We’ve been treated to some lovely weather this bank holiday weekend, which we all know is rare! On the Sunday morning we had our Dawn Chorus walk which was definitely worth getting up at 5am for. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and visitors saw and heard a variety of birds. We had lots of warblers: chiffchaffs, willow warblers, blackcaps, whitethroats, garden warbler, reed warblers and sedge warblers! A selection of the other birds we saw were skylarks, meadow pipits, little ringed plovers, swifts, green woodpecker and little grebes. I was able to try out my telescope skills which definitely need some practice!
The garganeys continue to be seen on New Flash and some have also been seen from Charlie’s Hide. There have been a few sightings of a cuckoo around Lin Dike and I heard my first one of the year today.
There have been lots of butterflies about due to the sunshine including a speckled wood, orange tips and brimstones. A visitor has spotted a banded demoiselle today which is the first damselfly sighting we’ve had reported. The male of this species has a distinguishable black band on its wings.
There are still some siskins on the feeders but they seem to be decreasing in numbers now. We’ve also had willow tits, bullfinches, nuthatches plus all the usual finches, sparrows and tits on our feeders outside the visitor centre.
A marsh harrier has been seen today over the Flashes and we had a red kite soaring over the visitor centre on Sunday.
We’ve got a meet the moths event at 10am and minibeast safaris at 11am and 2pm on Sunday 12 May. Now that spring has finally arrived there should be plenty of exciting stuff to see! No need to book, just drop by and it's free for all!