The hot weather has finally broken and now we have a slightly more autumnal feel to the weather (at least at the time of writing).
The great white egret has remained at Tower Hide all month, being joined by up to four more on occasions. Tower Hide has also boasted a decent wader list thanks to the earlier drought conditions exposing lots of mud; wood, green and common sandpiper, ruff, lapwing, ringed plover, common snipe, black tailed godwit, greenshank and redshank have all been seen taking advantage of the conditions. Water rails have been seen feeding around the edges of Tower Hide broad and on the water we have had two garganey, approximately 150 shoveler, 50 teal, 25 gadwall and a smaller number of mallard….all in eclipse plumage of course!
Red kites remain visible over the meadows, Buckenham and Cantley, with up to eight being seen together. Other regulars include marsh harriers and kingfishers, but very few bittern sightings. Otters have also been seen infrequently, with one at Reception hide on Wednesday morning and another (or the same individual) giving itself away by a collection of pike heads along the riverbank!
The woodland is starting to see some fairly large tit flocks forming along with spotted flycatchers popping up in a few locations throughout the wood. Warblers are showing some signs of migration too, with Thursday having a mini fall of chiffchaffs, willow warblers and blackcaps across the reserve. The cooler conditions on Friday morning saw a steady movement of swallows and house martins heading south over the reedbed.
Buckenham has been attracting a decent number of passage waders this week, peaks include 30 snipe, 2 wood sandpiper, 8 green sandpiper, 2 common sandpiper, 8 dunlin, 13 ruff, 30 lapwing as well as 3 whinchat throughout the week.
All trails are open and in good condition. There is however a diversion on the meadow trail, so the first meadow is accessible and the new ramp onto Sandy Wall is now open so a short circuit can be made, this ramp will enable us to graze one of the meadows without having to completely close the trail and was built thanks to funding from Sports England.
We are entering the final few weeks of the school summer holiday, which usually means that migration will be in full swing, who knows what will turn up next?