After spending a day digging up soil samples and counting earth worms, I thought I’d go and investigate what was happening around the area of the first reedbed viewing screen. This is currently a hot bed of wildlife activity and I wasn’t let down. On the trail up to the screen there were hundreds of darter dragonflies, with a few hawkers mixed in with them, a curlew called from somewhere in the Big Otmoor field and a couple of kestrels were hovering over Greenaways. A loud munching sound greeted me as I got near to the viewing screen, rather than it being a hungry volunteer it turned out to be a wasp chewing on the reed, presumably collecting it up for nesting material. There were 3 or 4 of them eating the viewing screen so I guess they are making the most of it before the screens are replaced in the new year.
I found 2 grass snakes near the screen and saw 2 common lizards on the lounging area, I’d only seen single ones before so it was good seeing these 2 young ones enjoying the sunshine.
Looking out from the screen there were good numbers of teal and also at least 6 green sandpipers. There may well have been more lurking out of sight and they seem to be appreciating the shallow muddy feeding area. Hopefully we’ll get a few more waders turning up during this autumn migration period so keep an eye on this area. I took this not very good photo through my binoculars, see if you can spot the 4 green sandpipers in it...