Muddy lagoons attract southbound waders

Late August is a time of change; the school holidays are coming to an end, thoughts are turning to buying new kit for school, or returning to work. And if I see one more Facebook post telling me how many Fridays are left until Christmas...

But there's still plenty of nature-watching to be done. Indeed, late August/early September is one of my favourite times of the year, as you could see almost anything here.

This week has seen a few more waders dropping onto the lagoons as they stopover on their long southbound migration. A superb spotted redshank (photographed by Bob Garrett), a juvenile ruff, green sandpiper and Mediterranean gull were seen yesterday (24th), and up to 18 black-tailed godwits, greenshank, whimbrel and a flock of dunlin are here today (25th). The muddy pools on the Shallow Lagoon look perfect for passage waders at the moment, so who knows what will arrive in the last week of August?

A swift fed over the reserve this morning - will it be the last we see until next April? Many of our summering warblers have left already, though there are plenty of blackcaps and chiffchaffs still around. A hobby was reported on Saturday (19th), yet another in a series of teasing sightings that have made us wonder if they bred locally; and 'our' family of young redstarts remained until last weekend, but have presumably now started their journey to Africa.

I saw my first water rail of the autumn earlier today, though we did receive an intriguing report this week of a juvenile on the reedy edge of the Deep Lagoon; could it have hatched here, or has it moved from somewhere else?

There have been lots of pied wagtails this week, feeding on the muddy margins of Shallow Lagoon and in the saltmarsh; these are probably Scottish breeding birds on their way south, but among them are a few white wagtails that will have come from farther away, probably Iceland. Numbers of teal are increasing, the first wigeon of the autumn was seen on Saturday (19th) and a couple of snipe were spotted last week, all signs of arrivals for the winter. Kingfisher is seen most days, though it's hard to guarantee where as they are so mobile.

We are hitting peak dragonfly season, with migrant hawker, southern hawker and emperor dragonfly along the trails, and plenty of common darters around the Bridge Pond - they love resting on the warm handrails of the bridge. There are lots of meadow brown and gatekeeper butterflies, and a new hatch of commas and common blues that add further colour to the paddocks that are yellow with fleabane and Oxford ragwort.