Typical; just as we were getting comfortable in the lovely warm, dry weather, the British summer gets up to its usual tricks. Whilst we’ve barely seen the sun for days, the rain showers have generally been brief although heavy, but if you manage to dodge them the mild temperature still makes for a lovely walk around the reserve.
There’s still plenty of wildlife to enjoy at this time of year, not least the stunning wildflowers coming into full bloom, especially our numerous southern marsh and bee orchids. If you’d like to learn more about the wildflowers at Burton Mere Wetlands, why not book onto our “Wonderful Wildflowers” guided walk on Sunday 26 June? Click here for full details.
Bee orchid by Ray Banks
In the meantime we have a wildflower-themed quiz along the Burton Mere trail, for any families (or fun-loving adults!) to enjoy on an after school or weekend visit. Pick up an answer sheet in reception before you head out for a walk.
The aforementioned orchids are drawing plenty of comments from visitors at the moment, with dozens of bee orchids lining the east end of the Burton Mere trail, and the purple marsh orchids popping up all over the wetland but lots visible on the islands of the main scrape adding a splash of colour amongst the lush green hues.
We saw the last avocet nests hatch last week, and with over 70 chicks around the scrape and many almost fully grown now, we’re getting close to celebrating a fantastic year for one of our main breeding wading birds. Two others, lapwing and redshank, may be less visible but our surveys suggest they’ve had decent breeding seasons too.
Recent sightings of note include the odd Mediterranean gull, sandwich and common terns, cuckoo, yellowhammer, ruff, spotted redshank, great crested grebe and a pair of garganey. An oystercatcher brood has been showing well from the Inner Marsh Farm hide, whilst a great spotted woodpecker has been feeding a juvenile close to the feeders near the Reception Hide.
Other highlights of recent days have been the discovery of various duck broods – gadwall, shoveler and teal – the latter two particularly significant in this part of the UK, in fact it’s only the second ever confirmed breeding of teal at the Dee Estuary reserve!
At least four spoonbills are still present and spending time between the Marsh Covert woodland, the main scrape and the saltmarsh, plus a single great white egret has returned to the egretry after a few weeks’ absence.
It’s been quiet on the raptor front, with marsh harrier sightings becoming very infrequent, although hobby and peregrine are seen quite frequently and a red kite was spotted overhead twice in the last fortnight.
Finally, don’t forget it’s Father’s Day this Sunday, and our “Dad’s Go Free” event, so why not bring your Dad down to Burton Mere Wetlands where he’ll receive free entry, plus a complimentary hot drink from our concessions stand!