The children back at/starting school, leaves starting to fall off trees, the nights drawing in; you can tell that Autumn is on the way. Another sign that autumn is soon upon us is the increasing number of migrants dropping in at the reserve as they make their way to their wintering grounds.
With the River Tame acting as the bird equivalent of the M1 motorway, Middleton Lakes makes a great pit stop for the weary travelers.
The Wetlands have seen good numbers of migrating waders. Three juvenile Curlew sandpiper dropped in on the 4th September alongside the similar looking dunlin. A lot of the dunlin are still distinguishable by their black bellied summer plumage.
Also in the wetlands have been ruff, little stint, a juvenile spotted redshank, greenshank and godwits. Other wetland migrants have included three garganey and numerous hobbies hunting the profusion of dragonflies about.
The electric fence has been a great vantage point for whinchat, stonechat and wheatear, which has given some great photographic opportunities.
Along the hedgerows good views have been had of redstart and spotted flycatcher. Both birds are completely different in appearance; male redstarts having bright orange bellies and black face, whereas the spotted flycatcher are more of a LBJ (Little Brown Job); but still very nice to see.
A highlight for the end of August was the brief visit of a cattle egret. Living up to its name, it was found feeding around the cattle in the Jubilee Wetlands. This rare (in these parts) egret is similar to our regular little egret. It is slightly smaller and has a yellow bill, rather than the black bill of its larger cousin and has yellowy, grey legs instead of black ones.
Why is it called a cattle egret? (photo courtesy of Ken Rogers)
Lots of our summer warblers, as well as numerous visitors, including myself, have been filling themselves up with blackberries and other ripe berries. Whitethroats and lesser whitethroats, blackcaps, sedge warblers, willow warblers and chiffchaff have filled the hedgerows along the woodland and Canal Meadow. A number of the adults have begun their long journey and many of the remaining birds are this years juveniles.
Other wildlife sightings on the reserve include:
So what are we going to see 'dropping in' over the next few weeks? Unlike Fergus, I'm not going to try and make some rash prediction about some rare bird species ;-)
We should see larger numbers of waterfowl on the pools, ready to spend their winter with us; shoveler, teal, wigeon, goosander as well as a few pintail and goldeneye and maybe even a smew or two. There will also be Increased numbers of geese and swans (possibly some whooper later on?). On the wader front, the large number of snipe (up to 12 recorded) may increase and will soon be joined by their jack snipe cousins from up north. Further migrants could include turnstone, whimbrel and wood sandpiper. Keep an eye out on the telephone wires for large groups of swallows and house martins perching before they set off southwards.
The great thing about this time of year is that each time you visit you don't know what could have dropped in!!
Luckily the scarecrows are not doing a good job of keeping the birds away! (photo by Richard Hancy)