Having been away on St Kilda seabird monitoring for the last 3 weeks, I returned to find that someone's stolen the Shallow Lagoon in my absence! The water levels are continuing to drop, and with no water anywhere to pump in after what seems like endless dry weeks, the water in front of the Coffee Shop has disappeared and the Shallow Lagoon has become more puddle than lagoon. This doesn't seem to have held the lapwings back though, as 2 broods hatched this week, one of which has been taken out onto the saltmarsh to feed.
A hint of Autumn is in the air already (I know, I know, we haven't even got past the Solstice yet!), with the first green sandpiper seen daily on the reserve from 17 June, and numbers of redshank and black-tailed godwits are also starting to build up. The variety of wildfowl out on the reserve has also begun to increase, with pochard, teal, shoveler and goldeneye all being seen on the lagoons. However, out on the reserve it certainly feels very much like summer still, with just-fledged young everywhere - hosts of baby blue tits working their way along the edges of the reedbed and on the feeders, and young sedge warblers and reed buntings in the reed and scrub. The bearded tits have also started to be seen more regularly again, with daily sightings from the boardwalk and boardwalk screen. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the pair will raise another brood and our reedbeds will be alive with the sound of "pinging" by the end of the season.
The award for sighting of the week though was of 15 stoats playing together on the Estuary Track this morning by Adrian Foster, one of our regular visitors. The animals were all in a big group in the rocks above the tideline, and Adrian told us that it seemed like the ground was alive, as though all the stones themselves were moving. We wondered whether this might be two family groups together, but after looking at the books it seems that stoats can have 6-12 young, so it's possible that this may be just one very large family. Tom Peel, who donated 'sparrowcam' in the Visitor Centre, took his young daughters there yesterday and took these photos - thanks, Tom.
Our new ponies made a bid for freedom this week, making it as far as the Car Park, so you'll notice if you visit us that we've put an electric fence up along the Causeway between the Tal-y-Fan and Benarth Hides, as we think they may have waded across the Deep Lagoon (they were seen taking a dip one day) and escaped via the dried out Shallow Lagoon. I think we may have an interesting few weeks ahead of us as they explore and push the boundaries of their new home!