November Sightings + Mel's Mutterings

2 Dec 2022

Rye Meads News

As we're finally getting some winter weather, we're into the time of year of a lot of habitat management on the reserve. Regular visitors may have seen the floating reed cutter out on the Draper and Gadwall lagoons at the start of the month, as well as contractor machinery clearing some of the scrub along the paths. We're very grateful to a generous donation from the South East Herts RSPB Local Group for supporting the scrub clearance works - highlights of that include an additional way of viewing the Tern Lagoon, and the reed cutting at Draper which has created some deep channels and caused a big increase in Water Rail sightings!

At this time of year we raise the water table at the Draper Hide, which will remain high for the winter. This mimics natural fluctuations and helps to prevent freezing, but most importantly it maintains our priority habitat of the reedbed and the scrape. While it may seem counter-intuitive in the short term to have less shallows and islands for wading birds, it is actually very important to the long term maintenance of this habitat. Birds such as Lapwing, Sandpipers and Snipe rely on a healthy scrape for foraging. The most important areas are the margins - if they become too overgrown with plants then wader use declines rapidly as it becomes a lot more difficult for them to find food. So, in the winter we flood some of these areas in order to prevent larger plants from taking over.

Some bittersweet news for us this month too. The major highlight was the arrival of a juvenile Whooper Swan at the start of the month, which kept everyone entertained by constantly moving location over the three weeks it's been with us. Some of its behaviour was concerning us though, and last weekend it had moved into the wet meadow where it stayed for a few days before sadly passing away. Some of you may also know we have a deceased Mute Swan at the Gadwall Hide as well. We are obviously very concerned by these developments, given the well publicised increase in Avian Flu cases across the country. Unfortunately the process for Avian Flu means we are prohibited from moving either deceased swan, and we are not currently at the point where Avian Flu can be tested for on site by DEFRA, who have a 'minimum threshold' for callouts. Staff and volunteers at Rye Meads are monitoring as closely as we possibly can for any further developments, and we would of course ask all of our visitors and friends of the reserve to be vigilant as well. For more information on Avian Flu, we would recommend visiting the RSPB website, or Gov.uk website.

Putting that to one side for now though - its been another good month for bird sightings, and some brilliant photography from our visitors which has been shared on Twitter and on the "Friends of RSPB Rye Meads (new)" community Facebook group. Below is a section of those, but first, another set of Mel's Mutterings - which this month has been shared with me in a style that for some reason reminds me of the shipping forecast...

Mel's Mutterings

01/11 … boy did it rain for 10 minutes shocking even the ducks took cover & a Kingfisher flew into a hole in the bank, Grey & Pied wagtail still on the last of the mud at the Draper hide along with 5 Green Sandpiper … The focus of birds is on Lagoon 3 & from the Gadwall lagoon Lapwing, Gadwall, Teal & Shoveler are in good numbers along with single figures of Wigeon

02/11 …. Puddles too splash in around the reserve after some more rain 4 Egyptian geese were higher numbers than for a while Jay, Magpie & Carrion crow were Corvid species, some Redwing 2 Common gull from Gadwall lagoon an infrequent visitor some Meadow pipit movement with at least 8 flyovers

03/11 …. 3 Female Reed Bunting from Ashby hide were a nice find & calling Water rail. 20+ Long tailed tit around the reserve today with 12+ Blue tit & 2 Great tit, Kingfisher still calling & showing around Draper hide most days A bird perched on the Kestrel box by Lapwing hide was a.... Kestrel. A bird perched on the Barn owl box by Lapwing hide was a …. Buzzard

08/11 … Mild but damp for time of year Shoveler numbers along with Gadwall & Mute swan creeping up, 2 Common gulls were nice to see Cetti’s & Chiffchaff still calling more Redwings arriving with Blackbird also

09/11 …. At last, I managed to catch up with the Juvenile Whooper swan commuting between here & Amwell, Kestrel Red kite & Buzzard hunting 101 Lapwing from Gadwall hide today as were 17 Long tailed tit with a sprinkling of Great & Blue tit plus Chiffchaff still some Meadow pipit & Grey wagtail around

10/11 …. Whooper swan now on Tern lagoon Great spotted & Green woodpeckers, Common gull again Green Sandpiper & 2 Muntjac deer 1 at Warbler hide 1 at Draper …

22/11 …. Some nice sunshine on site today, the juvenile Whooper still, Shoveler numbers still rising Water rail heard daily it was a four (4) Gull Day Black headed, Common, Herring & Lesser black backed. Red kite & Sparrowhawk too, still numbers building of Redwing

23/11 …. Had my personal highest count of Black headed gull 278 today. Great view of a Goldcrest preening, Egyptian goose pair, Whooper still showing well Green Sandpiper still hearing & seeing Chiffchaff

24/11 … Grey wagtail, little egret, red kite & Kestrel with a Jay scouting for acorns along the path by the canal. Meadow Pipit passing through. There are plenty of Lapwing on site, tufted duck numbers rising a lovely female Chaffinch was feeding on the path with 2 Dunnock.

Mel Out!

Visitor Photos

There are still Bearded Tits on the reserve. The Rye Meads Ringing Group estimate that there could be as many as sixteen! Proving quite elusive for our visitors though, mostly heard rather than seen - but right at the start of the month we did have one lucky photographer, congrats Ruth! As mentioned, we're also getting a lot more sightings of Water Rail which hopefully will continue.

Female Bearded Tit - Ruth Watson

A less elusive than normal Water Rail - Lauren Kaliff

The signs of winter are finally here - even though they're with us all year round I've noticed a surge of Robin photos (you're obviously all in the christmas spirit already!). We've also had a huge influx of Redwing this month.

Jan Martin

Dave Newbold

Robert Kitchen

Redwing - Nick Weston

Redwing - Rose Newbold

Redwing - Steve Dimbleby

We're obviously incredibly sad to lose the Whooper Swan - as you can see it had plenty of character and we could have used dozens of photos.

Swimming Whooper Swan - Allan Burrows

Mooching about - Mike O'Hanlon

Coming in to land - Rose Newbold

This was actually the very first sighting on the reserve - congrats to Steve Liptrot!

Making friends with a Mute Swan - Stuart Fox

And for comparison, a Mute Swan - Dave Hughes

With some of the unseasonably (or maybe less unseasonable these days) warm weather, some of our winter migrants are a bit slow on the uptake! But we've still had some good winter wildfowl shots