Well, our new islands are already living up to a few expectations. We have been seeing a hive of activity on Burrowes Pit over the last few weeks. From large flocks of waders such as lapwing, golden plover, oystercatcher and dunlin feeding and roosting on the islands to huge feeding frenzies from cormorants, gulls, egrets and herons there has been so much to watch just from the visitor centre, let alone the hides along the trail.
We have been delighted to watch the cormorants gulping down different types of fish and even being able to watch a heron tackle a large pike!
Egrets feeding - Louise Kelly
The beautiful kingfishers have also been seen more often recently, perching photogenically on branches along the waters edge and diving for sticklebacks.
Kingfisher - Graham Parry
Our red-necked grebe is still around on ARC and can be seen occasionally from Hanson hide. We are seeing a lot more ducks at the moment with numbers of wigeon, teal, shoveller, tufted and pintail ducks building up on the lakes.
A pair of pintail - Ben Hall
The first goldcrests and firecrests of the season have been spotted around the reserve – look out for these tiny, quick moving but beautiful little birds in the willow trees and gorse bushes. We also have larger numbers of starlings, goldfinches and long-tailed tits being seen across the reserve.
Goldcrest - Graham Parry