Another breeding surprise

Just when you think that the breeding season is done, three squeaky, bobbing balls of feather come running across the mud!  There are three young common sandpipers on the island at the end of the boardwalk this morning.  Two were spotted on Wednesday, and we had a report of four yesterday, but however many there are, it's only the second time that common sandpipers have been confirmed breeding on the reserve.

Our other surprise of the week was a juvenile spoonbill that dropped in for a few hours on Tuesday afternoon.  Found (I think) by Dave Williams, who took this great photo, it couldn't be found the following morning, though was reported on the estuary yesterday (Friday).  The estuary is busy with large white birds at the moment, with 20 little egrets feeding in the channels this morning - we've seen one bird this week with colour-rings and would be grateful to anyone who could report the ring combination.

The two young bearded tits have been much more evident this week, though can put in appearance in almost any part of the reedbed (they've been seen by the bridge pond this morning).  Paul Manchester took a great photo of one of the birds that we've uploaded to our photo gallery.  Do please add your photos to the gallery, and we'll feature the best in our recent sightings pages.

The high tides this week have brought us plenty of waders, including greenshank (still present today), up to 18 black-tailed godwits (including a colour-ringed bird), whimbrel (15th), half a dozen dunlins and a green sandpiper (12th), while curlew numbers reached 274 on Wednesday.  On the lagoons, the two great crested grebe chicks are getting bigger by the day, while pochard, goldeneye and shoveler have all been seen this week.  The escape black swan and lesser white-fronted goose are still with us - the goose has been returning here each summer for the last six years, and isn't a 'mega' as one website reported this week!

Songbirds become much harder to see at this time of year, though a couple of bullfinches have been seen this week, a wheatear (16th) is presumably an early southbound migrant and the pair of great spotted woodpeckers have been seen regularly, particularly around the wildlife garden feeders.  In the sunny spealls between the showers (which have prevented the lagoon from drying up completely), the first gatekeeper butterflies of the year have been on the wing, with small numbers of six-spot burnet moths, meadow browns and a couple of commas.  On the mammal front, stoats and foxes have been seen, but best sighting of the week must go to Sarah who spotted a water shrew squeezing through the gap between the Tal-y-fan screen and its concrete base - they bred on the reserve last year, so let's hope that they're doing so again.