Even colder
Much of the reserve is frozen this morning and has pushed a lot of birds off to the river and other unfrozen areas. The Rushy and part of the South Lake remain ice free and full of birds.
4th January update
Its a busy time of year and sometimes we run out of time to update the website, but you can always find the latest news and sightings on our Twitter feed here.
The Bitterns have been showing very well over the last few days, mainly from the Kingfisher and Van de Bovenkamp Hides, but sometimes they can be seen from the Zeiss Hide too, so keep an eye out when you visit the South Finger. An adult male Goshawk has been seen regularly out on the Bottom and Top New Pieces over the last few days too, and spent much of yesterday morning sitting on the fence posts making occasional hunting forays for Teal and any other passing birds.
A Pink-footed Goose was present around the Tack Piece and goose fields, and was also seen on the Rushy first thing. It was associating with the Greylag flock initially, but later joined the White-fronted Geese in the afternoon.
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South Lake Hides
Some of the only open water on the reserve is at the South Lake today, with a good concentration of ducks present including 124 Pochard, 54 Shelduck, 170+ Tufted Duck, 2 Pintail and the Ferruginous Duck x Pochard hybrid that was seen on the Rushy a few weeks ago. Around 500 Lapwing were stood on the ice with 2 hardly Dunlin mixed in amongst them.
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Rushy Hide & Peng Observatory
A count of 127 Bewick's Swans on the Rushy this morning amongst the big numbers of Tufted Duck, Mallard, Shelduck, Pintail and Pochard. The hybrid Wigeon has been coming to the 4pm feeds regularly this week so look out for anything different dropping in. With things so cold 15 Lapwing were the only waders present, but as temperatures start to warm look out for the Little Stint and a Dunlin or two dropping in around lunchtime.
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Kingfisher Hide
A flock of around 100 Teal were crammed into a small patch of unfrozen scrape edge on the Bottom New Piece, the main hunting location of the Goshawk over the last few days. On the pond were the pair of Little Grebe and 4 Gadwall with a handful of Teal. Keep an eye out on the way to the hide for Treecreeper, Goldcrest, Chaffinch and a mix of thrushes, all were present this morning.
Two Bittern have been seen from the Van de Bovenkamp Hide this morning, first reported around 10:30am.
