The sightings highlight of the last few days has to be an Osprey seen flying over the reserve on Saturday afternoon. These birds are only seen at the reserve a handful of times over the year, usually in the Spring and this one proved a welcome surprise for all who saw it. Some pictures were taken and we hope to put them up here soon.
Another highlight was the first Swift of the season seen yesterday down Cut Lane by one of our regular visitors, hopefully we should get more sightings of these summer visitors in the coming weeks.
Things have been busy across the rest of the reserve as well, we have had up to 17 Avocets on the flashes by Lin Dike hide, also seen at that end of the reserve have been Green Sandpiper, 2 Snipe, Redshank, Oystercatcher, 10 Whooper Swans and Curlew as well as Yellow Wagtail, Red Kite and Whitethroat.
The Scaup is still being seen on Main Bay, along with 5 Goldeneye and a pair of Garganey and 3 Little Gulls were seen on Village Bay on Friday.
Other highlights include singing Willow Tit and Yellowhammer along the boardwalk, a Pink-footed Goose in with a flock of Canada Geese from pickup hide on Sunday and 4 Green Woodpeckers on Saturday. Along with Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler, Blackcap and Whitethroat are now being seen or heard daily and cut hide seems to be a good place to see Green Sandpipers and Green Woodpeckers as well.
The feeders and area round the Visitor Centre have also had regular sightings of Bullfinch, Goldfinch, Tree Sparrow and Reed Bunting.
Other wildlife includes a range of Butterfly species, with 13 Peacock, 8 Orange Tip, 4 Small Tortoiseshell, Speckled Wood, Green Veined White and Brimstone all being seen on Friday. Our night walk on Saturday gave good sightings of Pipistrelle Bats with Pickup hide being the prime spot, there were also some flying moths and both Little Owl and Tawny Owl were heard calling.