Wildlife sightings for 23rd May 2012
1 Avocet - main lake, best seen from WWF hide (image by David Cowmeadow) 0800-1 [...]
1 Avocet - main lake, best seen from WWF hide (image by David Cowmeadow) 0800-1800hrs
1 Little Egret - main lake
2 Mute Swan broods - main lake and sheltered lagoon (4 cygnets each)
1 Shelduck - main lake
10 Common Tern - main lake
1 Buzzard - over high, then drifted W
1 Hobby - over high
1 Yellow Wagtail - marsh
2 Whitethroat - wildside, resr lagoon
1 Lesser Whitethroat - main lake WWF hide
1 Chiffchaff - sheltered lagoon
7 Blackcap - wildside, resr lagoon, sheltered lagoon (incl. 1 female carrying food)
Recent bird highlights: Little Egret, Red Kite, Hobby, Peregrine, Avocet, Black-tailed Godwit, Jack Snipe, Common Sandpiper, Ringed Plover, Little Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Spotted Redshank, Iceland Gull, Pallid Swift, Cuckoo, Yellow Wagtail, Wheatear and Swallow.
May is a great month for bird song now that so many summer visitors have arrived and set up breeding territories. Listen out for Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap , Garden Warbler, Goldcrest, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Cetti’s Warbler, Robin, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush and Wren among others. In the reedbeds and other reed fringes at least 20 Reed Warbler are singing away, along with one or two Sedge Warbler and Reed Bunting.
Lapwing are nesting on the main lake/scrape shingle islands and grazing marsh fields, and performing territorial flight displays. Lapwing chicks can now be seen on the scrape, marsh and main lake (7 broods). The Sand Martins have also arrived and can be seen flying in and out of the nest bank. You can see a brood of sand martin chicks close up on the CCTV cameras. There is also a family of Little Grebes with three young in the Wildside reedbed channels. And Canada Geese with seven goslings in Wildside.
The marsh will remain wet through spring to attract a host of visiting waders and other wildfowl, as well as Yellow Wagtail and Wheatear. Look out for possible Water Pipit on the flooded field edges. The wader scrape is now being drained and wetted on a weekly basis to attract feeding waders.
Moths: Common Quaker, Hebrew Character, Chestnut, Clouded Drab, Esperia sulpurella, Epermenia chaerophyllea, Powdered Quaker, Light Brown Apple Moth, Early Grey.
Flowering plants: Cowslip, Cuckooflower, Cow Parsley, Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Wild Cherry, Wood Anemone, Ramsons, Common Mouse-ear, Field Wood-rush, Marsh Marigold, Snake’s Head Fritillary, Red Dead-nettle, Primrose, Oxford Ragwort, Tufted Vetch, Common Vetch, Bluebell, Ragged Robin, Buttercup.
Water Voles: 5 seen in world wetlands, waterlife and wildside, Reed Swamp exhibit is a good bet near the sluices.
Butterflies and insects: Green Hairstreak,Comma, Brimstone, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Orange-tip, Holly Blue, Speckled Wood, Small White, Common Bee-fly, 7-spot Ladybird, Large Red Damselfly, Hairy Dragonfly.
Reptiles and amphibians: A recent survey revealed 89 Slow Worms, 3 Grass Snakes, 2 Common Lizards, and 6 juvenile Smooth Newts. There are also small numbers of Marsh Frogs croaking on sunny days. Listen out in wildside.
