Boxing Day birds
Its a glorious morning across the reserve with thousands of birds to enjoy, many of which you'll see above you as the Peregrine has been very active this morning and unsettling the ducks and waders. During the 8am Rushy feed, a Peregrine bolted across the pond, up and over the hedge and then reappeared with a Lapwing before dropping back out of view. That's one less to count this morning!
Rushy Hide
There were 69 Bewick's Swans in for this morning's feed, with a total of 75 birds recorded today. When you leave the Visitor Centre look out for our 4 wild Bewick's Swans on the pond with the captive birds and Mute Swan herd. You can see their unique bill patterns here on our Twitter feed. Also on the Rushy were 120+ Pochard, 74 Pintail and 84 Shelduck. A Little Stint was present mid-morning.
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Zeiss Hide
A very busy Top New Piece this morning with several thousand waders present, all of which would regularly take to the air in fear of a Peregrine strike. At one point most of the birds left and flew towards the Tack Piece, but they'll soon be back. Rough estimates include 305+ Golden Plover, 1800+ Lapwing, 300+ Dunlin, 350+ Wigeon and 500+ Teal. At least 36 Snipe remained hunkered down in the grass. A Cetti's Warbler and Water Rail were in the reedbed.
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Kingfisher Hide
The Bottom New Piece was filled with birds on arrival, but then empty following a flush and a low flying helicopter. The Red-breasted Goose was with the Barnacle flock but all the geese left and headed for the Dumbles. Another 6 Snipe were sheltering in the rushes around the scrape. A Great Spotted Woodpecker was on the walkway.
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South Lake Hides
Easier to count this morning than other locations as there were no flushed. A total of 1353 Lapwing were roosting with 148 Dunlin amongst them. Also present were 13 Ruff, 3 Pintail, 41 Shelduck, 53 Black-tailed Godwit, 12 Gadwall and at least 20 Snipe from the Hogarth Hide.
