A week of relatively settled weather with fairly cool calm conditions.
This week has seen a good increase in wildfowl numbers, today from reception; 112 gadwall, 12 pochard, 18 shoveler and nine tufted ducks. These ducks are busy pairing up and displaying making their interesting mating calls.
On Thursday a common chiffchaff was seen near the sluice, a female hen harrier flew over the meadows and a bittern was seen from Reception and Fen Hides. A Jack snipe was seen from Fen Hide on Wednesday with three common snipe, one of which was bobbing nicely.
Kingfishers were seen throughout the week from all three hides and along the river, hopefully they will be setting up their territories nearby this year.
The woodland is still holding a lot of common species including goldcrest, treecreeper, marsh tit, song thrush and bullfinch. Today there was also a redwing singing near to the office.
Otters have not been reported this week, but a couple of stoats have been entertaining visitors on and off along Sandy Wall. Chinese water deer have been seen and are very vocal in the evenings at present.
Many species of plant are beginning to flower throughout the reserve, these include snowdrops, primrose and lesser celandine, a marmalade hoverfly was seen guarding one of the latter in the woods on Sunday.
A period of Northerly airflow is forecast for the next week so we could see the spring like conditions reversing, it may increase the wildfowl numbers on the reserve though.
The paths are still quite muddy along the riverbank and Lackford Run due to a flooding event on Wednesday. The riverbank between the pumphouse and Sandy Wall is still being diverted through the meadows, the path conditions here are mainly ok, but there are some wet footdrains to cross so wellingtons are still recommended.