Equinox, and winter beckons

The Autumn Equinox has passed, so nights are slightly longer than days. The nights are cooler, leaves turn from green to red and yellow, and there are fewer insects to be found.  It will be October soon, and our summer visitors are racing south, heading to Africa before the northern food supply runs out. These are birds without borders, needing good habitat in pit-stops on their 2000 mile journey.

Many of our summer migrants have left now, though lesser whitethroat and reed warbler were seen on Thursday (24th), and a couple of wheatears have been along the estuary track all week. Chiffchaffs still sing here, and a few blackcaps are feeding-up, but most of our other warblers have gone. A rock pipit was along the estuary on Wednesday 16th.

On the lagoons, a spotted redshank has been here for several weeks, as has a green sandpiper, though both may soon be on the move. A little stint on Sunday and Monday (20th and 21st) was a great record, our first this year, while a few bar-tailed godwits (from Russia) have been feeding on the estuary. They tend to feed and roost with the curlews, rather than the more numerous black-tailed godwits (from Iceland). A knot was here last Friday (18th) and two ruffs on Tuesday 15th, a scarce bird here this year.

Ducks are still scarce, except for many dozens of teal, but a female pintail on the estuary on Thursday (24th) was the first of the autumn, a few shovelers have arrived this week, and there are now several dozen wigeons on the estuary. Their low whistling call is a real sign that winter is on its way.

We've had a few chough sightings over the reserve this week, in the early morning and mid afternoon, presumably commuting between their overnight roost and daytime feeding pasture.  Five ravens flying high to the northeast were perhaps making a local movement, as were a group of coal tits in the car park this morning.

Kingfishers and jays are being seen most days, while the sunshine brings out the last of the insects, including southern hawker and common darter dragonflies and some smart, fresh red admiral butterflies. A few bumblebees are still collecting nectar, important protein for the Queens to survive the winter: common carder, white-tailed and red-tailed were all seen today on the last of our summer invertebrate surveys.  For us, that really does signal that autumn is here.