A downpour
As you may have noticed, its been a very wet day with near constant rainfall at least in this part of the world. We're watching water levels on several pools to make sure we keep enough water for the birds, but not enough to flood out some of our ground-nesting species including Avocets and our pair of Cranes.
Rushy Hide & Peng Observatory
Five first-summer Mediterranean Gulls were on the Rushy this morning amongst the Black-headed Gull colony. They were present last night and are 5 of at least 7 birds on the reserve today. A total of 19 Avocet were on the lower pond, including 4 chicks taking shelter from the rain under a parent. A further 6 adults were over the fence on the Tack Piece. Other waders on the Rushy included an Oystercatcher, 24 Black-tailed Godwit, a Lapwing and a Redshank.
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Holden Tower
Visibilty is poor today as the rain moves through, but at least 32 Shelduck and 8 Dunlin were seen on the river. A single Wheatear was foraging around the dried up pool in front of the hide on the Dumbles.
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South Lake Hides
The Crane remains on its nest in front of the Hogarth Hide, as do 3 pairs of Avocet. Over the causeway on the wader scrape 2 adult Avocets were brooding chicks whilst the rain fell. At least 20 Gadwall were across the South Lake area, a pair of Little Grebe were on the deep lake and 2 more Mediterranean Gulls were on the wader scrape including an adult and a second-summer.
