Winter is the time of the year that Boyton is truly left to its avian inhabitants. With the onset of winter the farmer starts to take off this Hereford cattle and we start increasing the water levels on the fields. By pushing the water up it floods the fields and provides great wintering habitat for wigeon, teal and a multitude of waders. It also has the added benefit of suppressing the grass growth over the winter and also killing patches where its deep enough. This in turn provides the best possible breeding and chick feeding habitat in the spring for our nesting lapwing.
Its been a great year for birds on the reserve with two species of cranes (see below)providing some great highlights. This included the spectacular sandhill crane and the hundreds of birders that came to witness this incredibly rare visitor. More recently we have had regular sightings of a young red kite over the area. This bird has been around the area for a number of weeks and its really encouraging seeing a kite stick around, instead of the usual fleeting fly over. Along with the wintering duck we have also had some good numbers of geese including a hand full of tundra beans and white fronts.
Photo: John Richardson
Finally, please do spend some time browsing the photo gallery as we are very lucky to have some very talented local photographers willing to share some spectacular images of the wildlife found on the reserve.Here’s to a bird filled 2012!
Aaron, Site Manager