Well, a lot has happened since I last posted a recent sightings blog, we have had a rare American wader, fledglings popping up all over the site, a spectacular migrant wader passage and a butterfly and dragonfly bonanza!
So to the highlight of the last few weeks which was the presence of a Pectoral sandpiper, found on the 18th and was still present on the North Pit on the 19th, (providing an excellent WeBS count record!). This bird is a wader that breeds mostly in North America and is an occasional vagrant to this country in autumn so to get a spring bird is an excellent record for the reserve.
This weekend proved to be a good time to be out with a number of exciting birds present. 2 fantastic male breeding plumaged Ruff were on the Jubilee Wetlands on the morning of the 18th. They chose to fly away though as I was approaching the canal side screen so not amused! There was also a Bar-tailed godwit for a few days and Sanderling have dropped in ones and twos recently and a high count of 10 on Jubilee on the 19th being an excellent inland count.
Grey plover, Black-tailed godwit, Greenshank, Dunlin, Redshank, Ringed plover, Little ringed plover and Turnstone have all been present at various times over the past few weeks enjoying the mud giving us a brilliant count of 20 wader species for May!
Unfortunately, with the large amounts of rain that we had last week, the water levels on the reserve rose and covered a lot of the exposed muddy edges that the waders liked so the sightings dried up for a while but since the levels have dropped, we have had Turnstone, Sanderling and Dunlin.
With the exciting numbers of waders on site you could be forgiven for focussing on these but there have been plenty of other birds to be seen on site. Barn owls are regular sightings hunting over Jubilee Wetlands as it gets dark, a drake Garganey has been frequenting the North Pit and is still present today, Hobbys have been putting on a great show catching dragonflies and the occasional Swift over the wetlands, a couple of sightings of Turtle dove has got the office excited, a passage Black tern on the North Pit and the return of as many as 6 Little egrets has been a welcome sight.
Combine these with all our breeding birds including Cetti’s warbler, Cuckoo, Great crested grebe, Black-headed gulls, Grasshopper warblers and many more means that Middleton Lakes can really offer a spectacular visit!
Away from birds we are seeing some really exciting things on site. The dragonflies and damselflies have emerged in force recently with Large red, Common blue, Blue-tailed, Azure and the rarer Red eyed damselfly all seen across the site and the spectacular Banded demoiselle seen in excellent numbers on the riverside of the site.
Butterflies have also put on a show with Common blues, Dingy skippers and Small coppers the most recent out to join Brimstone, Small tortoiseshell, Red admiral and Speckled wood to name a few. Look out for some day flying moths such as the Burnet companion, Cinnabar and Silver ground carpet that can be seen flying amongst the vegetation and doing their best to look like butterflies. They can often be overlooked but they can quite often as beautiful and sometimes more so than the butterflies. Keep an eye out on here for a moth blog soon...
So now the water levels have dropped, vegetation is growing up nicely and fledgling birds being seen throughout the woodlands and wetlands, why not come along and see what you can spot, and remember, we would love to see them on the photo section of the RSPB community!