During June at Saltholme there is a very good chance you will see baby birds, various species have been breeding over the months and recently we have (and are) seeing baby birds fledging from the nests. As you walk around the reserve especially around the wildlife watch point hide you might find young birds sitting on the ground or hopping about waiting to be fed by their parents. The parent birds which at the moment you can see are starlings,blue tits and sparrows – they are continuously bringing back flies and caterpillars to feed their young. These birds are being watched by their parents and shouldn’t be touched if you see one on the floor it should be left alone. Young birds as I’ve mentioned are leaving the nest’s fully feathered but still not able to feed by themselves and fly away from people.
At the other side of the reserve in the lakes and pools there have been ducklings and goslings. Ducks and geese nest in natural water’s edge nests and after a few days they can take the chicks onto the water to feed. Within the first few days when they leave the nests they develop a special built in feature that allows them to rear there young in a different way to how a nest box bird rears their young. The chick will begin to react to its own parent after a day or two days from hatching. Once it knows its parent it will remember who it is when the groups of birds meet on the water. The knowledge it learns is remembered for life, Imprinting is behaviour which allows the chick to learn survival skills such as feeding, avoiding predators and migrating from place to place. I saw mallard ducklings from paddy’s pool hide. The Canada geese all over the reserve are raising goslings, they grow very quickly.
- Josh McGowan