Lapwing numbers have increased greatly at Greylake and there are a lot more teal, and to a lesser extent shoveler about now.
A male teal from the hide (David Miller)
Rob and Jo saw thousands and thousands of lapwing with golden plover in between and described the back drop of the dark skies towards Weston Zoyland and the turning of these birds with the sunlight catching them which was fantastic. Various birds of prey were causing these movements, especially sparrowhawk and peregrine. Marsh harrier, buzzard and kestrel are also around and ravens are back in the area.
Also regularly present are wigeon, gadwall, mallard, great white egret, snipe, black-tailed godwit, water rail, cetti's warbler, stonechat and reed bunting. Bearded tits were present in the reed bed before christmas but I haven't seen or heard them since, yet. Redwing and fieldfare are also frequent over the reserve. Many thanks to Rob and Jo for keeping us up to date with recent sightings.
A male reed bunting at Greylake (David Miller)
There's not much to report on the management front but today we did put a new gate in by the side of the hide, which should stifle one cause of disturbance to the birds here. Our apologies to anyone whose visit was disrupted by the necessary banging for this. Water levels are a shade high and so we also lowered the sluice levels just a little.
At Swell Wood there are plenty of nuthatch, treecreeper and marsh tit so the weather clearly hasn't been too hard for them so far. Ravens are often present over the wood, particularly near Dewlands Farm.
Happy New Year to all readers. Dave, Annie, Helen and the team.