There has been a lot of activity on the reserve over the last week or so, with still more waterfowl returning . Goosanders are being seen mainly on the Village and Main bays and a female smew was present on a few days. Goldeneyes are being seen on Main bay and the river and 25 teal were seen feeding at Pickup hide yesterday. Seven white fronted geese has been resident in the Lin Dyke area and good numbers of pink feet can often be seen flying over the reserve. This morning three whooper swans were seen at Spoonbilll Flash.
There have continued to be some good bittern sightings with a bird flying out of the reeds at the left side of the duck feeding platform lat Monday. I spent 15 minutes the next day trying to convince my self that a hole in the reeds was a bittern but the light changed and it was just a hole in the reeds!
Last Friday was a great day for redpoll with 80 lesser, 15 mealy and 1 artic being reported along the river bank trail, also on the same day a stonechat was seen in scrub at the top of Redshale road.
The kingfisher is still delighting everybody at the screen aan at the feeding station are still a great place to see a variety of birds including the water rails which are still regular visitors. Treecreepers and willow tits are a common sight around the board walks along with the usual birds such as flocks of goldfinches and tree sparrows.