News
Otter
At the evening feed on Friday 18 January there was an univited guest in the form of an otter. It looked quite small in size so potentially it was a juvenile from this year and was obviously using this area of unfrozen water as an air hole. The birds d
19 January 2013
Why is an enclosure as big as it is?
Part of my research question for my PhD is looking at the effect of enclosure design and exhibit space on animal behaviour, and the level of activity that animals within perform. Animal enclosures need to replicate important parts of the inhabitant's natu
18 January 2013
Big 9 challenge: TV presenters nationwide nature quest
On 25 January TV naturalist and WWT supporter Mike Dilger starts a nationwide tour to raise awareness and money for wetlands. The quest will take in all nine WWT centres across the UK in just nine days, finishing on World Wetlands Day (2 February). Along
18 January 2013
Swans on ice
The recent snow and freezing conditions have meant that the swans and ducks have started to take up the local tradition of Fen skating - here are a few images from yesterday out on the Ouse washes when we had a rare sunny day.
18 January 2013
Todays Sightings
Wader Lake 100% frozen High Tide/AM Black Headed Gull - 190 River Wear Wigeon - 2 Tufted Duck - 46 Grey Heron - 2 Mallard - 32 Hawthorn Wood Nuthatch - 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1 Bullfinch - 19 Chaffinch - 10 Siskin - 14 Blue Tit - 20 Coal Tit - 10 Gr
18 January 2013
Wildlife sightings for 18th January 2013
1 Bittern - main lake between Dulverton and WWF hide 1 Caspian Gull - 2nd winter main lake 2 Mandarin - reservoir lagoon 7 Siskin - South route 2 Peregrine - over reserve, 1 hunting over sheltered lagoon Additional sightings from yesterday: 1 Pintail -
18 January 2013
Peregrine sighting
Lady Fen Peregrine falcon - 1 Buzzard - 1
18 January 2013
Cuticle arrives after 10 year absence!
It’s been a funny old winter! After months of rain which saw the swans disperse to feed and roost across newly flooded fields, dropping temperatures have now made those areas deserted ice rinks! As adaptable as ever, the Slimbridge swans have been searc
17 January 2013
TODAY'S SIGHTINGS
WADER LAKE/100% FROZEN/AM/MID TIDE Curlew (flew off east) - 360 RIVER/AM/MID TIDE Teal - 74 Mallard - 37 Coot - 4 Grey Heron - 5 OTHER BIRDS/AM Tufted Duck (Reservoir) - 60 Coot (Reservoir) - 10 Lesser Redpoll (Wader Lake footpath) - 3 Robin
17 January 2013
Today's sightings
Lots of ice about the reserve, the ice-free areas are South Lake and Rushy, both attracting large numbers of duck. This update at 1000 am so birds likely to appear during the milder part of the day or to drink. See Twitter for instant updates of bird move
17 January 2013
Wildlife sightings for 17th January 2013
2 Bittern - resr lagoon and main lake 1 Smew - sheltered lagoon 77 Wigeon - main lake 109 Shoveler - main lake mostly 1 Ruff - main lake 1 Shelduck - main lake 12 Siskin - sheltered lagoon 2 Skylark - flew SW Recent bird highlights: Red-breasted Merg
17 January 2013
Curlew roost
Our curlew numbers have dropped since the site record of 1,220 on Saturday 12 January but we still had 300 on Wader Lake this morning, which left at about 9am to go off in search of food.
17 January 2013
Cold weather flushes bitterns & water rails
Notes and photos from a walk on Jan 15 2013 The cold weather has emboldened reclusive wildfowl like bitterns and water rails, exposed by their need to feed to stay warm as temperatures drop below zero at night. For the past few days there has been bitte
17 January 2013
Common Crane apparently..
Although as far as I know nobody reported the sighting to anybody on the reserve, but via twitter and after that assorted rare bird news services, a Common Crane was reported on the reserve around 2pm. We did have a confirmed sighting on the 7th January s
16 January 2013
Today's highlights
British Steel hide/estuary 79 black tailed godwit, 7 greenshank, 110 redshank, 200 curlew, 25 snipe, 111 lapwing, 9 little egret, peregrine, sparrowhawk, kestrel, buzzard, 43 brent goose, 51 greylag goose, 57 shelduck, 45 wigeon, 27 shoveler, 2 water rail
16 January 2013