Island going very well but having nests at all stages including fledged young, but it seems that the wet winter has provided plenty of fishing opportunities for them in the local area and therefore giving the chance of a really good breeding season.
Heron fishing on Xerox
We've also been having a few spoonbills passing through the area so watch the skies for these wandering birds that are mostly immatures
The tree sparrows too seem to have just about finished their first brood with at least 27 successful nests recorded and plenty of young now on the wing. Some have already begun their second broods too so lets hope for a real bumper season.
Little and large - tree sparrow and moorhen
Moorhens always look very similar to black grouse when they do this!
The female Montagu's harrier continues to be seen most days but she's certainly not visible all the time so you have to spend a morning or afternoon looking for her, but there has been regular hobby recently putting on a great show around the hides, there's still a few barn owls about on an evening hunting around the hides and reedbed. I have got some photo's but not having any publisher on my works computer is playing havoc with me downloading at home!
Barn owl
A few species of warbler are still on offer with whitethroat, blackcap, reed and sedge showing well and cettis singing out loud. The grasshoppers warblers are now quiet and will be raising young, please don't use tape lures, this was happening the other evening with three birders playing a recording. I will re-iterate that we do not allow recordings to be used to attract birds on the reserve and if people persist they will be asked to leave the site.
Blackcap near reception
A few waders went through quickly at the weekend, so quickly I blinked and they were gone, only getting views as they flew off! There were a few ringed plover, dunlin, redshank (a strange time to get migrant redshank!) and a bird on the photo that may have been a sanderling. There are a few lapwings about and a nice summer plumage dunlin this morning, plus the odd fly over oystercatcher but it will soon be the time for the curlew moult migration west as we move into June!
Redshank, where are they heading?
Dunlin and ringed plover
Also worthy of note was the years first terns, two fly through 'commics' (either arctic or common tern), yet again a poor year so far for terns.
With the warm weather there has been quite a nice mix of insects with hairy dragonflies, blue tailed damselflies, and very pleasing to see common blue butterfly in Horseshoe meadow. Common blues are quite scarce around the reserve so it was good to see one using our newly created meadow which currently has plenty of blooms from the wildflowers through it.
Hairy dragonfly, look at those groovy eyes
Look out for the greater goats beard along the flood bank to Ousefleet - this one had a bit of cuckoo spit on it
We've also just had another five cows delivered, more lovely belties and one or two short horns to go with the existing Irish Moiled cattle and Galloways.
I'll finish on a coastal theme today with a few shots from a lovely late afternoon visit to Flamborough head to see the seabirds, many years ago I worked at Bempton and always like to get back at least a couple of times a year to see what is one of the best seabird colonies in the UK by a long way. It was great weather and the colony looked really fantastic with thousands of seabirds crammed onto the cliffs making for a really breathtaking avian spectacle to match anything in the world I've ever seen. It really was at its best with puffins galore but lots of kittiwakes, razorbills, guillemots, and also good views of shags, fulmers and gannets to boot.
Here's just a selection of my photo's
Get counting!
kits nest building
Guillemots - very nice especially the bridled one
This razorbill looked as though it had just laid an egg - it seemed quite proud and no wonder with an egg that big!!
A very mournful puffin