Shall I take a jacket or not? Too warm for a coat but it might rain; isn’t it frustrating? However, Nature doesn’t care and the flora, particularly, loves this type of weather. This is clearly demonstrated along Canal Meadow where a butterfly and bee seed mix was planted in the spring.

(photo by Pam Dalley)

We did a bumblebee survey yesterday afternoon and, no, we didn’t get wet. We managed to record 6…

There’s me thinking it would be a quiet Friday afternoon, winding down for the weekend, when one phone call later I am running up to Jubilee wetlands to see a cracking adult white-winged black tern! It was still present at about 4.30pm. It is rather mobile, but hasn’t moved beyond the jubilee area. At times it was flying rather close to the benches which are up the river side of Jubilee. Fingers crossed it stays…

The avocet families are growing at pace. The 1^st 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 2^nd pair have 2 chicks wandering around on the North still, although they can be…

It’s been fantastic walking round and seeing the rewards of all the work that has been done round the reserve; the islands on the Wetlands providing a haven for many breeding birds, the highlight being the avocets. I know this picture is out of date now but it was lovely to see the avocet parents with the four chicks.  The chicks are still going strong and are quite big now.

Avocets and chicks by Stephen Wrig…

The reserve is brimming with the sound of young birds at the moment. Whether it be the first fledgling robins or song thrushes which are now independent of their parents who are busy with a 2^nd brood. Or the high pitched chattery peeps of a family of long-tailed tits as the youngsters learn how to forage for tiny insects by hanging upside down on oak leaves; there is a lot of life on site. The black-headed gull colon…

We are still steady away with the comings and goings of migrants to Middleton. We have added 2 new wader species to the year list – a wood sandpiper stayed around from the 11^th-16^th and 2 sanderling were running around on Jubilee on the 12^th. The 12^th saw a bit of wader passage that day, as we had 29+ringed plover, 11+ dunlin + greenshank drop in after heavy rain showers. There are still 20+ ringed plovers using…

Still no luck with the otter but how artistic is this picture. I love the negative effect of the heron with the detailed reflection in the water.

I’d been scrambling through the undergrowth setting the motion camera up and was walking back to the office when I found this caterpillar on my neck!!!!

I believe it’s a type of hawkmoth.  I don't mind caterpillars but definitely don't want them down my neck…

My last sightings blog was called it’s all kicking off, and the weekend of the 18^th April, it kind of did when 2 black-winged stilts paid a visit! See our twitter feed for some great photos. These long legged lovlies stayed all day, feeding merrily around the jubilee wetland edge. They are so unbelievable to look at with those long legs! It was very exciting and the reserve was buzzing as this was the first record…

Is it winter or is it spring? With the temperatures dropping again it feels like winter again with winds whipping across the wetlands. However, you look in the woodlands and realise that spring is here: the colour over the woodland floor looks amazing with the blue of the bluebells, the yellow of the lesser celandine and the ramsons are just bursting out.

Wherever you go round the reserve you can hear the calls of…

Seems like the summer migrant plug has been pulled this week! Every time I go out on site there has been a new warbler singing from a different corner of the reserve or more hirundines hawking over the wetlands. House martins, sand martins and swallows are all daily occurrences and surely it won’t be long before the first swifts make an appearance. If you drive down our access track and look at the old quarry yard, the…

The great spotted woodpecker drumming is a common sound here, it’s loud and resonates around the woods. But at the moment, it isn’t the only woodpecker tapping out there. There is a rapid but weaker drumming sound which seems to stop suddenly rather than peter out. This is the lesser-spotted woodpecker. And last week, just as we finished our breeding bird survey, this quieter, abrupt drumming sound coupled…

Once again, I got over excited when I saw how many photos there were on the camera card and, once again, I was disappointed not to find an otter. However, I did capture pheasant, blackbird, dunnock, rabbit, deer, badger:

and the, inevitable, squirrel.

