September gets off to a promising start with no less than 3 marsh harriers patrolling the reserve today. Peregrine, kestrel and buzzard were also out hunting today.
Following on from last week's rain the water levels on the north brooks in particular are rather higher than we'd like. The waders are still out there, but without the muddy edges to the pools, they are a little trickier to spot amongst the vegetation. Patience should pay off though with greenshank, ruff, green sandpiper, black-tailed godwit and snipe all being seen today.
We'll be attempting to lower the water levels both to create the mud that is so alluring to those passing waders and to enable us to complete the essential habitat management work. The fields all need to be 'topped' (or mowed) to keep the vegetation under control - if the grass is too tall or the rush cover too extensive the conditions won't be so good for either our winter wildfowl (who will be on their way back to us) or our breeding waders next spring. If it is too boggy out there, it's rather tricky for our wardens to negotiate the brooks in the tractor (we really don't want them to get stuck in the mud!).
The hedgerows are busy with the smaller birds with redstart corner and adder alley being popular with a selection of spotted flycatchers, redstarts, a juvenile nightingale and several species of warbler.
One of the highlights of a stroll along adder alley.
Last chance to see...the swallows and martins. There are plenty about at the moment but I've been seeing them lined up along the telephone wires over the past week or so - a sure sign that they're gathering up ready to start their epic migration.