Recent Sightings
As the warm, dry weather continued to hold, the water level gradually dropped further offering plenty of mud for the increasing variety and number of wading birds around. Whilst we are down to our last handful of avocets as they return south for the winter, flocks of lapwings and black-tailed godwits continue to grow.
Meanwhile, a great selection of migrant waders continue to star, including up to three spotted redshanks, four greenshanks, plus ruff, little ringed plover and green sandpiper.
Greenshanks by A.Lovatt
A peak of seven snipe were counted from Inner Marsh Farm hide, whilst the single cattle egret has become far more visible, often around the main scrape close to the recently-introduced cows.
The juvenile Mediterranean gull is getting harder to pin down but showed well on Tuesday, along with an immature little gull, which was present again on Friday.
We’re beginning to see hunting marsh harriers most days, often the juveniles from the recently-announced successful nest at the Neston Reedbed area of our reserve. Hobby, peregrine and kestrel continue to be occasionally seen, with a red kite fly-over on Tuesday and lots of buzzard activity over Gorse Covert.
As expected in late July, we’re getting increasing reports of kingfishers hopefully returning to put on a great show that we enjoyed here last autumn. Water rail are also being seen more frequently as the warden team work their way through the summer reed and rush-cutting.
This terrific photo show that our pair of common terns aren't hurrying back to Africa just yet, whilst our resident green woodpeckers continue to be seen and heard regularly on the north side of the reserve.
Acrobatic common tern by N.Jones
We still have plenty of great butterfly activity including the much sought after purple hairstreaks in the oak trees near Reception Hide and the car park, but the absolute non-bird star of the week has to be the water vole that sat in clear view for at least five minutes close to the Marsh Covert hide on Saturday evening during our Big Wild Sleepout! It was generally a good week for mammals, with stoats seen numerous times and more than one report of a hare.
Star sighting
On Wednesday, a keen-eyed visitor excitedly reported finding a spotted crake walking in and out of the rushes at the back of the main scrape. It’s been two years since the last one of these was seen here, so a fairly rare sighting and unfortunately despite a swathe of interest, it was not seen in subsequent days.
Wardens’ Wanderings
As mentioned above, the wardens have been doing a lot of reed and grass cutting as part of the annual management regime to maintain the desired habitats, but also to open up the views for visitors from the hides and screens, giving much better chance of seeing the birds and wildlife. We also had a contractor on site clearing the drainage ditch from Centenary Pool, which has allowed us to drop the water level nicely since and as a result is one of the best spots on the reserve for the aforementioned feeding waders.
Get Involved
Saturday night was our annual Big Wild Sleepout, with eight families enjoying the nocturnal spectacles of the reserve including bats, moths and badgers, as well as the jaw-dropping encounter with that water vole!
Speaking of badgers, we are now taking bookings for our Badgerwatch events throughout August; for further details, click through to our website here https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/events-dates-and-inspiration/events/details.aspx?id=tcm:9-457352. Or, if you fancy a more exclusive and intimate badger-watching experience, why not book an evening in our hide for brilliant photo opportunities - get in touch on deeestuary@rspb.org.uk to enquire.
Badger as seen from our hide by A.Grubb