As we are now well into the breeding season the passage of migrant birds we could expect earlier in the spring has steadily slowed down, leaving us mostly with our more regular breeding species. But there’s certainly plenty of interest on the reserve at the moment, and we’ve had a few nice surprises drop in.
The appearance of a hobby on 26/5 and 2/6 was perhaps the highlight, and is one of our scarcer summer visitors. A sighting of a tawny owl on 3/6 was also a good record as although they are fairly common locally, they are very rarely seen on the reserve.
More unusual for the time of year was a male wigeon which put in an appearance from 24/5 to 4/6, followed by a male pochard on 1/6 which was soon joined by another male and a female, the three of which are still present on the lagoons. Both of these species are far more common in winter, and are very scarce breeders locally.
Looking even more out of place are two barnacle geese which have also been a regular sight over the last couple of weeks. As with the other geese species seen at this time of year they are almost certainly feral birds, i.e. descendants of captive birds which have escaped or been released and now breed in the wild. The natural populations of this species should now be breeding up in the high arctic in locations such as Greenland and Svalbard. They have been seen among the larger flocks of moulting Canada geese which have numbered over 300 birds, along with small numbers of grey-lag geese.
A Merganser has also been seen on several occasions, while a female goosander was also on the deep lagoon on 6/6, joining the more common wildfowl species including teal, gadwall, tufted duck and occasional shoveller. Our pair of great crested grebes also remain though still show little signs of breeding activity. Common sandpipers have been seen continuously around the lagoons as well, though also appear not to be breeding. Other waders have included small numbers of dunlin, redshank and curlew, as well as six ringed plover which were seen on the estuary on 6/6. A female wheatear has also been frequenting the estuary track over the past week, presumably a bird not intending to breed.
Meanwhile there are many chicks and fledglings still to be seen including numerous broods of mallard of all sizes, several broods of coots and moorhens, a mute swan still with five young cygnets and at least one little grebe chick still present.
Invertebrates of interest over the past couple of weeks have included two new records for the reserve including a beautiful demoiselle, a very striking iridescent blue damselfly seen on 31/5 by the dipping pond, and the great prominent moth which was caught in the moth trap on 3/6 just before our celebrate biodiversity event. A painted lady butterfly was also noted on 31/5.
It’s also a great time to come and see the flowers, and we have numerous bee orchids and early marsh orchids now in flower among the more commoner southern marsh orchids.