Hello again
As the volunteers were meeting up in the compound next to the visitor centre and gathering tools for the work party yesterday i was distracted by a large moth flying past fortunatly it landed on the fence and i was able to get a picture and identify it.
This lovely moth is a red underwing. I have read up on them in my trusty Waring, Townsend and Lewington and found that it does not often come to light traps but more often to sugar and can sometimes found to rest on wall by day as was the case with this one. It stayed all day on the fence and i was able to come back in the afternoon and get some pictures as it flew under the eaves of the visitor centre and fortunatly rested with is wings open so we could view its lovely red underwing.
The work party was busy yesterday cutting the vegetation in front of the tern and gadwall hides as well as weeding the island in front of the gadwall hide to aid with viewing over the lagoon as we lower the water level to expose more islands and attract passing migrants. Unfortunatly that also meant that we flushed all the birds but i was a ble to count 26 snipe as they flew off so that is good numbers and the ruddy shelduck flew round and landed while we were still working out there. Snipe numbers have been counted as in the 40's today so even better.
The HMWT are having some work done on the corral on the meadow to aid them in their handling of the water buffalo and konicks this will be progressing over the next week. The farmer also came in this week to remove some of the buffalo including the mothers and calves. So sorry if you missed them they are very cute.
The Kingfishers are still confusing us!! Monday is 26 days after hatching (fledging occurs 26-31 days after hatching) so next week is likely to be key to see if any fledging occurs. Unfortunatly from the behaviour we are seeing it is still very hard to work out what is happening. The female has not been seen for a long time, so has she been predated? If the brood has failed entirely why is the male still entering and remaining in the burrow? Is he brooding the young as the weather has turned cold this last week? If the brood had failed completly there would be no reason for the adults to be entering the bank they would be off feeding themselves, so lots of questions. We have also had lots of reports from visitors ie the female was taken by a sparrow hawk, great spotted woodpeckers have taken the brood, a couple of days a go it was reported that the male was out side the bank darted in to the burrow closely followed by a magpie that perched outside the hole with it's head in the burrow then flew off and the male stayed in the hole. Does this mean there are still young in there that the magpie was trying to eat and the male protected them? Questions Questions Questions. Lets hope that this coming week can provide some answers!
Thanks
Vicky