It has been a fantastic week for birds of prey again with the marsh harrier out at about almost every day, visible from both Lin Dike and Pick-up. Also from Lin Dike there have been buzzard, peregrine and sparrowhawk seen. A sparrowhawk and buzzard down near Charlie’s, a couple of red kite over Fairburn village and a short-eared owl up near Big Hole.
The view from Pick-up hide, Sally Granger
A bittern has been heard booming up on the stacks, there have been a few croaky attempts in recent weeks but it sounds like it may be getting its vocal chords in order now as we draw closer to breeding season. Another exciting spot was a mistle thrush in the paddock next to the visitor centre, and to continue the thrush theme, there have been a few fieldfare and redwing seen around the Discovery trail.
The red-crested pochard is still about and was recorded a few times towards the beginning of the week, while he red-headed smew has now acquired a friend! There have been reports of two smew shifting around the flashes; one adult female and one immature female.
Male kingfisher, John Bridges (rspb-images.com)
Finally, I popped to the kingfisher screen on Tuesday and struck a bit of good luck! A male kingfisher was sat watching the water. It wasn’t just a flash, that bold fellow sat for a good quarter of an hour waiting for a meal to swim his way.
What was amusing was that he seemed to keep losing concentration; he was distracted by small noises, movements, and big gusts of wind. Every few minutes he would snap his bill and fixed his stare deliberately back on the water. I love the idea that what was a thrilling quarter of an hour for me was actually rather mundane for the poor kingfisher who didn’t look to be getting lucky anytime soon.