Warblers have been returning to the reserve in good numbers over the last few days with chiffchaff, blackcap, whitethroat, lesser whitethroat, willow warbler, reed warbler and sedge warbler all being seen and heard at various spots around the reserve.
The better weather has also brought out butterflies such as comma, brimstone, small tortoiseshell and peacock along with a number of Queen Bees searching for new homes to nest in and mating toads and frogs, so keep your eyes out for spawn in the pools and ditches. You can tell the difference between frog and toad spawn by how it looks, frog spawn is laid in jelly like clumps whereas toad spawn is more string like.
On the flashes there has been up to 32 yellow wagtails reported, a blue headed wagtail and a few white wagtails along with a little gull (Moat Flash), common tern and marsh harrier (Spoonbill Flash) and a cuckoo which was heard from Lin Dike.
On Hickson’s pool there has been avocet, kestrel, wheatear, pintail, common tern, arctic tern and common sandpiper.
On main bay there has been a sighting of a bittern in flight, dunlin, little ringed plover and arctic tern.
Village bay has had sand martins, house martins and swallows regularly sighted flying over head and an Egyptian goose on Saturday!
Sand martins have also been seen using the sand martin bank at Pickup hide, also seen around Pickup hide were little grebe, green woodpecker, oystercatcher, teal, tufted duck, shoveler, gadwall, pochard and buzzard.
Common sandpiper and garganey have been sighted from Charlies hide, the Kingfisher screen has been living up to its name recently as there have been many sightings of a kingfisher from there along with a pair of willow tits that have been excavating an old woodpecker hole in a dead tree to the right hand side as you look through the screen. Little ringed plover has been seen around Big Hole and mealy redpoll and brambling have been seen on the feeders around the visitor centre along with siskin, nuthatch tree sparrows and the usual array of tits and finches.
Image: comma butterfly
Photo credit: Grahame Madge (rspb-images.com)