The avocet families are growing at pace. The 1st pair have 3 chicks which are over a month old now, and have moved onto the jubilee wetlands. The adult birds walked their chicks from the North pit, through the fence and onto the Jubilee. This isn’t unheard of for avocets to do this, but it’s an impressive bit of parenting! The 2nd pair have 2 chicks wandering around on the North still, although they can be hidden behind the islands at times. These aren’t quite a week old yet, having hatched on Saturday in the horrendous rain. There are Little-ringed plovers and ringed plovers with chicks of various ages and can be seen from the Lookout. Also on the North, it resembles something of a swan lake at the moment. It seems mute swans (and other wildfowl) congregate to conduct their post breeding moult. Ok, so mute swans aren’t uncommon but over 100 were counted yesterday and they are a sight when all together! The common terns are still feeding their growing families with 3 active nests, but it’s hard to see them for the tall vegetation. We also conducted our webs count this week. The score on the doors are:-
Great-crested grebe-12
Little egret-2
Grey heron-5
Cormorant – 5
Mute swan – 111
Greylag goose – 9
Canada geese – 47
Shelduck – 4
Mallard – 83
Gadwall – 124
Shoveler – 4
Tufted duck – 97
Teal – 3
Coots – 149
Moorhen – 15
Avocet - 8
Lapwing – 43
Oystercatcher – 9
LRP – 3
Redshank – 3
Black-headed Gull – 326
Lesser-black backed gull – 14
Common tern – 3
Beginning of June is always a bit quieter for migrants and unusual sightings, but we have had a red kite fly through and a med gull. Mid to late June sees the return of the arctic breeding waders, and also signals the start of Autumn migration! But it’s still Summer! Not for the failed breeders in the high arctic as they make their way south to their wintering feeding grounds. Green sandpipers are one of the first to return. Or maybe something like a spotted redshank will stop by?
There has been some very showy kingfishers recently. It seems the first lot of youngsters are out of the nest and exploring. Kingfishers are very territorial and once the young leave the nest, the adults don’t tolerate them in their territory for too long, and hey get booted out! 3 have been using the pond-dipping area, where kingfisher perches have been set up and there is a healthy population of sticklebacks. Patiently waiting on the benches can result in a cracking photo!
Kingfisher by the pond-dipping platform by Nick Martin
Increased sightings of painted ladies this week, does this signal the beginning of another bumper year for them? Common blues, large and small skippers are dashing around the birds-foot trefoil along the southern meadow bund and around fishers mill. Also around Fisher’s Mill a few bee orchids have popped up! These are beautiful flowers, they really live up to their namesake! In the longer grass, especially up the riverside, are small black moths, with white wing tips. These are chimney sweeper moths – and are building up in number at the moment. As are the dragonflies, with both emperor and southern hawker on the wing now, along with broad-bodied chaser, black-tailed skimmer, 4 spot chaser plus absolutely loads of damselflies! All this will keep the hobbies happy – increased sightings of these in the last few days!
Bee orchid by K.Thorpe
We will endeavor to keep this blog updated on a weekly basis, but to keep your finger on the Middleton Lakes pulse check out our RSPB Birmingham, Black Country and Warwickshire facebook page and follow us on Twitter @RSPBMiddleton. If you enjoy taking photos, we would love for you to add them to our Community page. To keep up to date with Middleton and other sightings in the valley check out the tame valley birding blog http://tamevalleybirding.blogspot.co.uk/