As predicted spring arrived in the form of the first little-ringed plover and sand martin on friday. However the weather and birds of today seemed firmly rooted in Winter, with the bittern showing brilliantly again on North Marsh in the afternoon - I even managed to better my video of it! see below. Red-head smew was still present on 'O' Res, with 4+ brambling on the feeders. Kingfisher and a fine female sparrowhawk showed briefly on North Marsh, and grey heron was over the river. Barn owls were active all day due to rain last night, the most exotic bird being the med gull again which was braving the territory scrap that is South Marsh East at the moment. There have been some big movements of amphibians on the reserve with hundreds of toads and great crested newts around the various ponds on site. Today we also had a joint bat box building project co-ordinated by Margaret and Geoff of the RSPB wildlife explorers and Bev and Chris of East Riding phoenix group. Ably assisted by Tony Lane of the East Yorkshire Bat Group and myself we produced 6 new boxes for 'O' Reservoir woods.
