I had two days off last week, I left the reserve on Wednesday evening under several inches of snow, and when I came back yesterday it felt completely different, the sun was shining and it even felt slightly warm, plus the birds have started to sing! A walk round the Discovery Trail is a delight, listening to robins, blue tits and great tits all blasting out their beautiful tunes. Having spent the last two years working on RSPB reserves I have picked up a few different bird calls, I never thought I’d be the sort of person who would be able to identify a bird by its song, but it is surprisingly easy. Robins have a beautiful melancholic song, one which you are as likely to hear in the evening as you are during the day. Great tits call sounds like they are saying ‘teacher’ repeatedly. If you want more information about bird calls the RSPB website http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/ has sound clips of most common British birds.
We still have plenty of our winter visitors on the reserve, with regular sightings of bramblings and siskins at the feeders. There have also been several sightings of goldeneyes and goosanders on Main Bay. There has been a great deal of excitement here because we've got a male smew and two female smews on Main Bay, the male arrived on Saturday morning, and spent most of the day with the two females to the east of Bob Dickens hide, although he couldn't be seen from the hide, there are better views from the other side of Main Bay, from the new viewing platform. The photo of the male smew was taken by Joe Seymour, one of our super volunteers., thanks Joe.
Rob saw a water rail by the feeding platform this morning, it was his first sighting of a water rail, so he was pretty pleased, even though he only saw the back end of it! There were also three little egrets down there. Elsewhere on the reserve, there was a peregrine falcon and buzzard seen over the Flashes yesterday, plus a male pintail on New Flash.
Don’t forget to let us know if you see anything whilst you're on the reserve, the sightings book is by the till in the visitor centre and we’re always happy to hear what you've seen during your visit.