Mist and murk
What a contrast to yesterday morning. Today sees mist and murk descend up the estuary, the river being completely obscured from the Holden Tower and even the outer edges of the Top and Bottom New Piece fields from the Zeiss Hide. The weather doesn't help with counts, nor with finding our Cranes. We're currently in the monthly census period so if you see any colour ringed birds on your visit please report them to us!
South Lake Hides
Many of the birds returned quickly after yesterday's disturbance. This morning saw 54 Black-tailed Godwit busily feeding across the scrape being joined by 10 Ruff, a Redshank and our 4 Avocet. Hopefully this latter species will start to over winter on the reserve and become a year round feature for you to enjoy. A Little Grebe and Great Crested Grebe were on the deep lake with 8 Cormorant and 9 Pochard. Two Snipe were outside the Hogarth Hide.
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Zeiss Hide
Two Black-tailed Godwit and 5 Ruff were the only waders other than Lapwing on the scrape. Today's high tide is around 12:30pm at around 6.8m but some Dunlin and Little Stint should be pushed in. A Stonechat was perched at the edge of the reedbed in front of the hide and at least 2 Water Rail were calling from the reedbed too. Around 500 Wigeon were grazing across the Top New Piece field with around 700 Teal on the scrape.
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Rushy Hide & Peng Observatory
Still no sign of any Bewick's Swans, but you can keep up to date with the latest news and sightings from their migration on our website here. Birds on the Rushy this morning included 14 Lapwing, 26 Shelduck, 9 Pintail, 16 Pochard and the usual Tufted Duck and Mallard. Also now present are our few hybrid ducks from last winter including the presumed Red-crested Pochard x Pintail (above), presumed Pochard x Ferruginous Duck (below) and presumed Chiloe Wigeon x Eurasian Wigeon.
