This morning has seen a kick start to the week for our sightings book, as we saw a nuthatch, a willow tit and a wood mouse in the wildlife garden while we were opening up – talk about giving nature a home! Wood mice have been a recurring sight around the visitor centre over the past few weeks, as they’ve been picked up on our camera trap a few times too. There are loads of fascinating facts about these small nocturnal mammals, for example, if a wood mouse is caught by the end of its tail, the end can be shed and may never regrow! Whilst they forage for seeds, they pick up objects like twigs and leaves and deposit them around like little landmarks to guide them whilst they are exploring. Despite their name, wood mice prefer hedgerows to woodland, so if you have hedges in your garden there may well be wood mice in residence!
The weekend held a lot of birdy delights, with kingfishers seen at the kingfisher screen on both Saturday and Sunday. It really makes my day to glance through the screen on my way by and spot a bright flash of blue as they perch over the water – they really are one of our most beautiful birds.
We had some thrilling sightings from Pickup hide yesterday, with a green woodpecker spotted! These birds are usually heard rather than seen, with their loud and repetitive ‘laughing’ call carrying quite a distance. Unlike great spotted woodpeckers, they spend a lot of time on the ground rather than high up in trees, so you’re quite lucky to spot one.
Also seen from Pickup was a curlew – these lovely large waders are very distinctive, which is handy when you’re not very good at wader ID, like me! Their long down curved beaks and soft, undulating call let you know you’ve got a curlew. Sadly, curlew numbers have plummeted across the UK in recent decades, with changes in the way upland areas are farmed and drainage of moorlands thought to be the main causes affecting breeding curlews. RSPB scientists are researching the declines further though, so we can hopefully reverse these declines in the future.
We had our first big influx of fieldfares recorded on Saturday - they come in from northern Europe, and tend to stick around all over the UK until March-April time. These attractive thrushes love berries, especially those on hawthorn bushes, so keep an eye out if you’ve got berry bushes in your garden!