A snow-stalled spring is back in full swing
Last weeks snow fall slowed down spring activities like singing, nest building, nest scraping and displaying but after the melt it s all back on again. The toads were on the move agaian too. Last week it was pairs of toads, with the larger females walking and shuffling towards the ponds with a tiny male piggybacking on top, were heading for the water, some trying to get through our fences and needed rescuing.
This cold snap stopped the spring behaviours in the birds. The lapwing stopped display flights and stopped nest scrapingSongbirds stoipped terrotorial singing s and they were on the feeders non-stop in even in the middle of the snowstorm.
The water in the valley didnt freeze over so there wasn't a redistribution of wildfowl. The pair of oystercatcher who have returned to the reserve are still here and the numbers of teal, gadwall, shoveler and pochard are similar to last week.
The black-headed gulls were much quieter too, and there numbers dropped. The number of common gulls went up with 80 counted on the reserve by Warden Linda on Monday morning.
Along the pathways:
- water rail
- long-tailed tits (nest building)
- Cetti’s warblers (singing)
- wren (singing)
- dunnocks (singing)
- song thrushes (singing)
- blackbirds (singing)
- chaffinches (singing)
Woodland Loop
- great spotted woodpecker (drumming)
- goldfinches
- blue tits (nest boxes)
- coal tits
- great tits (singing)
- chaffinch
Reedbeds
- Water rail
- Reed bunting
Lagoons Ramsar, Sand Martin & Scrape hides
- teal
- shoveler ducks
- grey heron
- tufted ducks
- shelducks
- little grebe
- little egret
- oystercatcher pair
- gadwall
- black-headed gull
- Mediterranean gull
- common gull
Wetlands Discovery
- pochard ducks
- tufted ducks
- green woodpecker
Arun Riverlife
- shelducks
- tufted ducks
- pochard
- oystercatcher pair
- water rail
- grey wagtail
Wet Grasslands from Lapwing & Ramsar hides
- lapwing (males are displaying & nest scraping again)
