New year's day list
Happy New Year to all, the total species count for New Year's Day was 73. With good water levels on the reserve at the moment, there are plenty of waders, wildfowl and raptors. Lar [...]
Happy New Year to all, the total species count for New Year's Day was 73. With good water levels on the reserve at the moment, there are plenty of waders, wildfowl and raptors.
Large flocks of wigeon with pintail, teal, gadwall and shoveler can be seen from the reedbed and lyle hides in the shallow flooded washes towards the far side of the reserve. Pochard have now been joined by some tufted duck on the main lagoon throughout the day and are coming up close to the hide at feeding time.
Good numbers of black-tailed godwit and golden plover were also using the shallow flooded washes and were flushed into the air by a male peregrine falcon just after the 12noon swan feed which resulted in some fantastic displays as they raced through the sky.
Other raptors included the marsh harrier and several barn owls hunting throughout the day and towards dusk.
Some of the highlights are below.
