Sorry for yet another shameless otter pun, but otter sightings have been excellent over the past few days. For those of you who have been getting up at silly o'clock in the morning to come and catch a glimpse of one of our most charismatic residents, what I'm about to say will no doubt make you roll your eyes and sigh. For the last 3 days, an otter (although we can't say for definite that it is the same one) has been happily swimming about at 11/11.30 am in front of Lower hide. No early morning start is required when they make it this easy. Now I can't promise this will continue to happen, but I would say if you get yourself down to Lower hide mid-morning over the next few days, you stand a very good chance of seeing one of these slippery little characters.
Whilst you are on your way to Lower hide, it could also be worth your while stopping off at Public hide to look for bitterns. We have had several reports of these stunning Leighton Moss favourites over the past few days. Winter is when they are generally much easier to see, as they are more likely to fly out or come to the edge of the reeds in search of food. Plus there are usually more of them around as we get over-wintering visitors from Europe.
The bottom of the casueway and the path to Lower hide has been excellent for sightings of flocks of siskins, redpolls and long tailed tits. They love feeding on seeds such as alder, so it is great spot for them down there.
The unusal sight of over-wintering marsh harriers are still delighting our visitors at the moment. This is only the second winter that they have been around, with 3 of them showing up most days. They would normally be long gone to warmer places as far as South Africa by now, so it is a sign of the mild winter we have had here (we've been lucky on the snow front so far).
If you are here later in the day, keep an eye out for the little egrets coming into roost at Island Mere. There have been up to 40 some nights.
Down at the saltmarsh, there are excellent views of our visiting ducks. Pintails, shovelers, wigeons and teals are all there adding their individual splash of colour to the stunning view over our Morecambe Bay reserve.
Some signs of spring have started to appear. As you walk down our woodland paths towards Tim Jackson and Grisedale hides, you will notice snow drops appearing in patches - lovely!
Snowdrops copyright Mike Malpass