I was up at Campfield Marsh yesterday which is one of our three Cumbria coast reserves (Hodbarrow and st bees being the other two). What a cracking place the Solway is and I managed to see a few different birds such as Barnacle geese(proper ones not excapees!). I have to say that despite being at the other end of the county the gorse certainly looked much the same as Hodbarrow gorse. I was helping them to remove it from the edge of the salt marsh and Dave was telling me that they really notice a difference in breeding birds numbers for species such as linnet on the newer gorse when it regrows. They also have a website for the reserve up there and its well worth a visit! www.rspb.org.uk/campfieldmarsh
Today I was back at good old Hodbarrow! The new islands we have been making out of the spits have had some feather visitors already and they all seem to like the bare earth and slag on top. This means it is well worth the walk to the hide as lapwing, turnstone, redshank are some of waders using these areas particularly at high tide.
There are a few teal around at the moment as well as an increase in pochard and merganser numbers. They were showing well down in the corner of the lagoon near white rock. Egrets continue to roost over night at Hodbarrow which is always good to see. I was also having a look at the beach near the caravan park at Haverigg and there was Scaup out on the sea there. There were large Skeins of geese over head again today and I could just pick them out of the low cloud. The best place for fieldfare at the moment is underneath the old lighthouse on the sea buckthorn.
I have just seen a great photo of Green Winged Teal beside one of the new islands on saturday. Have a look in the gallery.