It's cold outside

28 December 2016

A rather cold morning and the majority of the reserve is frozen, although there is still some open water on the South Lake and Long Ground Pool, the latter viewed from the Holden Tower.

Lapwing roosting on the ice at South Lake, seen from Hogarth Hide

Rushy Hide & Peng Observatory

At least 105 Bewick's Swans this morning, with some birds having left early to head out to find some grazing opporunities in the cold. Yesterday saw an arrival of a new family with three cygnets.
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Holden Tower

A rather quiet Dumbles and Tack Piece this morning, but all that should change as the days warms up. Four White-fronted Geese (2 adults and 2 juveniles) were at the southern end of the Dumbles, so may be new arrivals. There was no sign of the Brent Goose amongst the Barnacle Goose flock. A Peregrine was mobbing a Buzzard out behind the scrape, and on the Long Ground Pool a nice mix of duck were taking advantage of the open water including 104 Teal, 13 Wigeon, 2 Gadwall, 4 Pintail, 26 Shelduck and a small group of Mallard. A family of 5 Bewick's Swans were also present mid morning, along with another wild family of 5 birds on the Tundra Pen inside the Living Collection.
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South Lake Hides

The deep lake has still got open water, so the ducks are concentrated here offering excellent views and comparisons between species. The majority of the birds are Tufted Duck and Pochard, with 86 of the latter present this morning. Mixed in amongst them are Teal, Mallard, Shelduck, Gadwall and Shoveler along with both a Little Grebe and Great Crested Grebe.
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Zeiss Hide

The Top New Piece and scrape are completely frozen first thing so no birds present, other than a handful of Lapwing on the edge of the scrape. The weather may result in an good opportunity to catch up with our Bitterns, two have been seen over the last few days from the Zeiss Hide and Kingfisher Hide.
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Kingfisher Hide

If you visit, keep an eye out for the Bitterns lurking in the reedbed. Out on the pond were 14 Gadwall and a pair of Little Grebe, whilst out on the scrape a small area of open water attracted around 100 Lapwing and 60 Teal.
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