We are now letting some saline water onto our large saline lagoon, which has made a huge difference to the look and feel of it. The continuing tidal influx will bring in food and there are increasing numbers of wintering waders and waterfowl on here and on Jubilee Marsh. Lapwings, golden plover, dunlin, redshank, shelduck, teal and wigeon are all in large numbers with smaller numbers of grey plover seen. There are few Brent geese around but this is in line with the low numbers of juveniles this year across England.
Hunting over the top of our wetlands we now have three hen harriers and at least two short eared owls along with the regular kestrels.
The sediments on Jubilee Marsh are increasing all the time and the mud is now starting to have a proper ‘mudflat look’ about it. With the sediment comes the food and we have seen fish (probably gobies) and a crab within the water. Whilst the egrets are pottering around the edges of the channels, a kingfisher has made its regular perch on top of the tidal flaps in order to hunt for fish.
With this cold snap the increased food available must be welcome! A good sign for the coming year...
(c) Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)