Only two weeks until Christmas, and things are starting to feel very festive around the visitor centre. The Christmas tree is up, and outside we have a tree strung up with all kinds of food for birds to enjoy, including strings of monkey nuts and berries. It's proving particularly popular with robins, who will quite happily sit atop the tree and watch for whatever delicious food you're putting out for them next!
The festive larder
There have been great crested grebes being seen more often again from Charlie’s Hide, with goosander, pochard, shoveler, pintails and goldeneye spotted on the Main Bay through the week too.
Keep a close eye out for treecreepers in the trees along the Riverbank trail, as they've been seen several times this week. They start from the bottom of a tree and spiral their way up to the top, foraging for insects under the bark, then fly to the bottom of the next tree and start the process again. So if you see a small bird scuttling up a tree, it’s a treecreeper, but if it's scuttling down, it's probably a nuthatch.
Treecreeper - Mike Langman (rspb-images.com)
Bullfinches are looking particularly lovely at this time of year, and are an easy spot with their bright red chests. Siskins, a regular visitor to the reserve during winter, are starting to arrive in greater numbers and have been seen around the feeders at Pickup hide and the visitor centre.
- Laura