Even though it’s only Wednesday, we’ve had plenty of great sightings already this week. All of our fantastic wildfowl are in fine form ready for the breeding season, and several have been noticed in pairs just this morning, including shovelers, teals and shelducks. This really is the best time of year to appreciate the rainbow of colours on display from those marvellous drakes, and just yesterday our volunteer ranger Ray commented on how beautiful the teal were looking. With their rich rusty-coloured heads, iridescent emerald eye patches and wing flashes and sunshine-yellow rump patches, drake teals are certainly one of our most attractive ducks, despite being the smallest in the pond!
Teal image by Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
On the subject of beautiful ducks, a pintail was spotted this morning on New Flash. The best word to describe these ducks is simply ‘elegant’; with their long, slender necks, tapering tails and muted but bold colours, pintails are one of the most dapper ducks around!
Pintail image by Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)
A huge female sparrowhawk was spotted around the visitor centre this morning by several excited visitors, staff and volunteers. As usual with birds of prey, female sparrowhawks tend to be a fair bit larger than the males, and their bright yellow legs and talons, along with piercing yellow eyes and steely grey and barred plumage make them a sight to behold! It’s likely that this female will be hunting on overtime at the moment to feed up ready for the breeding season – her large size means that she will be capable of catching pigeon-sized birds! Pigeons and collared doves are favoured items of prey for female sparrowhawks in the run-up to breeding season because of the high nutritional value they offer with their large and iron-rich breast muscles.
Female Sparrowhawk image by Mike Langman (rspb-images.com)
Moving on to St. Aidan’s, I went for a visit at the end of last week to see if I could spot some rather special birds that I hadn’t seen before – short-eared owls. I was lucky enough to see two of them hunting over the grassy hillside at dusk, and I watched them for over an hour! These birds are absolutely captivating to watch – their huge wings and heavy-looking round heads seem to dwarf their bodies in flight as they fly low over the grass, scanning for small mammals with their sharp eyes. They are arguably the UK’s most colourful owls, and although it was getting dark, it was easy to pick them out against the background. Their undersides were a beautifully rich creamy-gold colour against the drab background, and it was easy to make out their fierce-looking yellow eyes which are rimmed with black, standing out starkly from bold white faces. If you’ve got an hour to spare, I really recommend going to see them – it’ll definitely be going down as one of my best wildlife moments!
Short-eared owl image by Mike Langman (rspb-images.com)