We've had a number of visits from royalty over the past few days which have been very exciting for many of our visitors. I'm not talking about her Majesty the Queen, but a monarch of our own - the kingfisher. Over the past few mornings, several visitors have been treated to stunning, close up views at Public hide, where a kingfisher has been coming and perching on one of the posts, and nipping into the water for fish. One lucky gentleman this morning had this sight for over an hour! If you've never seen our most colourful resident, why not pop down to Public hide soon!
Another of our majestic residents - the red deer stags, are into their annual rut. They can be heard bellowing across the reserve at one another, and you can even catch them locking antlers down at Tim Jackson and Grisedale hides. At this time of year, they are fighting for the right to mate with the females (called hinds), and so can be very aggressive with one another. Did you know that a stag with 14 points to his antlers is called a 'royale'?
There have ben several sightings of a female marsh harrier around the area, including Lilian's hide, and also down at the Eric Morecambe and Allen hides. She was probably attracted over to the Morecambe Bay part of the reserve, due to the large flocks of waders that could potentially be a meal for her. There are still some curlew sandpipers, green sandpipers, ruffs and spotted redshanks down on the salt marsh. There has also been a flock of pink-footed geese seen too.
We've had a number of people asking about the starling roost. In the autumn, we get a stunning spectacle of up to 100, 000 starlings swirling and whooshing over the reserve in a 'murmuration'. The numbers haven't built up to that amount yet, that will come later on in October and through November, but smaller flocks have begun to gather together at dusk.
In non-wildlife related information-we have had word from Network Rail that they are due to begin some structural repair work to the railway bridge that runs over the road to Eric Morecambe and Allen hides. We don't have an exact date yet, but work is likely to start next week, and could go on for 3-4 weeks. The initial work will still allow vehicular access to our car park there, although this will become disrupted when their lorries arrive with deliveries. However, the subsequent work, involving painting the bridge, will mean that there is no vehicular access, so the hides will only be accessed on foot. We will let you know more information with proper timings, once we do, we just wanted to pre-warn that there will be some disruption to the access to the Eric Morecambe and Allen hides over the next few weeks, so please have a look on here or ask the team in the visitor centre if you would like more details. This work will not effect access to Leighton Moss, our visitor centre or our main car park.