What a week it has been at Middleton Lakes! The sun has been out, the paths have dried up nicely and the birds are putting on a great show.
The week began with staff and volunteers conducting the monthly WeBS counts on site. The weather for WeBS counts has been shocking at times this Winter but we were treated to a lovely sunny day, some volunteers even wore boots and took off the woolly hats, how about that!
So the sightings included...
Black-headed gulls showed extremely well throughout with a good count of 302, Tufted ducks were spread out across the site with 160 present and Lapwings performed with 71 spread out all over the islands and they could be heard displaying and tumbling out of the sky over Jubilee Wetlands.
The ducks are still the main feature in terms of numbers with Teal (86), Shoveler (80) and Mallard (77) giving good counts and Gadwall, Shelduck and Goldeneye all present.
Other good counts consisted of Coot (96), Cormorant (30), Moorhen (28) Great-crested grebe (13), Grey heron (10) and Goosander (2).
Waders are starting to become more prevalent with promising counts of Snipe (12), Oystercatcher (5), Ringed plover (4) and the highest count of Redshank for a few months with 9 on Jubilee Wetlands.
Other birds counted included Little grebe, Mute swan, Greylag goose, Canada goose and Lesser black-backed gull.
With Spring coming up at a rate of knots (not a pun, but we wouldn't say no to a few on site!), the birds are responding. The Spring migrants are well on their way up the country and you can now see and hear several on site. Chiffchaffs can be heard from as soon as you get of the car, right up to the North Pit and 15 Sand Martins were a great site over Fishers Mill on Thursday, as far as I know these were the first of the year on Middleton but correct me if I am wrong and with over 200 on Friday, they have definitely arrived in style!
There was a Black-tailed godwit present at the end of the week, initially on the North Pit but then feeding on Jubilee, Cettis warblers can still be heard across the site, the Black-headed gull colony is looking healthy on Dosthill with around 500 birds frequenting the islands and Little egrets can still be seen regularly feeding in the edges of the pools and coming into roost in the Heronry.
Its not just birds that have enjoyed the warm weather, the butterflies have relished the warm period with Small tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma and Brimstone seen regularly and there are really good numbers of Bumblebees all over site.
With the temperatures warming up and the water levels low, keep an eye out over the next few weeks. Hopefully we should start to see more Little ringed plover, Wheatear and Willow warblers arriving but keep those bird books to hand, there is a chance of a rarer wader or 2, Kate, our Warden predicts a Temmincks stint... watch this space...
I'm glad to hear that the reserve is recovering from the floods and that waders are a thing of the past - if only the type that you wear :-) Signs of spring are all around and I hope your wildlife has a great breeding season. A few fluffy lapwing chicks and a flight of colourful dragonflies could be just around the corner now. What a lovely time of year.
It will be fun to see whether a Temminck's actually turns up too! If you do get one, please ask it to send a friend or two up north to Yorkshire for us to enjoy! :)