A foggy start
A foggy start started to burn off but the cloud has returned to give a bright but overcast morning. Waders numbers seem to be on the up again with at least 394 Black-tailed Godwit and 79 Avocet on the reserve plus several displaying Lapwing and a few lingering Snipe. Amongst the Black-tailed Godwit flock is a colour ringed bird, the combination suggesting it could be the bird seen last Spring who was originally ringed as a juvenile female in Devon in November 2013.
South Lake Hides
The scrape is dominated by 42 Avocet and 375 Black-tailed Godwit at present with a single Dunlin the only other wader present. The Black-headed Gull colony continues to gather pace with lots of calling, displaying and copulating underway. A pair of Great Crested Grebe on the deep lake.
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Zeiss Hide
A small flock of 19 Black-tailed Godwit were feeding on the scrape with 3 Avocet. At least 11 Snipe were hidden in the juncus towards the north end of the field and several Lapwing were displaying. Two groups of Shelduck totaled 67 birds, mainly in front of the Van de Bovenkamp Hide.
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Holden Tower
Two Cranes were at the south end of the Dumbles where 64 White-fronted Geese were also present, tucked up against the cross fence. Two pairs of Oystercatcher and another interloper were noisily disputing breeding territory between the pool near the tower and the Dumbles scrape. Also on the Dumbles scrape were 32 Avocet. High tide pushed 10 Great Black-backed Gulls on to the Dumbles to roost, and tides are set to increase until Sunday with 10.2m forecast which could flood part of the upper saltmarsh.
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Stephen Kirk Hide
A flock of 26 Redshank were huddled close together outside the hide. Also on the Tack Piece were around 400 Wigeon, a single Curlew and a pair of Oystercatcher.
