Recent sightings 23 - 31 October 2015

Hello again!

Toby is away on leave this week, meaning we are on a skeleton staff. So I'm afraid you have to put up with my bare bones approach to sightings. Hopefully it won't spook you too much, otherwise I'll have to employ a ghost-writer.

Ahem, right. The site manager has told me I'll get sacked if I do any more Halloween style puns. So onto the sightings...

Well, lets start with a few regulars. Two whooper swans have remained grazing on the wet grassland all week. Mostly quite far from the visitor centre, but when the grazier came to move the cattle around today, they moved from their usual spot to within a few yards of the car park. The resident pink-footed goose and barnacle goose are pretty much always on the reedbed, though careful searching through the greylags and canada geese is required. There are plenty of teal and wigeon across the site, and a few pintail are now joining them. The first goldeneye of the year was on south scrape on 31 October. The first winter scaup was present on 23 October on the reedbed, but not seen since.

Rarer waders have not been much in evidence, though there have been a few greenshank on the wet grassland near to the sea bank. Six spotted redshank on south scrape on 31 October were quite a bonus. The best bit of that day though were the numbers of knot and black-tailed godwit. 1200 and 900 respectively, again on south scrape. Numbers of lapwing and golden plover are starting to build, ahead of the peak time in a few weeks when we can expect thousands of birds.

Of course, all these waterfowl and waders make a great target for predators. The peregrines have been having a fine old time, with at least one on site every day. Merlins too have been much in evidence, usually over the saltmarsh but also over the main part of the reserve. Both marsh and hen harriers have made regular appearances, with a cracking male 'grey ghost' being quite a sight! Moving onto owls, a short-eared owl was hunting over the reedbed on 31 October. And one of the highlights of last year, the barn owls that regularly hunted over the grass strip to the east of the visitor centre, seem to be back again.

Looking at the smaller birds, a party of lesser redpoll has been frequenting the hedgerow, close to the road. There have been plenty of linnets about, and reports of twite too. A Lapland bunting on 30 October was an extra nice sighting. The Cetti's warbler continues to be regular but elusive, requiring a familiarity with the call to pin down. A kingfisher gave good views behind East hide on 25 October.

Well, that's about it from me. Remember to pop into the visitor centre if you are visiting to find out the latest sightings. or, if you are visiting before the centre opens, check out the 'out of hours' sightings board now on the outside of the building. Toby is back next week, so hopefully normal service in all its technicolour glory will resume.