Great egret around all week
A great egret has been onsite all week, moving between the lagoon at Ramsar and Sand martin hides and the water at Scrape hide. We are getting up to 14 little egrets in to roost at the end of the day.
Visitor Martin Watson took this photo of the great egret last Sunday.
The beautiful colours of autumn surround the site, with spindle and
Guelder rose looking particularly splendid right now. With the highly
changeable weather, we are still seeing an abundance of migrant hawker and
common darter dragonflies, willow emerald damselflies, red admiral and peacock
butterflies, and even the odd grass snake or two on warmer or sunnier days.
Our Reserve Team works have been focused on the wet grassland,
clearing areas less palatable for the cattle that did a fabulous
job 'mowing' the area. This will leave areas of cover for snipe through the winter,
whilst also ensuring a favourable condition for breeding lapwing next spring.
Below is not a list of all wildlife onsite. It is the recorded wildlife sightings by WWT staff noted on the morning walk around, with different areas recorded on different days.
Tues 18 Oct
Ramsar & Sand martin hide: 31 Canada geese, 5 greylag geese, 18 black-headed gulls, 1 great egret, 3 coots, 1 moorhen, 24 lapwing, 4 gadwall, 2 shelducks, 1 herringgull, 1 pochard, 3 tufted ducks, 1 cormorant,5 wood pigeons
Wetland Discovery: 1 pochard, 1 water rail
Willow screen: 1 teal
Arun Riverlife: 1 little grebe, 1 kingfisher
Scrape hide: 6 snipe, 1 wigeon
Mon 17 Oct
Sand Martin hide: 3 shelducks, 1 great egret, 3 teal, 1 pochard
Lapwing hide: 9 mallards, 6 wood pigeons, 2 moorhens, 2 pheasant
Wood Loop: 1 nuthatch
Discovery hide: 1 kingfisher, 2 pochard
Scrape hide: 1 snipe
Sun 16 Oct
Wetland Discovery: 18 mallards, 4 tufted ducks, 2 coots, 1 pochard
Arun Riverlife: 2 kingfishers, 1 pochard
Ramsar hide: 1 great egret, 4 cormorants, 1 grey heron, 1 cattle egret
Scrape hide: 4 snipe
Sat 15 Oct
Wetland Discovery: 2 pochard, 1 kingfisher, 2 gadwall
Scrape hide: 1 great egret, 1 snipe
Willow screen: 2 kingfishers
Ramsar & Sand martin hide: 15 little egrets at 4:30 pm for roost
Arun Riverlife: 1 mute swan, 13 mallards, 1 gadwall, 24 tufted ducks, 26 coots, 2 moorhens, 1 Cetti’s warbler, 1 black-headed gull, 1 kingfisher
Ramsar and Sand martin hide: 1 grey heron, 1 cormorant, 1 little egret, 6 Egyptian geese, 4 shelducks, 1 kingfisher.
