This week we have been mostly learning what 'semipalmated' means, as it doesn't normally come up in conversation, but we've had a rare North American semipalmated sandpiper visiting the scrape. Semipalmated refers to the 'webbing' between the bird's toes, as most waders don't have webbed feet. Normally semipalmated sandpipers breed in Alaska and Canada where the males incubate and raise the young, and make a 4000 mile migration to the northern shores of South America, this juvenile bird has accidentally flown 4000 miles in the wrong direction, just like the local American golden plover at Hazelwood marshes and an adult semipalmated sandpiper that has been seen around the north Norfolk coast. This bird was last seen on Thursday and has yet to be relocated. Photo by John Broughton and Marion Allin.
Another much larger migrant to visit was an osprey making it's long journey to Africa, which was spotted this morning flying over the North Wall heading west, it could also be the same bird that has been spotted at Hen Reedbeds this afternoon. The Blyth estuary is a good spot to watch for ospreys making rest stops during late summer, and we've had them fishing at Island Mere in the past. Other birds visiting this week have been three great white egrets enjoying the pools behind South Hide and Wildlife Lookout, and the cut in the reeds along the North Hide. We also had a brief visit by a black tern, a spotted flycatcher in the North Bushes and a wood warbler in the bushes behind East Hide. Osprey by Christine Hall.
At Island Mere on Friday some visitors were lucky enough to see a pair of otter cubs swimming with their mother, whilst on the pond a pair of baby water voles have been seen feeding with their parents. Although difficult to spot in the pond, look for the tell-tale ripples and listen for the crunching of reeds as they feed. We've also seen a lot of dragonfly activity around the pond and the visitor centre buddleias: emperor and ruddy darter dragonflies in particular, and willow emerald damselfies. Hornet by Ian Barthorpe.
Also on the insect front some hornets have made a nest in the North Hide, and whilst these large wasps are gentle giants, they can have a nasty sting if provoked, so we've cordoned off an area to give them some peace and quiet. Our bee wolves, pantaloon bees and green eyed flower bees have now closed their burrows for another year and we hope to see them all again next summer. There are still digger wasps active around the North Wall, including some white-spotted spider hunting wasps that have been catching orb spiders.
On the scrape more than 200 avocets remain, with more than 50 black tailed godwits, snipe, spotted redshanks, redshanks, greenshanks, knot, dunlin, ruff, green sandpiper, wood sandpiper, common sandpiper, whimbrel, curlew and lapwing. Yellow wagtails, little gulls, common gulls, Sandwich terns and common terns are also still around, but most will start to leave the reserve as the autumn migration starts in earnest.
A notice to visitors that next Wednesday and Thursday we'll be starting our work to prepare the reserve for winter, which will include clearing vegetation from the scrape islands and edges to make more room for our winter migrants and to improve views of the birds from the hides. Whenever we do work we know there is the risk of disturbing the wildlife, so we restrict activity to one part of the scrape at a time so that the birds will simply move to another part of the scrape and continue feeding. Be sure to check with our reception team when you visit on those days and they can direct you to the best hides.