There were shots of male and female blackbirds collecting nesting material, which was nice to see. The female was amazingly camouflaged even with a bill full of…

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…

Well I'm still struggling to find that elusive otter!!  I'm sure he sees me setting up the camera and then avoids that area.  I got very excited when I went and changed the camera card a few days ago and there were over 150 pictures covering 48 hours.  I thought I was going to see a lot of different wildlife but, no, it was nearly all of ONE muntjac deer who decided she was going to model for the camera.  She was obviously…

One thing I like about working at Middleton, is that you are never far away from a wildlife encounter. While I am writing today, I can hear a pair of kingfishers on the moat by the office. They have been a great thing to watch this week as they zoom up and down chasing each other, perching in the over-hanging yews to fish, oblivious to the people who stop to watch them. Aren’t birds brilliant!

Other brilliant birds…

What a lovely couple of days we’ve had with some real heat in the sunshine. It’s lovely to see all the new growth pushing through the leaf litter in the woods and to hear the birds “twitterpating” (from Bambi, for those who’ve not seen it).

It never ceases to amaze me as to how some creatures survive over winter. I found this caterpillar attached to the underside of a piece of garden fleece…

The volunteers went out to count all that paddles, dives and dabbles on the wetlands for the month Webs count. Duck numbers are lower than average at the moment and spread out across the site. Probably due to the recent freezes and low water levels at present. Increasing numbers of Gadwall and Mallard. They have started to pair up; the mallards sneaking off looking for potential nest sites. The scores on the doors were…

Happy Monday! Not a usual sightings blog, but filling you in one some recent comings and goings on the reserve.

Starting with the koniks. You may (or maybe not) have noticed our herd of konik ponies has decreased in number. Five of the boys have headed up to the RSPB reserve at Loch of Strathbeg in Aberdeenshire to join their large herd of konik ponies (23 of them).  Here they are looking out onto their new 100ha grazing…

What has been about this week?

Out on the wetlands, it has been fairly quiet with the water being frozen on some days. The usual teal, shoveler, mallard, gadwall, goldeneye, tufted ducks, great-crested grebes and shelducks are spread out between Fisher’s mill, Jubilee and the North pit. Goosanders have been seen cruising up and down the river. 3 oystercatchers have been spending their time between Dosthill and…

The weather has been so changeable this week with it feeling rather balmy and spring like on Tuesday to the snowy infused wind gusts of Thursday. The wildlife doesn’t know whether to sing for territory or fight over scraps of frozen food!

When it has felt more Spring like, the impact on the birds is quite obvious with singing from the mistle thrushes and song thrushes around the car park. Plus the grey herons in…

It was a beautiful icy morning while we were out doing our monthly WeBS count on Monday. A quiet count with the full scores being....

Little Grebe:- 1

GC Grebe:- 4

Cormorant:- 11

Little Egret:- 3

Grey Heron:- 5

Mute Swan:- 13

GLGoose:- 2

Canada Goose:- 3

Shelduck:- 10

Wigeon:- 9

Gadwall:- 13

Teal:- 242

Mallard:- 65

Shoveler:- 19

Pochard:- 1

Tufted duck:- 71

Goldeneye:- 2

Water rail:- 3

Moorhen:- 19

I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year.  I can't believe how quickly the holiday season comes and goes! One minute it's all panic - "need to get this", "need to do that" - then you blink and it's gone. Still, I do remember enjoying it.  It's a lovely family time.

I was on a First Aid Course last week, which was great fun as well as being educational, back in the office today…

This year has been a very good year for small mammals providing a good food source for owls and raptors.  Field voles, bank voles, harvest mice and wood mice are just some of the items on the menu on this reserve. The small mammals like long, tussocky grass to run around in and we have plenty of that around the wetlands and the bund.

There are various barn and tawny owl boxes around the reserve some of which have been…

For those of you wondering what I am on about, a congregation is a collective noun for our bird of the month, the Golden plover! (It could also have been a wing of Golden plovers, but I prefer congregation).

So why all the chat about Golden plovers! Well, there has been a sizeable flock of over 800 birds using the wetlands recently and it really is a spectacular sight when they all rise up in the air as one, especially…