Join us on the 27th and 28th of April for birding and optics sessions! Ask the expert from Viking your questions and go on a walk with a warden learning about our reserve and its inhabitants.
Close alertA Long-Eared Owl and high Teal numbers
The week started with 475 Teal on the Folly pond, before we were then treated to several close encounters with a Long-Eared Owl.
This week started with our folly pond almost obscured by teal, numbering 475. We have got used to seeing about 80 on our reserve ponds recently, and so this was another big increase. One of our volunteers has also had two close encounters on different days with a long-eared owl along the drive to saltcot hide. We're keeping our eyes peeled, and are hoping that it continues to delight us with its piercing orange eyes and comical tufts. The week has also seen more regular lapwing sightings, a large salon of 67 curlews, and some solo waders have popped in for a feed too, namely a black-tailed godwit and a common greenshank.
Photo credit: Alex Hillier
As well as this week's highlights, you are likely to see the following on the reserve:
| Birds | Mammals | Butterflies | Damselflies & Dragonflies |
| Mute Swan | Hare | Common Blue | Large Red |
| Greylag geese | Roe Deer | Red Admiral | Blue-tailed |
| Canada Geese | Weasel | Meadow Brown | Azure |
| Shelduck | Stoat | Ringlet | Common Blue |
| Mallard | Fox | Green-veined White | Four-spotted Chaser |
| Gadwall | Large White | Banded Demoiselle | |
| Shoveler | Small Copper | Common Darter | |
| Teal | Large Skipper | ||
| Pheasant | Small Tortoiseshell | ||
| Cormorant | |||
| Little Egret | |||
| Grey Heron | |||
| Buzzard | |||
| Kestrel | |||
| Peregrine Falcon | |||
| Moorhen | |||
| Oystercatcher | |||
| Lapwing | |||
| Common Sandpiper | |||
| Redshank | |||
| Black-tailed Godwit | |||
| Curlew | |||
| Snipe | |||
| Black-headed Gull | |||
| Common Gull | |||
| Herring Gull | |||
| Great Black Backed Gull | |||
| Wood Pigeon | |||
| Collared Dove | |||
| Great Spotted Woodpecker | |||
| Skylark | |||
| Sand Martin | |||
| House Martin | |||
| Barn Swallow | |||
| Meadow Pipit | |||
| Pied Wagtail | |||
| Dunnock | |||
| Robin | |||
| Song Thrush | |||
| Blackbird | |||
| Blackcap | |||
| Whitethroat | |||
| Sedge Warbler | |||
| Willow Warbler | |||
| Chiffchaff | |||
| Wren | |||
| Great Tit | |||
| Coal Tit | |||
| Blue Tit | |||
| Long-tailed Tit | |||
| Treecreeper | |||
| Jackdaw | |||
| Rook | |||
| Carrion Crow | |||
| Raven | |||
| Starling | |||
| House Sparrow | |||
| Tree Sparrow | |||
| Chaffinch | |||
| Linnet | |||
| Goldfinch | |||
| Greenfinch | |||
| Reed Bunting |
