Together they make up this week's recent sightings!
Snipe, Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
After a water rail seen at Pickup Hide in last week’s blog, the showmanship was taken to the next level yesterday when a water rail was spotted behind the kingfisher screen eating a ‘massive fish’, as described in the recent sightings book. Water rails have and incredibly varied diet and will eat everything from berries and roots to fish and snails, they’ll even eat small birds and carrion. If you’re down at Pickup, also keep an eye out for green sandpipers and snipe.
Bearded tit, Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
Ten bearded tits were reported down on Parker’s pond at the weekend, I dashed down with a couple of the other volunteers to catch a glimpse of my first ever ‘beardie’ but alas, no such luck. We definitely heard them pinging in the reeds though and they were likely sheltering from the heavy winds. If, like me, you’ve never heard a bearded tit, their call is a very distinctive metallic ‘ping, ping’ noise. I look forward to seeing that impressive mustache on another occasion.
Lin Dyke ducklings, taken by Elliott
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the week was spotted on Sunday by our young ranger, Elliott. Down at Lin Dike he took this photo of ten ducklings! It appears that the mild weather has been confusing some of our wildlife, have you seen any usual sightings for the time of year?
Harvest mouse, Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com)
Finally, not a sighting but exciting non-the-less, on Friday the warden team will be taking to the reed-beds and grassy areas of the reserve for a harvest mouse survey. They’ll be looking for the small, tightly woven balls of grass they build as nests to get a rough idea of the population. Active climbers, harvest mice spend much of their life off the ground and build their nests between 30cm -100cm high to stay safe from predators. Declining numbers in recent years mean there is now an active effort to conserve them...I’ll let you know what they find next week.