Hello All
Well what a lovely weekend we had, i hope you managed to get out and enjoy the sunshine. Many of you managed to come down and see us with over 200 visitors on sunday who were rewarded not just with beautiful sunshine but a kingfisher show as well, with the pair mating outside the bank. This breeding activity continued on Monday with the pair active around the nest bank with things turning more amourous in the afternoon as the male brought the female fish and mating occured on the main post in the pool, observed not just by those in the hide but also a visitor centre full of visitors, staff and volunters who were all enjoying the spectacle! Once the clutch of 6 or 7 eggs has been laid the pair will share incubation for 19-21 days, this is generally a quiet period activity wise as sightings are few and brief as the pair change over incubation duties. Activity picks up again once the chicks hatch and feeding is carried out by both birds with fish being bought more often as the chicks grow offering good views once again. The chicks will fledge at 24-25 days old, although this can increase up to 37 days if fish supply is poor. The adults will spread the young around their territory and only feed them for 4-5 days before driving the young out of thier territory and starting on another brood and with such an early start to the breeding season we should easily fit in the usual 3 broods this year.
Blackthorn in blossom at Rye Meads 17 march 2014
The spring migration has started with waders on the move and taking advantage of the scrape areas on site both the freshly landscaped Draper and the currently exposed islands from the Gadwall hide with 3 snipe lurking in the edge of the reeds (so there was proabbly more hiding!) a green sandpiper, 18 lapwing and 2 redshank on Monday, Tuesday the Redshank had moved to the Draper for a bit. Over the weekend there was also the addition of 2 oystercatchers and a fly over curlew. A male Garganey also arrived on site on sunday visible from the Gadwall hide, he was again spotted Monday morning but sadly by the time i went out in the afternoon there was no sign. That is not to say he has moved on he could just be lurking, we have been fortunate in the past that garganey have stayed with us for some time. Tuesday morning i was rewarded with my first sand martin sightings of the year, hurrah! with 2 flying ove the lagoons, so my eyes and ears are peeled for the next visitor, i think it will be sedge warbler. The Black headed gulls continue to be very vocal around on the nesting rafts visible from the Tern hide with 88 individuals from that hide alone on monday with a further 89 on from the gadwall hide and we await the return of the Common Terns in April.
Exposed islands from the Gadwall hide
Other sightings from Monday and tuesday include little egret, grey heron, teal, gadwall, tufted duck, pochard, mallard, shoveler, shelduck, canada geese, greylag goose, mute swan, coot, morhen, common gull, lesser black back gull, little grebe, pied wagtail, buzzard, kestrel, sparrow hawk, stock dove, wood pigeon, collard dove, great spotted wood pecker, green woodpecker, robin, wren, dunnock, chaffinch, bullfinch, reed bunting, great tit, long tailed tit, black bird, song thrush, chiff chaff, cettis warbler, crow, mapgpie, pheasant and starling
Thanks
Vicky