Hello All
To start with we have kingfisher news! The kingfishers have fledged their second brood yesterday! Five young were seen leaving the bank and hanging around the pool, while the adults were kept busy bringing fish in, excellent. Over the past few weeks the adults have also been mating and clearing out another hole ready for a third brood so we are just waiting for them to start incubating (fingers crossed).
Garganey by Simon Hummerstone
Meanwhile, the Draper hide has also been performing well with a few migrants on the move. Over the weekend 3 garganey were loafing with 2 still about today, yetserday 13 black tailed godwit were hanging out on the scrape too, a nice treat. Also present little egret, kingfisher, 6 green sandpipers and a variety of loafing ducks and duck broods including the late breeding tufted duck. The scrape is also home to a good chunk of the 400+ black headed gull chicks fledged from site this year, providing a vocal and visual spectacle.
Brown hawker and black tailed skimmer along with the odd empereor are buzzing around site in good numbers, while ringlets have emerged in the meadows along trails enjoying this burst of hot weather.
In other good news the common terns have done well this year with 25 pairs on the rafts and a further 2 on the draper scrape so a great season for them and some cute chicks for us to enjoy.
The weekend provided another great experience for one of our visitors, Chinara Cjumanalieva, who was lucky enough to see and photograph a juvenile cuckoo being fed by its diminutive foster parent. Great news that we have successful breeding cuckoo on site.
Thanks
vicky