Hello as it's raining again I thought I would cheer you all up with some recent sightings from around the reserve!
I headed out this morning for a look around in the rain and found most of my time was taken up by patiently scanning for particular species. There are two species this time of year that I have a personal battle with to try and unearth. The first is jack snipe, well there are plenty of common snipe on the reserve at present, and after finding a couple of reports of jack snipe in the sightings book I found myself sifting through the wisps of snipe in search of its diminutive relative. Unfortunately I couldn't find one.However the counts of common snipe were impressive with 6 from Lilian's hide, 3 overhead in flight (Obviously in flight, and obviously overhead as otherwise due to my size they would be pretty low flying!). the best count was from Tim Jackson hide with a very impressive 24 noted to the right of the hide and along the tree line. Aside from the notorious bobbing feeding action of the jack snipe the other definitive characteristics are its smaller size and smaller bill, and perhaps more noticeably if they are just huddled up is the lack of a median crown stripe,(A Line down the crown of its head). Well I didn't find one so on to the next and more gruelling task of sifting through the masses of teal in search of it's American relative the green winged teal. Now to be honest I tend to skip searching the female teal because It's nigh on impossible to confidently pick out a female green winged teal. However the drake on the other hand usually sports a prominent vertical white line rather than a horizontal one along its side. And guess what after meticulously casting my eyes over the huge quantity of teal... I didn't find one!
There is a good chance throughout the coming months that we may well get one though so it's well worth checking them all. Other sightings from visitors have been good with the great white egret still reported mainly from Tim Jackson hide but recently over the causeway. At least two marsh harriers continue to overwinter here with a male and a female noted. bittern sightings have increased mainly flight views from public,lower and Lilian's hides respectively. Other reports have included kingfisher with counts topping four and water rail are becoming more daring as the cold weather creeps in with close sightings from Lilian's, public and along the paths. We now have some excellent numbers of wintering duck with species such as gadwall, pochard,goldeneye, tufted duck,pintail and shoveler. bearded tits continue to impress from the causeway area and a flock of siskin have been mobile close to Lilian's hide. Aside from the array of bird life, otter sightings have continued from both lower and public hides as well as some great views from Lilian's hide too. There are plenty of red deer around at the moment and the stags look superb as they wade through the water.
Well there we have it. So back to these teal!