With slowly increasing day length and improving weather one of our residential volunteers decided to take full advantage by getting down to the shore before dawn to watch the geese take to the skies and move from the safety of the mudflats to their grazing sites inland.
He was immediately rewarded by the sight and sound of a pair of tawny owls calling to each other from around the farm buildings prior to 7am.
Around 7am he was rewarded further with the sight of around 3,000 pink-footed geese rising up in one massive flock and sweeping northward. This was followed by the slow trickle of thousands of barnacle geese in a multitude of smaller flocks heading in a variety of directions. Other birds that were seen on the beach were oystercatcher, curlew, shelduck, ringed plover, grey plover and redshank.
Shelduck – Photo credit:Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)
Walking back up through Rainbow lane there were numerous skylarks half heartedly displaying in the fields and a trio of golden plover amongst large amounts of lapwing.
On the approach to the Visitor Centre from the top of Rainbow Lane and on or around the feeders there were chaffinch, goldfinch, greenfinch, blue tit, great tit, coal tit, blackbird, tree sparrow, house sparrow, pheasant, pied wagtail and dunnock along with a solitary little egret that could be seen flying towards the merse.
Continuing down the track towards the junction to the first hide there were yellowhammers and reed bunting and the sound of a distantly drumming great spotted woodpecker.
From the Bruaich hide there were a few teal, shoveler, mallard and a green-winged teal. Roe deer could be seen moving across the wet grassland and a ringtail hen harrier flew overhead disturbing a small flock of snipe. Two juvenile mute swans that landed briefly on the water were quickly seen off by the two resident adult mute swans.
Continuing onwards down the track to the woodland strip there were flocks of linnet joined with a few twite feeding in the fields. In the woodland itself the rooks were busy building their nests and a group of long-tailed tits were seen moving through the woodland as were a few very busy looking wren. A goldcrest was heard singing from the treetops but could not be seen.
From the Meida hide there were more teal, shoveler and mallard along with pintail, gadwall, wigeon, little grebe and moorhen. A buzzard was seen flying over the hilltops in the distance making a total of 46 species of bird seen or heard in a single morning!
Pintail – Photo credit: Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)