Recent sightings
The wader variety of last week continued into this, with growing flocks of black-tailed godwits and lapwings across Burton Mere Wetlands, coupled with a few spotted redshanks, ruffs, little ringed plovers, green sandpiper, and on Friday, the arrival of a single wood sandpiper which stayed throughout the weekend to the time of writing.
Wood sandpiper (left) and green sandpiper (right) from Marsh Covert hide (D.King)
The lone cattle egret continues to spend much of its time on the main scrape, occasionally venturing to the near side to offer excellent views from Reception Hide. Last week's spotted crake, thought to have moved on, was seen again on Friday evening, on the back edge of the scrape in the company of resident water rails.
Raptors continue to grow in prominence, with marsh harrier daily, hobby on a few occasions, peregrine particulary active on Thursday and sparrowhawk at the weekend. The middle of the week saw impressive flocks of house martins and swallows gathering to feed over the scrape and Reception Pool, along with smaller numbers of sand martins and swifts. Warblers are becoming less prominent, but sedge warblers, common whitethroats and resident Cetti's warblers did their best to counter the waders' insistence that autumn has begun.
Star sighting
On Tuesday, the reserve's first curlew sandpiper of the autumn turned up with a brace of dunlins, and showed well on the main scrape until Wednesday.
Moulting adult curlew sandpiper (A.Lovatt)
Wardens' wanderings
The big task faced this week was the dreaded ragwort-pulling; a team of hard-working volunteers helped the warden and residential volunteers pull hundreds of ragwort plants from across the wet grassland. This laborious job is essential to make the area safe for the grazing cattle as the weed is potentially harmful, plus it prevents the plant spreading and gradually becoming increasingly dominant and out-competing the grasses.
The same volunteers helped take down the temporary section of the electric anti-predator fence running in front of Reception Hide; this was significant as it is the last time that temporary fence will be used. We are imminently set to install a permanent anti-predator fence around Reception Pool and under Reception Hide, avoiding potential weaknesses in the temporary fence and perhaps attracting some new breeding birds onto the newly-protected habitat of Reception Pool.
This work will inevitably have some impact on visitors as the contractors work close to Reception Hide, Reception Pool and the scrape, potentially causing some displacement of birds to the other parts of the reserve. As always, we will do our best to minimise the impact and appreciate your patience during the work.
Similarly, another contractor will be on site this week to finish work on the recently resurfaced Reedbed trail, but the impact to visitors will be minimal.
Get involved
August is all about the nocturnal wildlife on the reserve, with Badgerwatch events taking place on Thursday evenings for the rest of the month and an International Bat Night event on Sunday 26 August. Further details of these events can be found here: https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/find-a-reserve/reserves-a-z/events.aspx?reserve=Dee%20Estuary%20-%20Burton%20Mere%20Wetlands
If you're looking for places to take the children during the school holidays, look no further: we have a brilliant 'Creatures of the Night' family quiz trail, plus our explorer backpacks to hire and the den building area to go wild! Also look out for our new ice cream freezer so you can treat the kids (and yourself!) as part of your reserve adventure.