OLD MOOR SPOTLIGHT 2025-05-17
This week I looked out of Old Moor’s Wader Scraper hide and, within the same field of vision of my binoculars, saw a total of five little wading birds at the same time. Waders have been in short supply at our valley’s flagship reserve this year so to see five species at all is a surprise; to see them all together was nothing short of astounding! They were REDSHANK, GREENSHANK, LITTLE RINGED PLOVER, COMMON SANDPIPER and WOOD SANDPIPER. I hope that at least a few of them are still around if you visit soon.
Our BITTERNS and MARSH HARRIERS are still being seen almost every day. All signs seem to point towards birds of both species sitting on chicks right now so this is the best time of year to try to catch a sight of them as they are in the air more than usual, hunting to provide food for their precious youngsters.
Our dragonflies and damselflies are continuing to emerge from ponds around Old Moor. Last week I mentioned that we have COMMON BLUE DAMSELFLY, AZURE DAMSELFLY, LARGE RED DAMSELFLY, BLUE-TAILED DAMSELFLY, HAIRY DRAGONFLY and FOUR SPOTTED CHASER, SMALL RED-EYED DAMSELFLY and BANDED DEMOISELLE. In addition to these we have now seen some EMPEROR DRAGONFLIES take to the air. Incredibly, these have been seen a full month earlier than this time last year.
Our resident dragonfly expert, David Pritchard, is hosting a walk on 28 May. If you’d like to join him (and me!) to learn more about these fascinating details, you can find more details here;
https://events.rspb.org.uk/events/117040
See my weekly RSPB Old Moor blog at "View From the Shed". I usually wear a big hat.