Struggling for water
Above- Kingfisher and Green Sandpipers.
We are going to dig a connecting channel from the Tack Piece scrape to the pipe that feeds the Pill Box Pool today in an attempt to prevent it from drying up. It may not work. Some disturbance in front of the Robbie Garnett Hide is likely but it will be short lived, it's fairly quiet here today so won't impact on much at all, the birds will move further up the scrape until we have finished.
Top New Piece/Zeiss Hide
Little-ringed Plover (4 juveniles and an adult)
Dunlin 30 (breeding plumage adults)
Ruff 6 or 7 males (all in different colour plumages with ruff)
Lapwing c40 (lots of movement as feeding parties)
Black-tailed Godwit 160+
Snipe 2
singing male Reed Bunting
dozens of Reed Warblers
Kingfisher.
11 Barnacle Geese came in to drink.
South Lake
Sedge Warbler singing
Wader scrape is fairly dry, we simply don't have the water to keep it wet due to the drought conditions.
Ruff male
Redshank 4
Lapwing 5
Teal 5
Avocet pair and chick
Deep lake
Great Crested Grebe with family
Tufted Duck, Mallard, Gadwall , Teal and Shoveler in a mixed moult flock.
Willow Hide
The juvenile Cuckoo continues to be fed in the sallows above the path.
Rushy Hide
Five Avocet families, lots of ducklings including a crèche brood of 34 Shelduck on the lower pond. The Crane family were looking good.
Martin Smith Hide
3 Teal
Holden Tower
A Red Kite was soaring over the S end of the reserve at 0800hrs. Lots of Curlew and Shelduck on the estuary.
