Happy New Year! It’s back to business as usual now after the Christmas holidays, so look out for regular blogs each week once again.
I had a good walk around site this morning, giving me a chance to see what’s around and what the reserve is looking like. Water levels are great at the moment, in fact higher than I’ve ever seen them on Phases 1 and 2 and the old silt lagoon 7 – apart from in last year’s floods of course! If levels stay high into the spring and summer, hopefully this will give the reed a chance to really progress throughout the next growing season – something which we are keen to see happen.
Wildfowl numbers appear to remain low, with numbers of teal, wigeon, tufted duck, gadwall and mallard present on site somewhat lower than expected for this time of year. 5 goldeneye this morning were great to see however and shoveler numbers are still good in comparison to previous winters. 2 whooper swans remain on silt lagoon 5 or 6 – look for these towards dusk as they come into roost.
Winter thrushes are still rather scarce too, with no fieldfare or redwing sighted this morning! There is some activity around the feeders at the viewing screen with common tit and finch species, yellowhammer and bullfinch.
Continued mild weather is likely to be the reason for reduced numbers of birds moving over from the continent.
Unfortunately the starlings don’t seem to have returned after their disappearance just before Christmas. Our Warden, Paul reported a total of 50 last week roosting on site. It remains to be seen whether or not they return before the roost disperses for the breeding season.
There is still at least one peregrine on site, as I was treated to a spectacular display of a bird chasing an unidentified wader into some long vegetation on Phase 1 this morning. I caught sight of the birds just as the wader dropped out of view, however the peregrine remained over the patch of vegetation looking for it's potential prey for around a minute after the wader disappeared. It was only when a great black-backed gull appeared to mob the peregrine that it flew off northwards.
And just to prove how mild it is, we have had a couple of amphibian records in the last two days, with a common frog active around silt lagoon 6 yesterday – thanks to volunteer Julie Straw for this record and a common toad active at the viewing screen this morning.
A few plant species are in flower too, with perhaps the most unusual being common mallow. Typically in flower from June – September, I spotted a singled flower on the edge of silt lagoon 6 yesterday. Cowslip is also in flower on Phase 1, as is common ragwort and yarrow.