Open at last!

 

First week back

We’ve been so pleased to open up the reserve this week after being closed for so long. It has been great to welcome visitors old and new to the reserve. We’ve had a chance to catch up with the wildlife and the people that make this place so special.

As visitors have passed through the reception hide they have logged their sightings and so I think the reserve has been well viewed over the first week back.

Reception hide opens to visitors

The week started with a chill in the air yet chiff chaffs and blackcaps were singing across the reserve; chiff chaffs I am sure have been around for several weeks now but the number of singing blackcaps has increased daily in D reservoir wood, north scrub and reception wood. As the week progressed more summer migrants arrived with an overnight fall of willow warblers on Tuesday, 14 noted in D woods on Wednesday morning. By the end of the week a couple of sedge warblers (in reception wood and south scrub) had been found. At the same time a redwing was spotted on north scrub and overwintering goldeneye and tufted duck are still in good numbers on both reservoirs. Several great crested grebes are on D reservoir and have been seen displaying at times. A new bird species for the reserve was a visiting male hooded merganser which stayed for a couple of days. The bird is believed to be the same bird that has been seen at Hornsea mere and having a ring suggests that it is probably an escapee from a collection. Never the less an attractive bird. Although hiding under the far wall of D reservoir made viewing difficult and a telescope essential. It returned on Monday 19^th, giving better, closer views. Also seen on Monday was a male long tailed duck in summer plumage.

Sand martins have been investigating the sand wall on the reserve, in between feeding over D reservoir. Waders are still on the move with up to 60 curlew moving between Watton nature reserve and south marsh on Friday 16^th, dropping down to 10 on Sunday 18^th. Redshank have been seen on both these sites, so too a male black tailed godwit and 2 ruff, the males starting to show their stunning summer plumage. A pair of oystercatchers look quite settled on south marsh and on Sunday a pair of little ringed plover were recorded for the first time this year, fingers crossed for some successful breeding. Lapwings are displaying over the farmland to the west of D reservoir whereas they are in flocks on south marsh and Watton nature reserve; these birds presumably ones that will move further north before finding breeding sites.

The heronry in D woods is busy but will become more so once their eggs have hatched and young need feeding. Up to 8 Little egrets have been on south marsh, a single great white and a single cattle egret were reported on Watton nature reserve on Monday 12^th, the cattle egret recorded again on Monday 19^th.

Kingfisher sightings have tended to be on the north and south lagoons and also on south marsh. As well as the flashes of blue flying past, birds have been enjoyed sitting on the posts in front of the hides. Visitors sitting in the Izzard hide have even been splashed by the plop caused by a bird diving into the water from the roof of the hide. Now that’s what I call a wildlife experience!

Wildfowl can be seen across the reserve, whether it’s the wintering ducks on the reservoirs or more settled birds such as gadwall, mallard, shoveler and teal on the lagoons. A male garganey was recorded on south marsh on Wednesday 14^th and Thursday 15^th. Two families of greylag geese brought their new goslings out from the reeds on south marsh at the weekend and its thought that a further pair are nesting on north marsh.

Greylag geese family on South Marsh

There seems to be two pairs of marsh harriers, one at each end of the reserve and a pair of buzzards around O reservoir, all giving good views both from hides and from the footpaths. In reception wood we have a nesting tawny owl; it can often be heard calling during the day,  finding it roosting somewhere in the canopy is quite a challenge though!

A delightful sight has been over 40 yellow wagtails feeding on the wall at the far end of D reservoir. They arrived on Thursday 15^th and are constantly moving along the wall, along the road and into the bordering hedgerow. In amongst them there has been a channel wagtail and a possible blue headed wagtail, so it is definitely worth walking to that end and spending time looking through all the birds. The channel wagtail could possibly be a returning bird, one that has bred in the vicinity a couple of years ago. Grey, pied and white wagtail have also been seen along the top of the wall which is covered by emerging flies. Reed buntings and chaffinches are also feeding there.

Yellow wagtail on D reservoir wall

Channel wagtail on D reservoir wall

    
Cetti’s warblers are in full flow, bursting out their bubbling song at full volume and can be heard along the boardwalk bordering the north and south lagoons, but also in D woods and south scrub. Competing for volume is the tiny wren but it can be distinguished from Cetti’s by its longer and more shrill, scratchy song.

No otters have been reported by visitors this week so far, but roe deer seem to be popping up everywhere; in some cases walking right across the paths in front of people. They have had the reserve very much to themselves for the last year so it may take a while before they skulk in the bushes during the daytime to avoid disturbance. Hares can be seen clearly in the adjoining farmland as crops are not yet tall enough to hide in; the approach road giving some of the best views.

A number of butterflies; peacock, red admiral, large veined white, speckled wood, brimstone and orange tip have all been seen as the weather has got warmer over the past week. A few bee flies have also been spotted feeding on ground ivy and violets. Cowslips along the ditches around O reservoir make quite a carpet of pale yellow in the grass, a few primroses are dotted around, ground ivy and violets are giving a nice blue tinge to the woodland floor, before the bluebells emerge in full bloom in a couple of weeks.

Cowslips on O reservoir 

That’s made quite an exhaustive list of wildlife in the first week back open but as you can see the range and variety means there is something for everyone to find and enjoy and always plenty to see.

