Posted on behalf of residential volunteer Jake Phillips:
Recent sightings
Marsh harriers have been showing well in the mornings with other raptors including kestrel, merlin, peregrine and buzzard hunting over the wet grassland through the day. On the main scrape there are a collection of ducks comprising of shelduck, teal, wigeon, gadwall and shoveler. A flock of 50 curlews have also been seen feeding on the scrape as well as lapwing and dunlin. Redshanks and black-tailed godwits can also be seen from the visitor center and Bunker Screen. In the fields behind Bunker Screen a flock of 60 redwings have been feeding with fieldfares in amongst the flock, and the feeders past the screen have been covered in goldfinches, greenfinches and chaffinches.
The bird feeders by the visitor center are being used by plenty of garden birds including blue tits, great tits, coal tits, blackbirds, robins and the odd dunnock. A great-spotted woodpecker has also been seen using the feeders and in the carpark the occasional treecreeper has appeared.
In the trees along the Farm and Fen Trail have been buzzing with large flocks of linnets and siskins ranging in size from 30 to 80 individuals. Heading towards Inner Marsh Farm Hide there have been sightings of goldcrest, and at the hide itself there has been good views of male and female pintails, and keen eye will spot snipe camouflaged at the water's edge.
Spot the snipe! (Paul Jubb)
Star sighting
This week’s star sighting goes to all the raptors seen at this month’s high tide watch at Parkgate. From the moment we had set up there were plenty of marsh harriers gliding along the top of the reeds. As the day went on and the tide came in more raptors made an appearance. One of these being a male hen harrier flying back and forth the marsh giving us a stunning view of is beautiful colours. The next bird of prey to be seen was the stunning short-eared owl, one had just finished a meal and decided to perch on a wooden post in the open marsh giving everyone fantastic views of it for the best part of an hour, and towards the end of the event two owls decided to hunt just meters away from everyone.
Short-eared owl on post (Jenny Urwin)
Warden’s wanderings
This week the wardens have been out taking part in the Wetland Bird Survey (also known as WeBS) which aims to monitor non-breeding water birds across the UK, an essential job when trying to conserve birds such the curlew and redshank. Assistant warden Liz has also been hard at work giving a make-over to our den building area and getting it ready for some additional family wild play - watch this space!
Get involved
If this week’s star sighting has got you excited, then you’ll be glad to hear that next month we have three days of high tides; Wednesday 20 to Friday 22 February, so get the dates in your diary now! That's half term week so you can even bring the kids down to our Tidewatch events at Parkgate, and hopefully you could get a glimpse of the beautiful birds of prey hunting over the marsh.
Before that, there's also the monthly Raptorwatch, on the second Sunday of each month (10 February) where we'll be on hand to show you the array of birds of prey that make their winter home on the Dee every year. Full details on all these events can be found here: https://www.rspb.org.uk/Parkgate