Young birds are all over the reserve now. The islands on the Main Lake and at Paddy's are full of Black-headed Gull chicks and the adults can be seen feeding them from the hides. Water Rails and Little Grebes can be seen feeding chicks from the Wildlife Watchpoint Hide and Young Tree Sparrows are attending the feeding stations. The young are easily told apart from the adults by the yellow sides to the mouth which helps them stimulate a feeding response from their parents if they beg hard enough. Lapwing chicks can be seen on the Fire Station Field and at Haverton Gate, or Havergate as I like to call it.
Some breeding birds are very secretive. Last year we were delighted when we saw 2 broods of Garganey ducklings from the Watchpoint Hide on the 27th June. There are only about 100 pairs of these birds in the UK, so this was significant.
Although male Garganey are such obvious birds with their huge white eye stripe, they are notorious for being difficult to find while nesting. The females sit tight on nests in sedge beds while the males visit open water, often several of them together. This morning, there were two males sleeping in front of the Phil Stead Hide and another two flying in and out of the water in front of the Watchpoint. At this stage, we can only speculate as to how many of these males have mates on nests.
Un-paired male birds sing much more than paired birds, desperately trying to attract a mate, and that is certainly the case with a Garden Warbler which moves up and down the Pedestrian Path all day. He's been here for a few weeks now, but alas, looks like he'll be unlucky in love this year.
The spring passage of birds is now much less evident although we still have a few birds moving through. We've had Little Stints, Whimbrel and Ruff this week, and 4 Mediterranean Gulls hung around on Paddy's Island on Monday and Tuesday. This morning our Residential volunteer Karen, was pleasantly surprised to see a Spoonbill in front of her as she opened the Phil Stead Hide shutters. This bird is moving around the reserve and could turn up anywhere.