 

Re-open round up

Hi folks - a few hours until hopefully Tophill Low re-opens properly after 18 months of flooding and pandemics.  You'll have noticed that we've been purposefully restricting news from the site over this period to avoid enticing people to visit the reserve.  Back in winter one of the biggest highlights was the huge flocks of pink-footed geese overwintering;

We're not sure on the full reasons but Yorkshire Water have been doing a lot of work with local farmers in the area to establish cover crops between pea crops to improve soil health - benefiting the water quality we abstract at Tophill Low downstream.  Details here .  Perhaps the prevalent numbers of whooper swans were helped by this also?  It'd be nice to think we'd get this North Norfolk style spectacular every winter... Meanwhile the starlings didn't disappoint with the usual murmurations over the reed beds:

On the reservoirs an american wigeon was a welcome vagrant: 

Even better was a cracking drake smew which unfortunately no one could see (library pic): 

 And what's become the usual great white egrets about:

         

In addition we've had a cattle egret in recent weeks (pic of the last one - Roy Lyon): 

A crane visited Watton over winter too.  After the worst flooding within the reserve since 2007 followed a trial by ice: 

At the tail end of winter we undertook the most notable change you'll see on site this year as soon as you arrive - the felling of the failing poplars in O res wood near South Lagoon.  You may remember this image from 2020 when 4 large poplars root lifted in the damp soils and collapsed across the O res road with obvious hazards.  

Poplars are not long lived trees (they were planted for Bryant & May match wood back in the 60's) and aren't the most biodiverse.  With the risk they posed we have felled the remaining ones there so its a bit of a scene of destruction presently: 

When we have more time next season we will be clearing some of the debris whilst leaving strategic habitat piles and re-planting with a more sympathetic mix of wet woodland - alder, downy birch, alder buckthorn, sessile oak etc to create something more biodiverse and stable.  

The only other notable job was one we started way back in November - the replacement of decking to North Marsh hide: 

We've only just got back on the job this last week so hopefully it'll be something like ready for opening.  

So as we've been prepping for re-opening over Easter what else have we seen?

- Green woodpecker - yaffling all winter - will it stay? Plenty of great spots as ever.  

- Curlew - a peak count of 70 a nice consistency 

- Black-tailed godwits - some nice plumaged birds currently moving through 

- Ruff - up to 7 - again some in cracking plumage 

- Green sandpiper - on Watton 

- Bar-tailed godwit - 7 over site last week 

- Osprey - last Thursday 

- Sand Martins - c.20 birds buzzing the colony 

- Cetti's, chiffchaffs, blackcaps - prevalent everywhere now - with a few willow warblers presumably wishing they hadn't botheres

- same applies to swallows, house martins and yellow wagtails over the reservoirs 

- Heronry - we managed whilst closed to send a drone up last week and clocked 6 nests this year all with 4-5 eggs in

- Marsh harriers, buzzard, kestrels, sparrowhawks - all  as usual

- Oystercatchers - on south marsh east 

- Otters - as active as ever

- Kingfishers - buzzing around the lagoons this week 

- And presumably that white tailed eagle on Leven Carrs inevitably trundled over.  

So plenty to whet appetites;  However;

Obviously covid restrictions still apply.  So to re-iterate that means the track and trace table is back out, one way routes will remain until June at least (see Amy's last post for more details).  And crucially until the next May gateway is reached we will be reverting to one family bubble per hide.  This could be just one individual or a whole family - but there is to be no indoor mixing of different groups.  

As such etiquette is;  If the hide is empty you are welcome to stay until the next group arrives outside (doors are wedged open) whereupon you should vacate and either move on, or re-enter once they or any other waiting parties have moved through.  If two groups arrive simultaneously then please agree a sensible viewing period and swap over sensibly.  

What we don't want to hear of is individuals or groups belligerently hogging hides for extended periods.  We all know that many of our visitors enjoy taking a flask and cushion and settling down for several hours photographing or watching wildlife.  This will return - but for the next few weeks please be courteous and respectful to all users until we can relax restrictions in line with government guidance.  There is a great deal to see without needing to solely use hides.  

It's not an easy decision - however we think having hides open is the best compromise as without them people will make their own viewing spaces around hides disturbing wildlife or creating gatherings.  Limited viewing facilities allow people to satisfy curiosity in a controlled manner.  If this cannot work and people cannot be sensible we will be forced to close hides until later in the year which is in no one's interest.  

Otherwise; 

Memberships - new cards are available now - but as before anyone holding a 20-21 card will not need to renew as so much of the year was lost.  

Toilets - open as normal 

Reception hide - open to single bubbles when staffed.  Our Education Guide Margaret Boyd will be helping Warden the site this season in addition to Amy and myself given we've lost several much valued friends and volunteers in recent months.  

Izzard hide - members only - one bubble rule applies as the rest 

Goats - yes we know they have celeb status! but they're currently grazing out of sight as they are good escape artists and we don't graze orchid habitats in growing season - so they will become more evident later in the year

Catering - Those of you whom managed to visit in the brief autumn window will have seen Twitcher's snack bar adjacent to the car park run by Netty as a new addition.  Whilst not directly affiliated to the reserve there are some excellent light bites on offer served midday from Wednesday to Sundays in a similar manner to North Cave's Wild Bird:

On several visitor surveys over the years somewhere to get a light bite and warm drink has been top of the list numerous times so is a welcome start up and saves us having to run our former token offering from the reception hide.  Please note car parking is prioritised for paying reserve visitors - though we anticipate both reserve and catering compliment each other well.

So plenty to look forward to on all fronts - above all be courteous and patient to other users and we look forward to welcoming you back for a great season.  I'll follow up another post showing some of the other works I've been undertaking in our Water Works for Wildlife program away from Tophill Low in recent months - but as we've only had a limited presence it just means its all for you to find...