If you pay our Visitor Centre a visit right now, you can make yourself at home in our Big Garden Birdwatch Lounge and take a moment to enjoy the variety of birds at close range on the feeders, whilst you munch on your sandwiches. Feeders have been placed up on the balcony, giving the best views of vibrant bullfinches, cheeky blackbirds, reed bunting, long tailed tits, greenfinches, robins and tree sparrows (and so, so many more!) There’s always a friendly member of staff or volunteer bobbing around, who are more than happy to have a chat and help you to indentify the birds and prepare for the Big Garden Bird Watch.
You can register for your free Big Garden Birdwatch Pack online, here: http://bit.ly/2jzdm4w
So far this year has brought with it a handful of exciting sightings, including a not-so-shy great white egret and white fronted geese. This week has also been great for sightings; an Iceland gull was seen on the Main Bay. I’ve had to read up a little bit about this, because although I gathered from the reactions of the team and visitors here that this was quite special – I simply had never heard of an iceland gull before. I’ve found out that they breed in Greenland and winter in the UK, (and sometimes as far as New York!), but usually stick to the coastal areas, which is why it’s so interesting to see one inland.
Iceland Gull, Malcolm Hunt (rspb-images)
Taking a walk through the reserve and past pick-up hide, 30+ redpoll have been seen as well as 3 willow tits.
Willow Tit, Malcolm Langman (rspb-images)
A redhead smew is still about and was more recently seen on New Flash, alongside 2 golden eye, 2 shelduck, 6 x pintails and 17 goosander. There was also a shoveler on the Village Bay.
Shelduck, Ben Hall (rspb-images)
Pin Tail, Ben Hall (rspb-images)