Saturday 18 July 2020

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