With water levels gradually dropping, wildfowl on the reserve are back in excellent numbers. Particularly shovelers and pintails, with Causeway hide overlooking a view that is absolutely fantastic for gadwalls, wigeons, teals and tufted ducks that are rafting on the waters surface. Sometimes they will be spooked by an otter or marsh harrier and erupt in spectacular formation before returning and settling again shortly after.
Snowdrops (previous spring) by Mike Malpass
Spring is already showing signs, with the first snow drops starting to bloom on the reserve already. Birds are singing more frequently with the sound of great tits, coal tits, robins and dunnocks filling the air on a morning as the daylight hours grow longer. Although rather early the mild conditions and increased day length is changing the activity of the wildlife. Can you notice the subtle changes to the wildlife at Leighton Moss on your next visit?
A fantastic addition to the reserves year list was a common crossbill photographed by one of our lucky visitors which was a real treat to see. Whilst crossbills are resident in the UK all year round they are a scarce visitor to Leighton Moss, and their habits mean they often spend much of their time at the tops of trees and dense conifer plantations or other pine forests, making them difficult to see. This one was just passing through, seen in the tops of a stand of trees near the junction to Grisedale and Tim Jackson hide, after the wooden bridge. Crossbills will begin nesting as early of mid-February depending on the availability of seed cones. They use their special crossed bills to prize open the cones and access the seeds inside.
Female crossbill by Mike Owen
A rather excellent sighting of two otters accidentally flushing a bittern was reported earlier this week. Bittern sightings have been regular but infrequent so far this month. Spend your time watching the channel of cut reed viewable to the right of Causeway Hide as the most reliable spot on the reserve where a secretive bittern might venture out in search of food.
Looking back at a time when otters were absent from Leighton Moss, and even much of Northern England, to now is remarkable. The boldness of their character hasn’t come much better than a few days ago when an otter bounded out of the water barely more than a few meters away from the hide window at Tim Jackson’s hide, much to the amazement of the small team of Leighton Moss staff that had headed down to the hide early that morning. It happily stayed for a few minutes in full view before swimming away. You may recall several weeks ago the amazed fortunate visitors that saw on otter walking casually during the middle of the day through the bird feeding station in the garden next to the visitor centre! It is good to see them doing so well.
Otter by Ben Andrew
Other sightings on the reserve include regular reports of great white egrets and snipe from Tim Jackson’s hide. At least four Cetti’s warblers have been heard on the reserve with one being particularly visible from the corner at the boardwalk to the Causeway on occasion. Being so far North Cetti’s warblers tend to suffer winter conditions more than their southern counterparts, with sites like Leighton Moss in the North of England currently representing one of their most northerly sites.
This weekend we had a tawny owl that had found its way into Grisedale Hide. After careful examination by a trained member of staff, and a few cuts and scrapes from the owl objecting to its rescue, it was released in the garden where it found a patch of ivy to roost. From its roosting spot visitors had sneak peek views of a few feathers through the foliage on the decidedly damp day of its release, providing a tantalising glimpse of a rather nice owl.
Kevin about to release the tawny owl
Starlings are still one of the reserves winter wildlife spectacles this week providing the forecast stays dry during your visit. Whilst never doing quite the same thing each night the numbers coming into roost are without a doubt spectacular. They are currently roosting to the North of the reserve where standing along the Causeway or viewing from the hide offers your best opportunity to see them. With the evenings opening up they are roosting progressively later with a current time of going into the reeds at just after 4.30pm. Get their 20 minutes before hand and watch the skies. With so many coming into roost the audible woosh of wings is very clear, or indeed come and make a day of it and round it off with the ultimate crescendo.
Starlings
We would like to wish all our blog readers another great year of wildlife watching experiences. No doubt some have made New Years resolutions to make a year list. Even if you decide not to take your ‘listing’ too seriously, keeping a record of the wildlife you have seen can be a great way to learn and improve your knowledge and wildlife watching skills as well as maintaining the motivation to get out and enjoy the natural world.
The reserve team are very excited by the promising signs of 2018 being a great year for wildlife at Leighton Moss. With improvements to the reserve, most notably the repair of the Eric Morecambe pool, offering new opportunities for wildlife such as breeding waders on the newly formed islands and better habitat for migrating waders too in spring and autumn, 2018, fingers crossed looks set to be a quality year for wildlife down at the shore pools, and with the addition of new islands on the main reserve too, come and enjoy the new changes and let us know your thoughts.
Steven, Intern at Leighton Moss