It's been quite a week at St Aidan's, what with Springwatch coming to visit, the sun coming out for a bit, kestrel chicks hatching.... I could go on. Well, I will, because this is a sightings blog.
June has brought a real taste of summer. The site is a mass of flowers now, hosting red-tailed bumblebees, common blue and blue-tailed damselflies, common blue butterflies, painted ladies, and dingy skippers.
A host of golden buttercups
Around Bowers Lake, the sand martins are feeding, both over the water and over the surrounding flowers. Insects aplenty at the moment for that first brood of chicks. Skylarks and blackcaps are singing, and in the skies above little egrets, grey herons, buzzards and red kites have been spotted.
Oddball and the Visitor Centre have been great viewpoints for little owls and kestrels, linnets, whitethroats, and even a red-legged partridge, have put in appearances.
The Hillside has been popular with meadow pipits, stonechats and a jay, while swallows and swifts are zipping around overhead. Reed buntings are flitting around all across the park.
Meadow pipit
Bitterns are still booming in the reedbeds, when they can get a word in with the black-headed gull cacophony that fills the air. They are sharing this wonderful habitat with black-necked grebes, sedge and reed warblers, goldeneye, pochard, shelducks, gadwall, great crested grebes, and many coots with chicks. Greylag goose families are to be seen foraging in the grass beside the water.
Special summer visitors
Over on the ridge & furrow, the lapwings are raising chicks – but they need to be vigilant as peregrines and hobbys are keeping a close eye on the action. Black-tailed godwits, dunlins and oystercatchers share the area with the ever-present black-headed gulls.
Tufted ducks can be seen on all the waters, while Astley Lake is the best place to see elegant common terns and their rarer cousins, the black terns. The black tern is likely to be a passage migrant in May, on its way to breed in contintental Europe, so our visitors could be just a little late. But black terns do occasionally breed in the UK and they would be most welcome at St Aidan's if they decided to stay. There are also avocets on Astley, dodging the stroppy coots, a mute swan, and great crested grebes.
Great crested grebe looking coy
The trees along the bottom of the site to Lowther Lake, are busy with songbirds. They might be difficult to see in the lush greenery, but the distinctive songs of Cetti's warbler and willow warbler, chiffchaff, wren and bullfinch can easily be heard.
Female common blue butterfly in clover
Wherever you look nature is bountiful at St Aidan's, from birds with babies to blooming wildflowers buzzing with insects. We'd like to keep it that way, and if you would like to help why not join us on Sunday 10th June at 10am for our Community Litter Pick, all welcome. Or how about the Behind the Scenes Warden Walk on Wednesday 13th June to find out more about how we look after the park? And if you'd like to get a closer look at the wildlife here, check out our Binocular & Telescope Hands On Day on 16th June, expert advice and the chance to try before you buy the right equipment for you.