Trumpeters hatched for half term
Our Trumpeter Swan eggs hatched out on May 25, just before half term week, and the fluffy cygnets were a hit with visiting families. On the wild side, other new life around the reserve includes 10 ducklings from two pairs of shelducks I spotted from the Scrape Hide on Sunday. I found the remains of a shelduck nest on the back bank across from the Ramsar hide but the new family had moved on. A pair of oystercatchers have hatched out chicks on the wet grassland here too but we have only spotted one chick at a time, due to the long vegetation. We are not sure how many chicks the pair are raising..
A pair of terns is nesting on the raft In front of the Sand Martin Hide. The raft was put out for the terns but a black-headed gull started nest building before they could establish themselves. The pair of terns persevered and bullied the gull away, commandeering its nest. Both the male and female terns take shifts sitting on the eggs. The female does most of the sitting - when she returned on Sunday afternoon for her ‘turn’ the male was reluctant to give over his comfortable, sunny spot. The female tern eventually had to shoulder him off the eggs to resume her watch!
At the lapwing hide another brood of lapwing chicks have hatched. I watched fascinated on Sunday as the male took several trips, picking up bits of broken eggshell in his beak to fly off to dispose of them. The exterior of the eggshell is a mottled brown but the bright white interior of the shells could alert predators to the look for the newly hatched chicks nearby. The female lapwing brooded the chicks underneath her so I was unable to count how many of their four eggs had hatched.
