It has been a wee while since the last sightings blog! There is the obvious sense of change in the air and I get I get a bit giddy thinking about the approaching spring and migration and waders and butterflies! My first butterfly of the year was a small tortoiseshell. Other people have seen peacock butterflies too on sunny days.
Migration is certainly happening with chiffchaffs proudly chiff-chaffing away in the woodland and along the tree lined part of the river bank. Sand martins are flying through, stopping to feed on their migration and we have had a wheatear and an LRP touch down in recent weeks. Plenty more of these to come!
Waders are trickling in, in ones and twos – alough 8 black-tailed godwits flew in after heavy rain last Friday. Before and after heavy showers can be quite profitable for interesting birds forced down in the weather. Dunlin, green sandpiper, ruff, oystercatchers, snipe, redshank, ringed plover and lapwing are all a possibility on jubilee and the north pit. The latter 3 performing territorial displays and trying to woo their females! The resident wildfowl are defiantly paired up to a certain extent, searching them can still result in the occasional pintail – a couple of dapper males were on jubilee last week – goosanders and goldeneyes are still present. It wont be long until we say farewell to our wintering ducks as they fly north and east to their breeding grounds.
Our colonial nesters - gulls, rooks and herons – are perhaps the most raucous residents at the moment! The gull colonies across the site are spread between Dosthill (the main colony), Fisher’s mill and the North Pit. They divide opinion but I really enjoy having the gulls and are one of my signs of spring when they start establishing territories. Finger’s crossed the colony pull in another pair of Mediterranean gulls, which bred last year but failed to fledge any chicks. March and April are good times to spot wandering Med gulls.
A few more lesser redpoll have been visiting the feeders, including a very pink male. It’s really pleasant at the moment to stand on the heronry and watch the hive of bird activity on the feeders, the comings and goings of the heron and listen to the explosive call of the cetti’s warbler. If you stand on the heronry boardwalk on an evening or venture down to the silt pool view then we have acquired a mini starling mumuration after a pretty hit-or-miss winter for them. About a 1000 came in last week which increased to over 3000.
As someone who does a lot of looking in the sky for ‘things with wings’ (I am definitely have an affinity for birds/butterflies/dragonflies/moths) I often forget to appreciate the creatures which spend their life on the ground. I nearly squished a poor great-crested newt when I was wandering around this morning (I was too busy watching a pair of buzzards mewing above my head)
It’s during March and April that adult newts venture to ponds to breed. Active at night, the males perform an elaborate courtship display, of which you can witness from the heronry boardwalk. Continuing looking through the leaf litter after my newt encounter, I also discovered another nocturnal critter – a grey-shoulder knot. One of the early emerging moths, flying in February-April. Won’t be long until the moth trap is full again!