OLD MOOR SPOTLIGHT 2005-03-15

OLD MOOR SPOTLIGHT 2005-03-15

Welcome to RSPB Old Moor’s new-style weekly blog. From now on we’ll be concentrating solely on what has been happening in our Dearne Valley recently, and what events we have to look forward to. I hope you like it just as much as my older, more rambling style.

There are a lot of WHOOPER SWANS heading to their Icelandic summer homes at the moment. Around 50 of them stopped in at Old Moor last weekend. A further 25 or so stayed for a few days at Broomhill Flash further along the valley for a few days. We believe they have all  moved on now but don’t count out us having more of these beautiful visitors in the coming weeks.

Our BITTERNS are in full voice now, with the males booming regularly as they try to lay claim to an area of reedbed and the females that come with it. Customers have occasionally had some glorious sightings of these strange birds too so you might want to come down and try your luck?

Our BEARDED REEDLINGS (the birds formerly known as BEARDED TITS) are still showing daily in the area where our reedbed screen was, although the number of sightings seems to be dropping to more normal amount now after the massive numbers that we saw all through winter. They are usually our most elusive birds and it seems that they’re returning to that pattern.

It’s ‘that time of year’ when most of our birds seem to be pairing up and going through their courtship rituals. Many of these are too subtle for us humans to notice but others are much more obvious to us, noticeably the GREAT CRESTED GREBES and MARSH HARRIERS which are displaying to each other quite wonderfully.

Other notable sightings this week have been numerous SHOVELLERS, GOLDENEYE, GOOSANDER and even some REDSHANK, as well as our first AVOCETS (with many more at our Adwick Wetland sister site) and SAND MARTINS of the season.

We’ve seen our first butterflies of the year too, with COMMA, BRIMSTONE and SPECKLED WOOD all being seen at Old Moor. Maybe Spring is finally on its way?

And finally, please take a look at our upcoming EVENTS. Whether it be a dawn chorus walk, writing workshop or a dinosaur egg hunt during the school holidays, there’s something for everyone. 

https://events.rspb.org.uk/oldmoor