A big influx in the main players for winter in the last few days. A lot of pink footed geese over and whooper swans have been through in the best numbers for some time - a total of 39 birds split between 3 groups - thanks to Roy Vincent for these:
And Michael Flowers:
The 5 red crested pochard are usually to be found somewhere on the reserve - a few nice shots here by Mal Jones:
Brian Colley:
And Roy Vincent:
We've also had a scaup on the Res in recent days and luckily Brian was also on hand to capture the slavonian grebe found yesterday on the reserve walk:
Alas not present this morning but replaced by the first brambling of the season near the lagoons. The first woodcock was also flushed out last Saturday. There have been further fleeting reports of short eared owls around the site but perhaps marsh harriers have been the raptor of the moment - some cracking pics by Darren Smith:
It seems as though kingfisher season may be at an end on North Marsh. Annually as the water temperature decreases the sticklebacks descend into deeper warmer water and fishing becomes easier elsewhere - they'll be back again in late June. That said Hempholme meadow is still popular at the moment - Michael Flowers:
Roy Vincent:
And Mal Jones:
Less susceptible to weather conditions are the otters - fishing as ever on North Marsh - Darren Smith:
Roe deer by Mal Jones this afternoon:
Plenty of activity around the bird feeders now with both willow and marsh tit present - Roy Vincent:
Mallards over the D res by Brian Colley:
Next weekend is our Wetland Bird Survey count weekend we undertake with the BTO - we're always after help to assist on count days (once a month) so please let us know if you can assist - a good knowledge of wildfowl ID is a necessity for this.
On the gull roost we've had a peak of 4 Mediterranean gulls on the res tonight with a Caspian gull last weekend - again all the details on Martin's
blog.
