Hello All
I managed to get out on the reserve yesterday to carry out a count and see what goodies the spring migration has bought in and i was not disappointed. Which was good especially as i had missed the 2 Common Crane that stopped off in the meadow for an hour over the weekend and took off over the car park! A great tick for the reserve.
Any way back to yesterday, i spent just over an hour in the Drpaer hide and managed to knock up 37 species with 2 more just outside the hide, with the highlights being a Ringed plover dropping in for about 15 min before heading off again, my first Rye Meads Hobby of the year, Cuckoo sitting in a willow and calling before flying across to the meadow, a Skylark singing over the meadow to the right of the hide and anothe first for the year as 2 Common Tern came in. Just outside the hide i also recorded Willow Warbler and had great views of Lesser whitethroat calling from the top of a bush near the 5 bar gate.
Species seen from the Draper:- Blackcap, Moorhen, Whitethroat, Wren, Gadwall 34, Tufted duck 24, Black headed gull 77, Herring gull 2 (are these going to be a new breeder for us?), Canada goose, Coot, Lapwing displaying, Woodpigeon, Crow, Common Tern, Mallard, Magpie, Stock Dove, Pochard 5, Blue tit, Robin, Buzzard 2, Heron, Swallow, Lesser black back gull, Little grebe 4, Cettis Warbler, Cormorant, Greylag Goose 2, Skylark, Cuckoo, Blackbird, Ringed Plover, Shelduck, Chiff chaff, Sedge warbler, Great tit, Hobby and Willow warbler.
Note :- Today visitors reported Turtle Dove and Sandwich Tern from the Draper, so all the time things are moving through. What will be next!
Beyond the Draper hide i added my first Rye Meads Reed Warbler of the year along the Lee marsh hotly followed by Garden warbler showing well in the bushes between the lagoon hides. So that is all the expected warblers accounted for, fingers crossed for something unusual to join them, may be a Marsh Warbler! So a respectable total of 47 for a couple hours work, not bad at all!.
The Black headed gulls are making their presence felt with birds all over the site ( i counted 166+ yesterday) and nesting spreading beyond the rafts, to include the loafing rafts and island from the gadwall hide. We added the island a few years ago in the hope that the gulls would use it instead of the rafts but they took no interest in nesting on it until this year. Sadly the number of Common terns that have returned this year is very low, so far! Hopefully thay are just a bit late. Despite the increase in numbers of Black headed gulls there is still space for the Terns to nest around the gulls and although the gulls are using the new style raft (which we only put out last week in the hope of limiting gull use) to loaf on only a few are actually building nests. One of our regular visitors reported 4 Common Terns today which is the most i am aware of! very sad!
Black headed gull by Keith Bedford
Also today a Peregrine obligingly sat on the pylon in the meadow for a while offering the volunteer work party and plenty of visitors a good view. A Sparrowhawk swooped past me very close today, i had clearly walked in to its hunting trajectory as i passed the entrance to the meadow, a great sighting. Hobby numbers are building with 4 over the lagoons this afternoon, won't be long now before we get in to double digits.
Despite all this migration action Kingfishers are still the hot topic. The pair at the kingfisher hide have been showing really well this week and are coming back regularly with food for their growing brood. Today the male was even investigating a new burrow (far right on middle row) in preperation for the second brood and was sitting out on the perches for prolonged spells, so all the visitors were really happy with their views, a number saying they were the best ever. For those of you who follow the forum you will have noticed there have been lots of entries recently on this topic and we are often getting queries via phone or from visitors. Because of the popularity of the kingfishers lots of people want to come and view them for different reasons and this can cause problems not least because of the limited space in the hide so we have always asked visitors to respect each other by taking turns with sitting if the benches are full, not taking up extra space with bags on benches next to you, keeping nosie at a low level, not to wave arms etc out of the windows, all common sense hide etiquet rules. We also do not allow the use of taped calls to lure birds (males defending territory) in , this is against the law especially as the hide is at a nest site. Disturbing any Schedule 1 bird at its nest site is against the law. So please keep all of this in mind when you come to enjoy the kingfisher spectacle at Rye Meads and eveyone should have an enjoyable time. There has also been questions about the new nesting bank at the Draper hide and the possability of a new hide near to it. At this time it is only a possibility as we have to obtain all the appropriate permissions before we can consider erecting a new hide. If this all gets approved and we proceed with this hide it will not be open to all generally, there will be a charge for its use, you will have to book in advance and numbers will be limited due to its location. We have been in discussion with a couple of photographers about its location and what it may be able to offer visitors. If anything changes with this i will let you know via the blog.
In other news at the kingfisher hide the Kestrels are nesting in the box on the pylon and the male has been seen bringing the female food, which she takes away to eat and he takes a short turn incubating the eggs. Sadly yesterday visitors witnessed magpies picking off young water voles. The water vole population at Rye Meads has been increasing in recent years and this has been most noticable by the now regular sightings of water vole at the kingfisher hide as they have spread to that area of the reserve.
Birds i have seen over the last couple of days:- Little grebe, mute swan, canaga goose, greylag goose, shelduck, morhen, coot, mallard, gadwall, pochard, tufted duck, grey heron, lapwing, ringed lover, herring gull, black headed gull, lesser black back gull, common tern, pied wagtail, pheasant, kingfisher, cuckoo, hobby, buzzard, kestrel, sparrowhawk, peregrine, swallow, reed warbler, sedge warbler, willow warbler, garden warbler, cettis warbler, chiff chaff, blackcap, white throat and lesser white throat, skylark, wren, robin, dunnock, black bird, song thrush, blue tit, great tit, chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch, reed bunting, collard dove, stock dove, woodpidgeon, jay, crow, magpie
Thanks
vicky