The Great Crane soap opera
Our Cranes have been very busy this morning with lots of activity around the Dumbles and the Tack Piece leaving us scratching our heads as to what is going on
Crane update
So it has been a busy day for our Cranes with the best of the action seen from the Holden Tower. See if you can keep up with this soap opera drama!
This morning Rosa was on the Dumbles with two unringed adults. We'll never know where the adults have come from, but they're likely to be birds from either the East Anglia population or potentially even the continent.
We've had two unringed adults before, and like these two new birds we'll never know where they've come from. They first two unringed birds were often seen close to Ruby and her two juveniles around the time she sadly lost her partner Bart. The first two unringed birds dropped to one back in early December when one of them disappeared along with one of Ruby's juveniles. Since the departure Ruby has been keeping close association with the remaining unringed adult and her remaining juvenile, until Wednesday when the adults were seen flying over the South Lake and landing to the east over the canal, followed a few minutes later by the juvenile on its own. It would appear as though Ruby and the unringed adult are pairing up and trying to kick out the youngster ahead of this breeding season. We'll see over the next couple of weeks whether they form a new pair or go their separate ways.
To complicate matters, one of the newly arrived unringed adults also seems interested in Ruby, so we may yet see a little competition for her attention and the right to breed. Hopefully the other unringed birds will pair with Rosa, and another bird Kia who was also sat on the side lines of the Dumbles this morning. So this leaves us with three unringed adults on the reserve today and a few unpaired birds from the Great Crane Project releases.
Last year Monty and Sedge got back together after he left her for another female called Chip. They successfully hatched a chick on the Rushy but it sadly didn't survive to fledge. They've spent the winter together but this morning Sedge was once again on her own as Monty was in seemingly now interested in Evie, a lone female who was eventually rejected last year by another male, Oakie.
Oakie himself is still with new partner Sherbert and their juvenile. Last year he split from the long-term trio that was Cotton, Oakie and Evie and moved on to pair up with Sherbert. They successfully hatched two chicks on the Top New Piece, viewed from the Zeiss Hide, and successfully fledged one who is still with them today.
Elsewhere on the reserve we also have pairs Wendy and Albert, and Phelps and Elizabeth Royal who thankfully look much settled and getting ready for the breeding season ahead. It's suddenly all go, and much more interesting than a TV soap!
Holden Tower
A female Merlin was a nice treat for our Guide in the Hide and visitors this morning as it was sat on the fence to the north at Mid Point. Along with the Crane action, the White-fronted Goose flock was also present, and looked to still have all 151 birds but some where close to the seawall and out of view. The two Bar-headed Geese have reappeared, as did the presumed hybrid Snow x Bar-headed Goose despite being seen to the north of the reserve at Frampton this morning. The male Peregrine caught a Wood Pigeon this morning, but the meal was soon claimed by the female.
Willow Hide
A Chiffchaff was singing from edge of Decoy Wood heard from Willow Hide this morning. Under the feeders were two Water Rails plus a small flock of Chaffinch and House Sparrow.
Robbie Garnett Hide
Along with several hundred Wigeon there were 14 Shoveler and 19 Shelduck on the water this morning. Along the shoreline were 20 Redshank and out in the Tack Piece were 25 Curlew. Cranes Monty and Evie also settled here for much of the day.
Rushy Hide
Duck on the top pond included 12 Pochard, 20 Tufted Duck and a pair of Gadwall, whilst on the lower pond were 5 Avocet, 139 Pintail and 3 Wigeon. Two male Greenfinch were performing a songflight over hide.
Zeiss Hide
Two Avocet were on the scrape this morning along with 152 Teal, 51 Shelduck and 94 Black-tailed Godwit. On the deeper water near the Van de Bovenkamp Hide were 11 Tufted Duck. A total of 280 Wigeon were spread between several groups, a pair of Oystercatcher were also seen.
Kingfisher Hide
The Kingfishers have again been busy this morning. Be sure to follow our Twitter feed for the very latest sightings from staff and our volunteer Guides in the Hides throughout the day. See them here. You don't need a Twitter account to view the posts. In the Bottom New Piece field were 373 Golden Plover, 10 Dunlin, 85 Teal and 70 Lapwing.
South Lake
Waders on the wader scrape this morning included 53 Avocet and 33 Black-tailed Godwit. A Great Crested Grebe was in the corner of the deep lake with four Pochard, four Cormorant were perched up on the rails. No Mediterranean Gulls were found this morning but 17 Common Gull and a few Herring Gulls were present. Other duck included 42 Teal and 102 Shoveler.
