Like normal, my trip to Bowling Green is all about topping up feeders, filling leaflets and other routine jobs. The hide was packed with people due to the high tide, which brings lots of waders and gulls in to roost. Of course, being at work means you have no time to sit and watch, so when I finished work I packed my scope, bins and birders notebook and headed back to Bowling Green Marsh. By this time the tide had gone out, but for me this is where the fun begins. I set off down the road to the re-opened viewing platform. My handy hide clamp means less weight to carry, so the walk is no issue. Once at the viewing platform I set up my scope and started scanning. Wow! From left to right was a sea of birds. Redshanks in numbers I could only dream of before, godwits and other red coloured summer plumaged waders brightened up the muddy banks as curlew slept in the distance. Gulls and crows too took advantage of the rich estuary mud, filling up the numbers. A group of seventeen cormorants at rest put you in mind of what the shore must have looked like a million years ago with there magnificent pre-historic look as they dry their feathers and digest their dinner. Then to top things off, the ants must have took flight making all the gulls (over 2500 counted at one point) fill the skies like clouds. Birds where everywhere! After a quick pinch to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, it had gotten late. So I headed back, only to be stopped in my tracks by a song thrush with a juicy snail, using the new convenient gravel path as an ‘anvil’ to break its shell. What a night? Forty species of birds in two hours! That’s what I call good birding.
The summer wildlife is in full glory now on Exminster marsh . Ditches are alive with dragonflies like the emperor, black-tailed skimmer, four-spotted chaser and golden-ringed. Their smaller relatives the damselflies are out in full force too with azure and blue-tailed along almost every ditch edge. Hedges are full of butterflies with peacocks, meadow browns and small tortoiseshells in abundance along with the odd small skipper, comma or gatekeeper. All of our lapwings have finished raising their families and moved on now, but lots of our summer visitors are still here. Look out for our summer migrants like whitethroats, black caps, reed warblers, hobbys, chiffchaffs and sedge warblers bringing up their families on the reserve. You can also see lots of our resident birds too. Blue tits, robins, blackbirds etc are often over looked as they are here all year round, but are still worth watching and enjoying their own individual characters, plus they are more used to our presence meaning you can get closer and see them in great detail.
Just to remind everyone that from 28th July to 31st August, we’ll be working to improve the facilities at Bowling Green Marsh. We’ll be making the existing hide more accessible while adding a new structure that will open up even more views of this wonderful reserve. Please follow our progress on facebook: www.facebook.com/rspbsw once we’re finished, we’ll also be creating a wild nature garden and we’d love you to be involved. Please contact us.