Recent Sightings (25th- 26th Oct)
British Steel Hide
Little to report on the wader front from the hide, but 26 Lapwing were roosting on the saline lagoons on the 26th and times of higher tides are sure to bring some waders on to the pools. There seems to have been a big influx in Thrushes during the past two days with hundreds across the reserve as a whole. Counts of 29 Mistle Thrushes, 10+ Song Thrushes and a Redwing were taken on a brief visit to the hide. There are also good numbers of Goldfinches, Chaffinches and Bullfinches using the hedges around the British Steel Hide. 12 Wigeon were using the saline lagoons as well as 2 Kingfishers and 3 Little Egrets.
VisMig
A little quieter than last weeks 'vismig' sessions, but still a few interesting birds passing over. The Starlings roosted in the Millennium Wetlands reedbeds, and performed a bit of a murmuration over the saltmarsh early in the morning of the 26th before dispersing outwards. We do not get big numbers of Woodpigeons on site very often, so to get 600+ migrant birds flying over in an hour was rather interesting to see.
25/10/2017 -- 8:00am - 9:00am 26/10/2017 -- 7:45am - 9:00am
Woodpigeon - 616 Chaffinch - 35
Goldfinch - 29 Redwing - 19
Chaffinch - 46 Goldfinch - 24
Siskin - 16 Siskin - 3
Meadow Pipit - 9 Starling - c. 10,000
Reed Bunting - 2 Kingfisher - 1
Redwing - 1 Greenfinch - 1
Skylark - 1 Linnet - 2
Mistle Thrush - 2
Millennium Wetlands
Large numbers of thrushes (mostly Mistle Thrushes) have arrived on site with the past couple of days with some big flocks of 40-50 Thrushes roving around the wetlands. Redwings, Song Thrushes, Mistle Thrushes and Blackbirds have been joined by a usual array of wetland birds including 4 Pochard, 17 Tufted Ducks, 2 Teal, 8 Mute Swans, 5 Gadwall, 10 Coot, 3 Lapwing, a Snipe, a Kingfisher and a Grey Heron. Lesser Redpolls, Siskins, Greenfinches, Chaffinches and Bullfinches can be found on the reserve also.
Other Wildlife
A Brimstone was seen by volunteers on the 25th, along with still good numbers of Red Admirals. A few Dragonflies are still on the wing too, although they are mainly Migrant Hawkers.
