OLD MOOR SPOTLIGHT 2005-03-22
It’s been a glorious week weather-wise and this could have been the trigger for several big white birds moving around the globe from their winter to summer residences.
For us at Old Moor this means we’ve been able to see our first SPOONBILL of the year. They are beautiful birds; large, white and sporting that really strange beak from which they get their name. If we’re really lucky they might even breed here this year and provide us with some little Teaspoons (yes, that really is the word for young Spoonbills).
More WHOOPER SWANS have been coming through the valley this week, with groups spending time on almost all wetland reserves. They have usually been seen arriving late morning and resting up before leaving that same night to carry on their journey to their summer homes in Iceland and similar climates.
Moving on to our residential birds, Old Moor’s little flock of BITTERNS are well and truly shouting at each other. If you want to visit their reed bed home please come down in the next week or so as we’ll be closing that section of the reserve to visitors shortly. We do this each year to give them the maximum safety and privacy while they go about the business of raising their incredibly rare and precious youngsters. I’m sure that you’ll understand; their safety is worth more than a thousand photographs.
We had a bit of a surprise this week when an ‘American Wigeon’ was reported on our reserve. We took it to VAR (in the shape of our head warden) and after further review we decided that it was a much rarer but somewhat less impressive Chiloe Wigeon x European Wigeon hybrid cross. Basically an escaped zoo bird had mated with one of our normal Wigeon females and what we had on the reserve was one of their offspring. A mongrel then. Serious birders were disappointed that they were denied a tick.
A little further afield the WATER PIPIT that has been at Wombwell Ings all winter is still there, showing really well around the hide. It’s a bird that we don’t see particularly often in the Dearne Valley so you might want to take this relatively good chance of seeing one.
I'll end this week as I always intend to do with this new format, by taking a look at our upcoming events.
29 March - Our Dinosaur Egg Hunt trail begins. This is another one of our scavenger hunts around the reserve for our younger visitors. We’ll also be restarting our always popular pond dipping soon too.
5 April - Writing in Nature, creative writing workshop
17 April and 1 May - Bittern Breakfast with reserve manager Emma
27 April - Dawn Chorus walk with Warden Dave. This will be an early start but it will be worth it.
To see all the other events coming up, see our page at https://events.rspb.org.uk/oldmoor
See my weekly RSPB Old Moor blog at "View From the Shed". I usually wear a big hat.