Rye Meads Sightings Blog – November

November was definitely the month of the Starling murmuration. If you follow us on social media, you will have seen that we got quite excited over them with as many as 7,000 (estimated) thought to have joined the party. It started towards the end of October as we saw an increase in Starlings congregating on the pylon in the car park. It very quickly built and you could almost set your watch to them as the first ones arrived at around 3.50pm. Once the numbers had built to a level that they deemed adequate they would all leave the pylon and head over the Lapwing meadow. They would do a little display over the meadow and then they’d head over to the Draper where the water level was a lot higher than usual due to the Truxor work that was being done. After doing a couple of passes they would get lower and lower and then drop into the reed bed at the back of Draper all together. If you’ve seen a murmuration then you know that it is almost like a well oiled machine or the Red Arrows as they dart and turn effortlessly, creating incredible shapes and patterns and we all felt incredibly lucky to be able to experience it.

The murmurations weren’t to last though. By the last week of November the numbers started dwindling and it was on 23^rd November that we had our last ‘proper’ murmuration. They gathered as they had every other night on the car park pylon and then flew off towards the sewage works instead of the Draper hide, never to mumurate (if that’s the right word) over the Lapwing meadow again (well, hopefully until next year). We were, however, treated with a very special sight instead… A Barn Owl! As one of our volunteers was doing the closing walk around the reserve, they stopped and had a look over the Lapwing meadow from the first boardwalk and they were greeted with the haunting sight of a Barn Owl gracefully flying over the meadow. After getting back to the Visitor Centre, they went out to the Lapwing hide with our Site Manager and they managed to catch another glimpse of it. It was seen again on Thursday 28^th November so we hoped that it may stick around, but it hasn’t been seen since so we aren’t sure where it may have gone to, but as the saying goes ‘it’s better to have Barn Owl’d and lost than to have never Barn Owl’d at all’.

On top of the mumurations and Barn Owls, November threw a few (welcome) surprises our way in the form of Meadow Pipits, a Shrew, a Great White Egret, a Stoat, and a Pintail. The Meadow Pipits were seen in the Lapwing meadow by the Wildlife Trust team who were completing a Water Vole survey at the time. The Shrew and the Stoat were seen at the Draper dipping pond and the Great White Egret was spotted flying over the Lapwing meadow, not stopping around as long as it had earlier in the year. The Pintail was seen early in the month on 5^th, 6^th and 7^th November at the Gadwall hide, but it doesn’t seem to have come back since. We also had another welcome visitor in the Marsh Harrier which returned to the reserve but was this time seen from the Gadwall hide. Also seen from the Gadwall hide was a Mediterranean Gull, although that only stayed for one day before seeking pastures (or scrapes) new. Strangely, we had one reporting of a Peacock butterfly in the middle of the month in the car park by the bike racks.

There was a continued presence of Water Rails around the reserve, with them being heard or seen ever week of November and almost every other day (as a side note, if you haven’t heard a Water Rail, go and have a listen now. It is a very strange noise). The tit flocks around the reserve were also spotted very regularly and they often had a little Goldcrest among them, so if you ever see a flock of Long Tailed tits, look carefully as you might the flash of yellow that gives the Goldcrest away.

In the middle of November we were really lucky because the Rye Meads Ringing Group happened to catch a Jack Snipe and brought it across to show a few lucky visitors what they look like. Whilst relatively similar to Snipe, Jack Snipe are best described as ‘smaller and more compact than Snipe’ (RSPB Handbook of British Birds – Fourth Edition). Their beak is a lot shorter and they are a lot more secretive as well, they often only come out in the early morning or dusk and will often freeze rather than fly away if they’re disturbed.

Finally, we come to the bird we’re sure a few people have been waiting for… The Kingfisher. Have they been seen? Where have they been seen? The good news is, there has been a healthy amount of sightings of them over November with 14 reported sightings over the month. Where they have been seen is a bit more of a difficult question to answer as they are still being seen all of the place. Draper and Gadwall seem to be the joint top for where people are seeing them, but they have also been spotted at Ashby and the Kingfisher hub, so as with most birding, there’s a lot of luck involved. Although, who needs Kingfishers when you’ve got a whole host of other species to keep you entertained…

Now onto the part you’ve all been waiting for, the leader table of sightings for November. Who will be the top? Will the Gadwall stay at the top or will we have a new leader? Below is the leaderboard for the average number of species seen per report:

So Starlings are at the top, however, there is an Asterix because the number of sightings wasn’t accurate, so whilst we have included it, we have crowned Lapwing as the top.

We hope you enjoyed Novembers update and if there is anything you would like us to change or include, make sure you let us know.

The Rye Meads team.