September 2022
Our first week back open at the reserve has been a quiet
return for visitors. Many regular visitors have taken the opportunity of
enjoying a slow walk around the nature trail, where speckled wood, comma, red
admiral and large white butterflies have all been spotted. The fantastic Tiddy
Mun sculpture has been delighting people as it peers out from the reeds along
the nature trail, along with Old Stinker. Both sculptures have had to be kept
wet through these dry weeks over the summer, so that the clay and willow doesn’t
dry out too much. The reinstated feeders outside reception hide have been
visited by the usual woodland bird species; blue, coal and great tit,
goldfinch, chaffinch, greenfinch and the occasional visit from a great spotted
woodpecker. A pair of great spotted woodpeckers bred successfully in one of the
dead trunks close to the nature trail path, with two young fledging. On a few
of our guided walks and with a couple of school groups, the young could be
heard from the path below.
Numbers of wildfowl on D reservoir are starting to build up,
a sure sign of the change from summer to autumn temperatures. The first
goldeneye (3) were seen this last week on D reservoir and a flock of pint
footed geese flew over. Several little gulls have been sighted along the wall
of D reservoir, along with grey wagtail and common sandpiper, showing that’s
its always worth a look along the edges as well as the main body of water.
Although north lagoon, a favourite haunt of kingfisher and
visitor alike is now totally dry, and the earth cracked after weeks of hot
weather, there have been plenty of photos on social media of our much loved
kingfishers in other places; mainly south lagoon and south marsh. The lagoon
area is also a good place for Cetti’s warblers, still singing and still elusive,
hiding down in the thick vegetation.
The south marshes have been a hotspot of bird activity in
our first week back, the exposed mud attracting passage waders such as
greenshank, green sandpiper, common sandpiper, snipe, little stint (maximum of
8 at once), dunlin, ringed plover, ruff and curlew. Other water birds seen have
been a cattle egret, a great white egret, water rail, garganey and pintail. And
it’s amazing how much we take the resident marsh harriers for granted as they
are seen daily. Any sightings are welcome as they can give us a great overall
picture of how the reserve is being used by various species. If you don’t use
the digital platforms of Birdtrack or eBird to record your sightings, then you
can always add them to the sightings book in the hut at the bottom of the
reception ramp or let a member of staff know.
Habitat maintenance and management has continued throughout
our site closure and continues throughout the year. Last week we had a team of
volunteers from the Environment Agency helping out with clearing some of the
reeds on north marsh to make more open water. A task that has to be repeated
every few years. Once the new paths have been reinstated and the north marsh
hide is back in use, then we hope that you will notice the difference. One result of removing the vegetation was to find evidence that harvest mice use the area. Their nests are a beautiful, tiny construction.
Another team of volunteers keeps note of how the many nest boxes
have been used each season. This week they checked on the barn owl box that is
in the northern end of the reserve. Although there has been no evidence of successful
breeding in the box this year, a collection of owl pellets means at least one
individual is feeding in the area. And the box is being put to good use, giving
a nesting site for a colony of hornets! Richard is seen here extracting a
hornets nest from Hempholme hide a few years ago. On a similar theme please
take care on the ramp down to the pond from the reception pond as unfortunately
one of our volunteers got quite badly stung when she disturbed a wasp nest
recently.
We hope that, as visitors, you have enjoyed the reserve once
more and continue to return as we head into autumn and winter when we hope to
lift some of the restrictions from the north end of the reserve.
