The fantastic weather of the past couple of weeks has meant the whole reserve is looking brilliant! Spring is starting to gain momentum now, most of our resident birds are singing and we're awaiting the arrival of our migrants with baited breath (apparently ospreys have already been reported in the country!) Still no butterflies emerging, but we've had a good influx of avocet. I went out early this morning and counted 14. They seem to be pairing up already. Whilst I was down at the Eric Morecambe/Allen complex I had distant views of 4 snow geese and 7 bar-headed geese (most probably escapees), and I had fantastic views of a pair of kingfishers chasing each other around.
On the main reedbed, we've still got good numbers of the wintering wildfowl, which seem to be joined now with our breeding birds; species like gadwall, pochard and greylag are pairing up now. The Cetti's Warblers are singing their hearts out with 2 on the causeway and one near Grisedale hide (at least). One of our volunteers had great views of a displaying marsh harrier this morning too. At this time of year the males will do a "sky dance"; they will circle high in the sky until you can barely see them, then, with their wings tucked back, descend at a great rate, zigzagging as they go - a truly wonderful sight.
The best news of the week has come from our mate Barry the bittern. Whilst out listening for booming on Tuesday morning, Richard (our assistant warden) heard a really strong grunting bittern. It wasn't in its usual place either. This time it was on Barrow Scout fields - one of our newly established reedbeds. It's the first time we've ever had and signs of breeding bitterns in these reedbeds so it really is fantastic news! Barrow Scout has been created over the past 10 years, specifically to encourage bitterns to breed there - finally our work seems to be paying off!
Whilst Richard was over at Barrow Scout, I was listening out at Silverdale Moss (another of these newly created wetlands). Although i was left bereft of bitterns, I was treated to the mesmerising spectacle of brown hares boxing! They were no more than 50m away from me battling it out; the male hare will try to mate with the female, but if she is unreceptive, she'll let him know about it by fending hi off with her fists!
Hope you all have a great weekend
Al