Woodchat
Cogito ergo sum
Fun at the flashes (and moors) 13/03/10
The highlight this morning was the brief presence of a Ringed Plover on the flashes at c09:35. First heard calling overhead, it landed very briefly on the second flash (probably less than 1 minute) before taking off again and heading north. Too brief to photograph unfortunately. Sy V was also in the hide at the time to witness the event. To me, this signals the start of the spring migration - hopefully loads more stuff to follow in the coming weeks! Four Avocets, two Oystercatchers and one Shelduck were also present and a Treecreeper was singing near the steps.
On the moors the Little Egret was still present in the trees in the north-east corner. Three more Oystercatchers, two more Shelducks and a few (~5) Snipes were visible around Amy's. The Bittern apparently showed very well in front of the north moors hide - but it was so crammed with people I decided to give it a miss - will try early tomorrow instead. A couple of Cetti's were singing. The islands around the East hide have now been re-shingled and look superb - thanks to Gordon et al. A couple of Lesser Redpolls were along the East path.
Not much in the education reserve - a charm of 15 Goldfinches, a couple of Rooks and a Herring Gull over.
Back on the flashes, the mowing of the sewage meadow was in progress - the Avocets seemed completely unperturbed by this (you can see a couple in front of the tractor in the photo below).
Myself, John B and Paul Croft used this opportunity to complete the work on the temporary fox fence to the right of the main hide - hopefully this will keep the main breeding area free from mammalian predators during the most crucial times. A couple of Jack Snipes were flushed when doing this. A Skylark sang above the field north of the sewage works
The habitat on both the flashes and the moors is now looking better than ever! A couple of the attached photos were, apparently, too large - so I've wrapped them up in a pdf file:
The highlight this morning was the brief presence of a Ringed Plover on the flashes at c09:35. First heard calling overhead, it landed very briefly on the second flash (probably less than 1 minute) before taking off again and heading north. Too brief to photograph unfortunately. Sy V was also in the hide at the time to witness the event. To me, this signals the start of the spring migration - hopefully loads more stuff to follow in the coming weeks! Four Avocets, two Oystercatchers and one Shelduck were also present and a Treecreeper was singing near the steps.
On the moors the Little Egret was still present in the trees in the north-east corner. Three more Oystercatchers, two more Shelducks and a few (~5) Snipes were visible around Amy's. The Bittern apparently showed very well in front of the north moors hide - but it was so crammed with people I decided to give it a miss - will try early tomorrow instead. A couple of Cetti's were singing. The islands around the East hide have now been re-shingled and look superb - thanks to Gordon et al. A couple of Lesser Redpolls were along the East path.
Not much in the education reserve - a charm of 15 Goldfinches, a couple of Rooks and a Herring Gull over.
Back on the flashes, the mowing of the sewage meadow was in progress - the Avocets seemed completely unperturbed by this (you can see a couple in front of the tractor in the photo below).
Myself, John B and Paul Croft used this opportunity to complete the work on the temporary fox fence to the right of the main hide - hopefully this will keep the main breeding area free from mammalian predators during the most crucial times. A couple of Jack Snipes were flushed when doing this. A Skylark sang above the field north of the sewage works
The habitat on both the flashes and the moors is now looking better than ever! A couple of the attached photos were, apparently, too large - so I've wrapped them up in a pdf file:
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