As we wind our car park closing time back to 7:30 pm, there’s a definite sense of autumn in the air. The kids are going back to school and the dusky-coloured eclipse plumage of the arriving ducks says it all.
Last week started with bank holiday Monday, which was certainly one to remember; we hit a new reserve record for the number of visitors in a day, with 370 people taking advantage of the excellent weather! This rounded off a very busy August, again proving to be our busiest yet, and the first summer month – usually our quietest season – to pass the 4000 visitor mark.
Our impressive flock of 12 spoonbills seem quite settled and show no sign of moving on just yet, whilst another reserve favourite, the kingfishers, are being seen more frequently around the old fishery pools but also in the reedbed.
Of the raptors, marsh harrier and hobby have been most notable lately, although kestrel, buzzard and sparrowhawk have been vying for top spot, not to mention the odd peregrine hunting the growing flocks of waders and wildfowl. It’s a tricky time of year for identifying the latter, with the adults moulting and going through eclipse plumage meaning they lose the distinctive colours by which we learn to recognise them. Essentially all of our regular ducks are present now; the resident, breeding mallard, tufted, shelduck, and gadwall but growing numbers of the wintering teal and shoveler plus the first few wigeon and pintail too.
The wader migration hasn’t landed anything really special yet, however you can’t fault the variety so far. Single common and green sandpipers have taken up residence on Reception Pool taking advantage of the fresh mud exposed by our successful plan to drop the water level during migration. The odd black-tailed godwit, ruff, and ringed plover have even ventured to the bank under the Reception Hide windows.
Green sandpiper by John Hewitt
On the scrape, over 50 greenshank were present, the highest count here for several years, plus the odd little ringed plover, golden plover and varying numbers of dunlin and knot. The recent improvement work on Centenary Pool, restoring it to how it was first created in 1989, has attracted single wood sandpiper and little stint, up to 8 curlew sandpipers and numerous snipe showing well.
This bodes well for the fast approaching Wirral Wader Festival on October 1 and 2; if you’d like some tips on wader identification, come along to our “What’s that wader?” event on the afternoon of Sunday 2 October.
We can’t ignore the recent Canada geese influx, an annual occurrence after the dispersal of the 9000 or more that use the isolated saltmarsh of the nearby Mersey Estuary for their annual moult. The couple of thousand presently on the Dee are making the most of the local crop stubble, but once that is gone they’ll move on and make way for the already arriving greylags, and the pink-footed geese that will begin to arrive in the coming weeks. Mixed in with the Canadas, a couple of feral barnacle geese and pink-footed geese are worth looking closely for.
Not to be outshone by their spoon-billed cousins the little egrets, whilst venturing further out onto the estuary parts of the reserve (Burton Marsh, Parkgate) during the day, still fly in to roost in Marsh Covert every evening, with 301 counted along with 2 great whites this week.
Great spotted and green woodpeckers are best seen along the edge of Marsh Covert and the old fishery ponds. Other highlights away from the water are passage wheatears in the Burton Point field and a growing flock of linnet in the nearby sacrificial crop. Cetti’s warblers continue to be heard in various locations close to the trails, whilst on the barn feeding station, greenfinch families are the current stars.
Whilst some people lament the end of summer, its long days and supposed warmth, we at the Dee relish the ensuing autumn; the myriad of leaf colours, the swelling flocks of duck and the return of the graceful hen harriers. At least one hen harrier has returned to the estuary already, regularly seen hunting over Burton Marsh; why not come along to this year’s first Parkgate Raptor Watch on Sunday 25 September, for a chance to see a variety of birds of prey that make their home on the reserve?