Lockdown life

So what happened whilst humans were out the way?  

Whilst I'd like to say I was at Tophill revelling in a private reserve on a daily basis there has been plenty more to attend to elsewhere in the region - and to be honest Tophill Low has been largely blissfully quiet so at some stages the wider reserve was left to itself for weeks at a time with only quick checks.  

Unfortunately we missed out on all the best bits of spring - the first signs such as wild garlic in D woods:

 Oystercatchers returned to site on March the 25th:

 Reed buntings were plentiful and continue to be actively around site now:

 The marshes were refilled at this time to strand islands from predators and kill off vegetation:

 Nice to see water vole droppings in South Scrub still:

Barn owls in the boxes at North Scrub.  Unfortunately it seems to have been a poor year for them with a bust following a boom in voles last year - likely also due to the wet conditions flooding them out. 

Meanwhile the stoats moved into the reception hide;  We're not sure where they got in but were using the floor to commute around emerging in the cctv cabinet:

Meanwhile kingfishers returned to nest outside McBean hide - perhaps fortunate we were on lock down as social distancing would have been an unlikely prospect based on 2018:

 Kestrels too seem to have fared the same as barn owls with no breeding but a constant presence:

 Yellow archangel:

 Pussy willow:

 Marsh harriers became more and more evident around site - seemingly peaking at 4 pairs active:

 Last of the wintering redshanks joined by a flash ruff on April 9th:

 First of the marsh frogs not long after:

 Nice to see lords and ladies becoming established in the reserve woodlands:

Not what we were hoping to see on the osprey platform - a pair of egyptian geese that were subsequently reported all around the upper reaches of the Hull:

 Due to the quiet nature of the site gadwall started nesting on the reception hide pond:

 Marsh harriers aplenty; these the North Marsh birds that bred within yards of the hide:

Kingfishers doing their thing at Hempholme; Ultimately we're unsure if they were successful - but there are certainly plenty around the site as is usual for this time of year:

 First yellow wags through around the 17th April:

 Sparrowhawk enjoying spring passage over the res;

 First goslings showing the success of the fox fence:

 Nice to see a spring passage black tailed godwit:

 Redshank:

 House Martin on the 17th April:

 Springtime pond:

Amy was lucky enough to be on site during the spring arctic tern movement with 5 birds through on D res in late April:

One of the grey herons - loads of activity in the burgeoning heronry in D woods.  We never determined just how many active nests there were.   Unfortunately species 272 more than likely eluded us; the predicted squacco heron was seen south of Tophill flying north and later was seen around Bethell's Bridge and as such was almost certainly present - but seen by no one:

Common buzzards likely bred in at least one site on the reserve this year - a regular presence for the first time again likely due to lack of people:

 The first swift of 2020 on the 27th April:

 More marsh frog:

 Common whitethroat on east scrub:

 Spring snipe:

 Common terns too on the 27th and seemingly bred on South Marsh East:

 Willow warbler:

Marsh harrier causing chaos in the gull colony - where at least 45 pairs bred this year: 

Shelduck too but seemingly no chicks this year:

 Common sandpiper on the 1st May

 Bad weather put down good numbers of yellow wags:

 And brought in many hundreds of sand martins and swallows:

The belted galloways returned to Hempholme Meadow: 

The sand martin colony has been spectacular this year and is well worth a look with reportedly around 50% of holes occupied.  However on my 8th May visit there were none about; this was why:

 Hairy dragonfly:

 Harriers as ever:

 Building numbers of goslings showing the success of the fox fence:

 Opportunity lost; Marsh harriers eye to eye at the Izzard hide:

 Oystercatchers - likely hatched young but were likely predated as below:

 A lone mediterranean gull in the colony - one for the future?

 Terns a familiar feature though:

 Lapwings too certainly attempted to nest:

 But these characters were a continuous presence:

 The interspecies pair partnered up gain to make more fake barnacle geese to confuse visitors...

Lapwing:

 Equally good numbers of greylags on Watton NR:

 By this stage it hadn't rained for weeks and the site was drier than we expect in September:

 And becoming ever wilder:

 First mallard broods:

 Picnic area going back to nature:

 Foxgloves:

 Path disappearing:

Bee orchid on O res: 

 South Marsh East vegetating up:

 Lone little gull on June 4th:

Lingering teal:

Nice to see a pair of shoveler - but no young logged:

Whilst we've sorted the fox predation with high levels of hatching, chicks still seemed scant - this would likely explain why - the marsh appears to have become something of a buzzard take away with them using the shelter belt west of the marsh as a vantage point:

 
Mute swan fared better though with seemingly 6 cygents maturing:

Despite the lesser black backed's also looking for a meal:

So there we go;

In recent days we've had 4 green sandpiper, common sandpiper and little ringed plover so autumn wader passage is well underway and the marsh strimmed and ready to go with new mud ready:

So here's to a better latter half of the year...

In case you haven't seen the guide to the new access setup due to COVID there's a handy explanatory video here.