Not a huge amount of movement from birds this week - nothing unusual for the time of year though I guess. As I mentioned last week, many birds are moving into a season of moult after a busy breeding season, and although not flightless, they prefer to remain grounded or hidden. Wildfowl are a classic example, with groups of Gadwall in particular gathering in the Waltons section. These are visible from the Tor View Hide and the viewing screens, along with families of Great Crested Grebes at various stages of development.
Other birds moult too such as this Willow Warbler - you can see the yellower plumage coming back through and note the pale legs and pronounced supercilium to help with your IDs:
Plenty of other warblers are still on site, although song has reduced dramatically over the past couple of weeks. I have been hearing a few Blackcaps singing still throughout the week and some much quieter chattering from Reed and Sedge Warblers (both pictured from this week below):
Reed Warbler adult.
Reed Warbler juvenile.
Sedge Warbler.
Listen out also for Cettis Warbler and Chiffchaff (both will overwinter with us here at Ham Wall).
Other birds are looking a little shabby too - not surprising after the frantic hunting and feeding of youngsters during breeding season. This female is one of our breeding females, that can be seen at the first viewing platform each day. Her nest site was just beyond here.
She has done well though and VP1 is a good place to spot the first flights of her juveniles - binoculars are a big help in this case. Young birds can often look a little clumsy at first particularly when landing - a lack of finesse, shall we say, often crashing into branches misjudging distances or the strength of the small branch they are landing on - they soon learn though. These two can be seen from VP1 also - look out for the brown plumage with the ginger coloured caps. One in flight pictured by John Crispin also:
Other juvenile birds are being spotted. Young Grey Herons are still present and expecting to be fed occasionally. Sometimes perched on the tern rafts in Waltons or in the case the sand martin box from VP1. An adult did eventually swoop in too:
This young Blackbird has also been spotted at the car park - feeding on berries:
With birds a little harder to come by for a little longer yet, many people try their hand a learning some bugs. Butterflies and Dragonflies are popular starting points - with limited numbers of species to learn, it is perhaps an easier place to start.
Species spotted on the reserve this week include: Brimstone, Small Tortoiseshell (much lower numbers than most years), Green Veined White, Large White, Comma, Peacock, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown and Ringlet. A few Pained Ladies were also spotted at the car park yesterday:
Peacock
Gatekeeper
Ringlet.
Dragonflies are a little harder, although there are less to learn they zip around so fast most of the time, it takes a while to get your eye in. On the reserve this week: Emperor, Lesser Emperor, Southern Hawker, Brown Hawker, Black Tailed Skimmer, Common Darter and Ruddy Darter. For damselflies look out for Red Eyed and Small Red Eyed (often on floating vegetation on water), Blue Tailed, Azure, Common Blue and Variable:
Lesser Emperor: Mark Webb
Southern Hawker female
Brown Hawker
Common Darter male
Common Darter female
Blue Tailed damselflies mating
Moths are more complicated but there are a few that even I know such as the incredible Buff Tip. It mimics a twig of silver birch our volunteer on her student placement Kate has sent me her shot (first of the photos) as well as Sandie Andrews. There were two on the building in the car park on Wednesday:
Check out the plants on the raised beds for Mint Moth too, which looks like this (they are fairly small):
Another photographed this week is Silver Y - apparently the UK's most common migrant moth:
The closer you look the more bugs you see. There were several Great Green Bush Crickets in the car park islands this week and beetles galore. Bumblebees are also still busy along with their many mimics, hoverflies and leaf cutter bees.
Common Carder (with a large collection of pollen)
Honey Bee
This leaf cutter bee (above) was doing its best to drag leaves into cracks into the car park building. It had obviously been trying for a while judging by the number of leaf pieces in the cobwebs below.
This one below has been a bit of a pain for a while. It keeps making a home in a post which has a sensor to count people which pas by. So either we get a very high reading as it moves around a lot or no reading as it has blocked the sensor with leaves. We have put another post nearby with lots of holes to see if we can entice it away, so we don't have to keep evicting it:
I have little time this week so I need to wrap it up already I'm afraid but also on the reserve this week: Green Woodpecker heard at Waltons, Great Spotted Woodpecker on the car park feeders, a few Hobby spotted throughout the week, Cranes still present with the youngster from the area left (west) of the Avalon Hide but not in flight very often, Roe Deer spotted around the various trails on the reserve, Sparrowhawk seen from VP1 on Wednesday, Little Egrets (pictured) and Great white Egrets seen from the Avalon Hide, Iberian Water Frogs still calling during sunny spells, Bitterns still seen occasionally - flights distant from VP2 suggest there is still one or two active nests, Grass snakes still being seen at the old rail bridge, Kingfisher seen from the bridge too but also from VP2, Song Thrush spotted smashing snails on the main path and Bullfinch seen at the car park.
Lastly, the gathering of swans in the main drain. Larger groups are beginning to move together (non breeders perhaps), others with cygnets can also be spotted around the reserve.
Several moved along the bank and dropped into the drain and joined others in a group and swam along single file under the bridge that leads towards the Avalon Hide:
Mute Swans: Chris Cardno.
I'm stopping there I'm afraid. Time is gone (I should have already left to be fair). Thanks to all the amazing contributions of photos: John Crispin, Sandie Andrews, Mike Pearce, Mark Webb and Chris Cardno.
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!