End to end sunshine; birdsong; butterflies; some first rate wildlife encounters; and – the best bit – a bank holiday weekend. It just doesn’t get any better than that!
I am glad to report that Old Moor’s car park was full to over-flowing as scores of visitors dropped in to enjoy an incredible late spring day. And what sights there were…
In an unusual move, let’s start with today’s butterfly list. There were sightings of: both male and female orange-tip, male and female brimstone, common blue, speckled wood, large and small whites, two green-veined whites and a few commas – at least five in this sentence alone!
On to the Reedbed Trail where today there were reports of a bittern – booming throughout day and seen in flight heading towards Bolton this afternoon at 4pm. Also present were one cream-crowned marsh harrier, five calling reed warbler, two willow warbler, one buzzard, two great crested grebe and one little grebe along with mallard, tufted duck, mute swan, pochard and black-backed gull.
A whitethroat on Green Lane
In the Bird Garden there were: bullfinch, greenfinch, great tit, blue tit, tree sparrow, reed bunting, robin, mallard, magpie and wren.
From the Mere came reports of: six oystercatcher, one little gull, two Mediterranean gull, twelve lesser black-backed gull and six herring gull. There were also two common tern and one arctic tern and a proportion of the reserve’s 150 tufted duck, forty-two pochard and seventy gadwall. There may well have been seven cormorant first thing, but I could only find one in the middle of the day.
On the Field Pool were around twenty sand martin, one little egret, a single grey heron and three linnet. There were also pochard, goldfinch, coot, moorhen and ten or so lapwing.
A rabbit wash-and-brush-up on the Field Pool
Green Lane – the walk between Field Pool West and the Wader Scrape – provided sighting of two common whitethroat, three lesser whitethroat, reed warbler, willow warbler, chiffchaff and bullfinch.
On the Scrape today were four shelduck and two avocet whilst at Wath Ings a sedge warbler was in full song along with some of the male so-called ‘mute’ swans. There were also swift, house martin and swallow.
A talented black-headed gull walking on water!
In short, spring has built its momentum and is in full swing! In case you weren’t aware, the reserve stays open until 8pm at the moment although the Visitor Centre (and all its facilities) shuts at 5pm. That should give us all plenty of time to find the first emerging dragonflies as well as the next migrant birds to arrive!
Until next time.