Two Avocets divided, Bar-tailed Godwit, Great Crested Grebe, and Shelduck aplenty
Another wild week to remind us of the mood-boosting and nature-bursting superpowers of our wetlands!
What a week to be out in the wetlands. The reserve is alive with movement, colour and surprise encounters. Exactly the kind of winter wonders that make your heart race and your binoculars fog with excitement!
Wildlife sightings from 17th to 23rd February 2026
Highlights: Great Crested Grebe, Pallid Harrier, Marsh Harrier, Avocet.
Two elegant Avocet with their porcelain-white and piano-black plumage cut crisp reflections from two separate locations! One chose to grace the Saline Lagoon, whilst the other chose the Freshwater Lagoon for a spell on 18th February.
Volunteer Steve Chambers counted an astonishing 931 Black-tailed Godwits gathered across the Saline Lagoon, Dafen Scrapes, Freshwater Lagoon and Deep Water Lake on the same day. With most birds packed onto the Freshwater Lagoon, the views lately are breathtaking from the Boardwalk, Observatory, and the East Hide and West Hide. A living tide of russet wash and needle-fine bills milling about close to viewers.
Out on the Estuary, five dapper Great Crested Grebes were spotted bobbing and diving, their sleek profiles and pale faces cutting through dark and silvery waters as they hunt.
Unusually, three of the iconic Spoonbill chose to scoop through the Freshwater Lagoon last week, ghostly-pale and looking larger-than-life to delighted watchers in the nearby hides.
Four Bar-tailed Godwit have been counted in amongst the flocks of Black-tailed Godwit, with three of the birds spotted on the Saline Lagoon, the other in Freshwater. Another reminder to never overlook the regular flocks, there are always surprises to be found!
Raptor watchers, bring your patience and your hope: the elusive Pallid Harrier is still drifting low over the marshes, a silvered wisp flashing a razor tail as it quarters the rough. Meanwhile, a Marsh Harrier is showing sporadically over the Millennium Wetlands, lifting spirals of anxious waders and drawing every eye skyward.
Other familiar faces are performing beautifully too. From the British Steel Hide, scan the Estuary for tight, shimmering flocks of Dunlin, stately Curlew, and bustling Oystercatcher. Also from the British Steel Hide: the clean lines and lemon legs of Greenshank, the neat monochrome of Brent Geese, brick-red flashes from Redshank, smart little Teal, and solid, handsome Canada Geese loafing between feeds (and fights!). On the Millennium Wetlands, the reedbeds fizz with early spring promise. Listen for the explosive song of Cetti’s Warbler, soft chiffing notes from Chiffchaff, and the tiny, torch-bright presence of Goldcrest weaving through willow and alder.
And wherever you wander, you’ll likely be accompanied by the bold, bottle-green sheen, chestnut shoulders, and joker-red bills of the Shelduck, adding noise, character and a splash of carnival colour wherever they settle. It's sometimes easy to take the beautiful things we see and hear every day for granted, so take some time to enjoy these funny birds as they prepare for spring proceedings.
With numbers this high and surprises this good, now is the time to wrap up warm, bring a scope if you have one, and soak it all in. Whether you’re hugging the shelter of the hides or strolling the boardwalks, these are the kind of winter days that will get you through to spring. See you out there!
