Today has been a bright and sunny day with an abundance of birds singing their hearts out! It's great that 2 cettis warblers have been heard singing around the public hide and a couple of blackcaps have been heard at the end of the Lower trail near the gate. Willow warblers with their distinctive descending song have been heard which reminds me of lovely warm summers (not long now hopefully!!) as well as chiffchaffs (just sounding like their name). Why not close your eyes and have a listen here..... http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/w/willowwarbler/index.aspx
A woodcock was heard roding in the evening at nearby Warton Crag on the 1st of April too....a strange noise! http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/w/woodcock/index.aspx
We have still got 3 snow geese and a white fronted goose was seen on the 31st too. Little egrets have stayed with us over the winter and our warden counted 26 coming out of the roost at the end of March. Dagmar, has come back to volunteer with us again (as she enjoyed herself so much last year) and she will be monitoring our avocets in the next few months. She has counted 10 so far down at the coastal part of the reserve. There has been a greenshank and a spotted redshank seen down there today too.
John Wilson who monitors our bearded tits thinks they have survived the winter well and are now nesting. Otters continue to be seen and what a thrill it is if you're lucky enough. There seems to be still 3 around.
Marsh harriers have arrived back, with the first female seen on the 23rd of March. 4 males and 3 females have been seen recently-a wonderful sight!!
A more unusual visitor was a mole snuffling around the lower trail for about 5 minutes during the day. Red deer continue to put in appearances down at the pools and our bitterns are keeping us guessing as to how many we have now that our winter visiting birds have probably returned to the continent. When we know more I'll let you know. Finally it would be great to see you over Easter....there's plenty of things going on. A binocular demonstration is on Sunday and Monday (as well as stained glass birds and wildlife photograph stalls in our education room), an evening meal and talk about Tanzanian wildlife is on Tuesday night, a guided walk to look at our marsh harriers on Wednesday morning and there's lots of family activities to join in with in the holidays. Please have a look at our events page to find out more.... http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/l/leightonmoss/events.asp
Image of a male marsh harrier by Zul Bhatia.