When you live in the UK, autumn weather can sometimes mean lovely crisp, cold mornings when the sun bounces off the frost and makes you glad you got up early. However, if can also mean grey, drizzly days when you wish you hadn't got out of bed. For the past 2 days (apart from the frost because it hasn't been that cold just yet), we have had the former weather which has been glorious. Autumn is a fantastic time of year for wildlife, some of it decides to leave us for warmer climes, whilst others arrive back to spend the winter here. Today, some that should be gone have been spotted in the form of 2 house martins that flew over my head as I stood in the back car park this morning. They were heading south though, so hopefully on to where they should be going at this time of year - Africa. We have also had some arrivals in the past couple of days. Flocks of siskins, lesser redpolls and the odd brambling have been seen at the bottom of the causeway and along the path to Lower hide. They particularly like the seeds of the alder trees down there.
We still have 2 marsh harriers on the reserve. This reedbed specialist bird of prey would normally have left by now, heading for Africa, but whilst the rest of our breeding population from this summer have done just that, we have one female and a juvenile that have stayed behind.
Kingfishers are still cropping up all over the place with reports from Lower, Griesdale and Eric Morecambe hides in the last couple of days. This morning, some lucky visitors in the Allen hide witnessed one sat on a fencepost with a fish in its beak, whilst a water rail was running round on the floor below! Stunning scene!
An elusive bittern has been spotted again at Griesdale hide which is great!
Cetti's warblers are still being heard on the causeway, and today, several people were lucky in seeing a yellow browed warbler on the causeway near the grit trays! These little brown jobs with a lovely yellow brow stripe aren't common in the UK. They breed in parts of Russia and China and spend the winter in south east Asia, so shouldn't really be here. We do however get a few turning up in the UK each year, so it is a treat to have one here. They are pretty elusive though.
The bearded tits are now a regular feature at the grit trays most mornings between about 8 am and 12 pm.
Please be aware that nearly all our paths are flooded at the moment. You can get to Lilian's hide with normal walking boots, but beyond that, the paths are very wet and you need wellies. The path to the saltmarsh is also flooded so wellies needed there too.