We had a couple of interesting sightings one after the other yesterday. First up was the mythical sounding white buzzard. Yesterday afternoon, up went the cry of "white buzzard!", and so off everyone rushed to the front of the centre. With binoculars at the ready, we stood scanning the trees and sure enough, perched on a tree over the road from the visitor centre was a white (ish) buzzard! As we were trying to decide just how white the white buzzard was, we caught sight of a red kite swooping over the adjacent field. This was my first time seeing one so it was an exciting moment! They’re so much bigger than I thought and so graceful. I could have stood out there for hours just watching.
Red kite - Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)
A brambling was spotted in the Wildlife Garden this week. This finch is a winter migrant and can easily be mistaken for a chaffinch, especially since the two species often flock together.
Redwings are being seen more and more frequently, and there are lots of great spotted woodpeckers and green woodpeckers around the reserve, especially on the Coal Tips trail. Out on the lagoons great crested grebes, little grebes and little egrets have all been spotted.
Little egret - Paul Chesterfield (rspb-images.com)
- Laura