Latest Sightings
Despite all the colder whether recently there is still plenty of birdlife to see on the reserve. The majority of the ducks have now finished there moult and the male pintails in particular are looking fantastic, with 158 of them on the mere today! Whooper swan numbers are just over 400 currently, with the majority of them being seen on the main mere. Some of the juveniles are already beginning to get the yellow bill-flash of the adults! Pink-footed goose numbers on the other hand have dropped off, with only around 600 recorded on our last count. However, increasing large numbers of them can bee seen on the reserve throughout the day, particularly from Ron Barker hide.
The numbers of various different wildfowl on the reserve are building, possibly somewhat in response to the recent cold weather. 304 shellduck were recorded on the mere today and over the past week we have seen the return of a shellduck ringed in North Yorkshire by the Lower Derwent valley ringing group, this bird has wintered with us previously in 2016, 2018, 2019 so great that it has returned for 2022. Wigeon numbers are also up with 91 on the mere this morning along with a lovely goldeneye from Discovery hide.
Both Ruff and black-tailed godwit numbers are fluctuating a lot at the moment, 21 ruff were on the mere on the 9th and godwtis are ranging between 2 and 10 birds. Snipe can still be seen in most areas of the reserve and woodcock numbers are building with a total of 4 seen over the past week.
Birds of prey are doing brilliantly at the moment with large numbers of kestrel, buzzard and marsh harrier seen over much of the reserve along with a single sighting of a female merlin over the mere yesterday.
There has been quite a bit of variation in passerines over the past week with much of the usual finches and tits being seen, along with a female blackcap and a few chiffchaffs along Catty bank but also a very unusual record of a common redstart yesterday, photographed near the duckery on the way to Ron Barker hide (a restart on the 11th of December!!). Another highlight of the week was 2 water pipits seen unfortunately in an area with no general access, but hopefully they will appear in front of a hide over the coming days!
