Cross over season starts to brings in teal, gadwall and wigeon

Paul Steven’s weekly diary runs as the Wildlife Sightings column in the weekly Observer series of newspapers.

IT’S CROSS OVER season now with many warblers migrating to southern Europe and Africa while a few water rail, snipe and teal are beginning to arrive from up the north and Northern Europe to spend the winter here.
Outside the staff tea room window, below the bird feeder post, I see clusters of caterpillars of the large white butterfly. Evidence of their recent molt, a cluster of small black casings, still cling to the brassicus they are feeding on. This plant isn’t native to wetlands.  It must have sprouted from the bird seed so I was going to cut it down last week. Glad I didn’t get around to it as these gregarious caterpillars will soon finish it off, then make their chrysalis to wait out the winter.
As I head to the wildlife hides I see a brown hawker dragonfly over the small pond on the corner. He was patrolling here this morning and really has to work his tatty wings to hover, indicating his age.  The nights have been cool but it will take our first frost to really knock back the dragonfly population for the season.
I see a few teal and gadwall from the Ramsar hide.  On the way to the Lapwing hide a Cetti’s warbler gives me a blast from the high hedgerow. This resident warbler will stay with us throughout the winter.  We will continue to hear its territorial calls until the winter makes food scarce and the Cetti’s warbler will need all its energy to focus on feeding.
At the Lapwing hide I see three wigeon. We usually get a few wigeon on the wet meadow in the morning that return in the late afternoon to roost overnight. These three have been feeding here all day which is great news. If we get a core group that stay throughout the day they will attract others to feed on this rich, safe wet meadow. The meadow isn’t safe for everybody however - a hungry kestrel swoops down from the Offham hanger and perches on a post of our perimeter fence near the river.
I backtrack to the Scrape Hide and find a two springs of teal - one near the back lagoon edge and the other at the far left. I also spot two male and one female shoveller dabbling on the water here.

Wigeon from the Lapwing hide
Wigeon from the Lapwing hide

Male gadwall
Male gadwall from Ramsar hide

 

Teal from the Scrape hide
Teal from the Scrape hide

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