Friday's sightings
An overcast morning out on the reserve with the Robbie Garnett Hide and South Lake Hide offering some of the best birding. Highlights this morning included the 3 Spotted Redshank and the Merlin was seen again on the Dumbles.
Mid Point
A Great White Egret was on the river to north along with 3 Grey Heron and 2 Little Egret. A distant wader flock held 10 Grey Plover and 9 Dunlin with several hundred Curlew and Shelduck also on the mud. A Marsh Harrier was quartering Dumbles to south towards the spartina island. Two Cranes were out on the river, too far away to identify but all our 'usual' Great Crane Project birds are accounted for around the reserve today so these two may be the unringed adults from last weekend.
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Zeiss Hide
The Teal flock once again numbered 1260 birds suggesting little if any change overnight. Other birds on the scrape included 164 Lapwing, 41 Pintail, 16 Ruff, 50 Barnacle Geese, 2 Snipe, 111 Wigeon, a Greenshank and 76 Dunlin. A Grey Heron caught a fish outside the Van de Bovenkamp Hide and a Water Rail was calling from the reedbed in front of the Zeiss Hide.
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South Lake Hides
A Green Sandpiper was feeding close to the Discovery Hide whilst out on the wader scrape were 52 Black-tailed Godwit, 32 Redshank, 2 Ruff, 6 Snipe 197 Teal and 41 Shoveler. The deep lake held a Pintail and a Pochard plus 108 Tufted Duck and the Great Crested Grebe. A Kingfisher also flew through. Ruby and her two juveniles dropped in to the scrape mid morning.
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Robbie Garnett Hide
The three Spotted Redshank were on the scrape this morning before moving to the South Lake just before lunchtime. A single Redshank was also present with 10 Lapwing, a Green Sandpiper, 159 Teal and single Shoveler. Two adult and 3 juvenile Ruff were up the channel.
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Holden Tower
A Merlin was sat out on driftwood on edge of river towards Mid Point. Geese on the Dumbles included 389 Greylag and 207 Barnacle as we await the arrival of the first White-fronted Geese. A couple of singing Chiffchaff were in front of hide and Cetti’s Warbler was singing from the reedbed. A single Crane was on the Dumbles this morning, and then Oakie and Sherbert plus their juvenile were present towards lunchtime.
