Sightings and news to week ending 5 April 2026
Image- Cattle Egrets and Black-headed Gulls, South Lake- MJM.
Come and see our wild Kingfishers!
We now two pairs of Kingfishers digging holes or refurbishing nest sites and viewable from the hides, please be very quiet in the Duck Decoy Hide and Kingfisher Hide to help them settle in and remain calm. In a good season we expect two broods per pair but a third attempt is not unheard of. The best time to see them is now, catch them whilst they are pairing up, actively digging and while they begin to lay eggs, once incubation of the eggs begins the male will visit with fish for the female, the visits increase when the chicks hatch with both then feeding young until they fledge (leave the nest). You might walk into a hide and the birds are present and showing superbly or have to wait until one visits.
It can be quiet for a week or two until they decide to nest again. Timing will help with a successful sighting, they are small birds so carefully look in the low trees and branches as they are often sat nearby. We will have Guides in the Hides present on and off to help you spot one.
Please note that the hide windows are closed up, any photographs taken will be through glass. The South Finger nest bank is around 40-45m from the hide, the Decoy bank is around 60m. We will clean the windows around the birds incubation period, when it's a quiet period, we will clean them.
Monday 23 March
Around 15 singing Chiffchaff on site this morning.
Kingfisher Hide
Pair of Kingfishers, male presented a fish to female near nest bank.
Top New Piece
Singing Reed Bunting, 5 Black-tailed Godwit, breeding plumage Reeve, 4 Redshank, 164 Teal, 60 Wigeon, 27 Shoveler, 5 Gadwall.
Tack Piece
Spoonbill + a few hundred ducks- mostly Wigeon and Shoveler with 5 Pintail and a few Gadwall and Teal. Flock of Barnacle Geese on the field.
Martin Smith Hide
Three Snipe on the pool edge
Rushy Hide/Peng Observatory
Two Redshank, Lapwing, 12 drake 4 duck Pochard, 50 Tufted Duck, 17 Pintail, drake Mandarin. Black-headed Gulls on territory.
Estuary Tower
Adult Dark-bellied Brent Goose with Canada Geese, 177 Russian White-fronted with 2 Barnacle Geese, 11 Golden Plover with 4 Lapwing and 4 Curlew on the Lower Dumbles, Marsh Harrier, Red Kite and 2 Buzzard, + 4 Lapwing on the Dumbles, 70 Wigeon on the scrape, c8 Skylark singing/displaying over.
Pair of Little Grebe on Long Ground Pool + drake Pochard.
