Latest Sightings
It's been a busy week for the Reserve Team! Lots of surveys and early mornings, but this means an abundance of lovely species sightings! We did a Butterfly Survey last Tuesday and found a total of 21 individuals - the species found include; Green-veined White, Orange Tip, Peacock, Holly Blue, and Speckled Wood. As you walk round the reserve in the coming weeks you'll see a lot more and hopefully some more species will start to appear. We also completed a nest box survey and found that we had 38 partially completed or completed nests, much more than the last survey, so we know the birds have been busy. In addition, 16 of the completed nests have successfully laid eggs, which is a joy to see. Recently we have had the Muslin Moth and Lesser Swallow Prominent moth make their first appearance at the site, along with the return of our regulars - the Hebrew Character and Common Quaker moths.
Throughout the last week, in the early morning, we have been carrying out the Breeding Bird Survey which we do monthly in Spring and Summer. We've surveyed every field and marsh, including the car park, nature trail, and public footpaths for breeding birds and managed to get some nice and informative results. In the reedbed we have Cuckoo, Grasshopper Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Bearded Tits, and Marsh Harrier - lots of beautiful species to see on this coming weekend! 7 Wheatear were seen not far from Ron-barker Hide, as well as a Cetti's warbler, snipe, and several reed bunting. We also have blackcap, dunnock and song thrush on the Gordon Taylor track.
This week's feature photo is of a reed bunting.
