My favourite sound of the week has got to be the drumming of the greater spotted woodpecker that has been hammering on a nest box in the wildlife garden almost constantly. A close second has to be be the sound of large numbers of pink-footed geese on the reserve as they stop over on their way back north. Last night we had at least 700 flying in and they are feeding by the Carden hide this morning, the last opportunity to see these wonderful winter visitors. Another exciting sound was what we think is the first willow warbler of the year, hopefully we'll soon be able to confirm.
Another brilliant week for wildlife with eight black-tailed godwits, four shelducks, twelve whooper swans, two ruff, two redshanks, two shovelers, two gadwalls, a little grebe, four oystercatchers, all by the Carden hide yesterday.
The breeding season is now in full swing and our reserve team are now on constant alert looking our for and then monitoring lapwing nests. We now have four confirmed nests! Now is a critical time for breeding birds like lapwings and we need to ensure that they are not disturbed while they incubate their eggs. After months of hard work making sure that the habitat is just right for the lapwing it's wonderful to see the first nests. Here's to a good breeding season!
Photo: pink footed geese - Paul Ashcroft; Black-tailed godwit - Paul Ashcroft; lapwing eggs - Vicky Turnbull.