Latest sightings
More glorious summer weather and plenty of action around the reserve. The butterfly bed by the Ron Barker Hide has had the first Small Copper(s) of the year as well as Gatekeeper, Common Blue, Brimstone, Comma, Small Tortiseshell, Peacock, and Green-veined White. Brown and Southern Hawker Dragonfly are impressively cruising the Nature Trail paths looking for prey, and even better views on the Canoe Safari!
A good selection of waders in the past week with up to 3 Green Sandpiper, 90+ Black-tailed Godwit, Common Sandpiper, Greenshank, 10 Ruff, 20+ Common Snipe, a few Oystercatcher and 150+ Lapwing.
Raptors have included up to 4 different Marsh Harrier as juvenile birds start to arrive, 2 Sparrowhawk have been very active spooking the waders, 3 Kestrel, 3+ Common Buzzard and the occassional Peregrine.
Common Swift have been moving through in the last week, still plenty of local Swallow and House Martin. Blackcaps and Chiffchaff can be seen in roving Tit flocks and earlier in the week some good views of Barn Owl
A couple of Kingfishers have been showing pretty much daily for the last week mostly from the Ron Barker Hide.
