Wild winter extravaganza
Cracking day for the 2020 Wild Winter celebration.
Superb weather forecast for the whole w/e do come along and take advantage of all the walks talks and displays among a stunning congregation of wintering birds. The flight of the swans film will be screened at 2pm.
Estuary Tower
The added height of the new tower has really come into its own this morning with a massive flock of over 2000 ducks a mixture of mainly wigeon and pintail basking in the sun waiting for the floods to thaw. Peregrines very active this morning, buzzards and a raven as well. Hundreds of barnacle and canada geese, the whitefront flock with the 8 pinkfooted geese just visible to the north. Great aerial displays from the lapwings and some close up skylark in the sunshine proving very popular. A pair of courting foxes were causing great interest not least among the goose flocks.
Willow Hide
The usual garden birds and the two most photographed water rail in the country.
Tack Piece
The flock of 54 redshank and 29 ruff just a few meters away across the scrape is the main highlight here with so many birds mixed together in all plumages this makes for an excellent workshop on separating these two species. Concentrate on the shape and bill rather than worrying too much about leg colour and plumage. A colourful mixture of teal, wigeon, pintail and shoveler aerial manoeuvres from hundreds of lapwing, dunlin and more distantly golden plover stretching to over a mile to the north taking advantage of the exceptional flooding throughout the reserve this very wet winter. The Martin Smith hide is great for close ups of the common ducks and 3 of the best camouflaged snipe you will ever see.
Zeiss Hide
A carpet of teal over the scrape and a roving flock of lapwing moving around. A cettis was singing and seen briefly close to the hide and the odd squeak from water rail as well. A buzzard feeding on a recent kill was keeping everything on high alert.
Kingfisher Hide
Rather nice here this morning with a collection of gadwall, a little grebe and an actual kingfisher. Great spotted woodpecker and a reed bunting among others at the feeding station another cettis calling close to the hide and 5 roe deer to the back of the field.
Rushy
Bewicks Swan 86 overnight and the usual scrum of pintail, Pochard, tufted and shelduck. A tight group of 9 snipe were trying to warm up in the sunshine.
