Sightings for Monday 18 September plus seasonal work on the Rushy

The low pressure led to slightly higher tides, some of the small waders came into the Top New Piece. Water levels rose sharply overnight following the heavy rains so some waders had changed their feeding sites, the wildfowl certainly enjoyed the feeding bonanza with South Lake being a particularly busy spot.

*Please note-Seasonal work on the Rushy*

Following the completion of a couple of days of essential site management tasks in July we are about to enter the latest annual phase of habitat and building maintenance work. The work party starts on Tuesday 19 September and will continue to Thursday 21 September at least. If we don’t manage to do the bulk of the work in this slot we may be out here again the following week. Another work period in October prior to the main winter bird arrivals is also scheduled to check bubblers, coppice and pollard trees and complete a final cut.

This week we’ll be working on the buildings – Scott House, Old Swan Obs, Peng Obs etc, as well as carrying out maintenance to pipes and sluices, some island restoration and repair, anti-erosion repairs, a late hay cut and collect, strim the causeways and islands, tractor mow the wildflower meadow, bunds and rides and manage the compost heaps along with any other jobs that need covering.

All the birds here will relocate to other scrapes for a time, we have 14 hides and numerous outdoor opportunities to enjoy these birds around the reserve so keep an eye on our Twitter feed for sightings or ask at the admissions desk for information, we have a tablet and diary for you to see what's happening, as for the birds they’ll return to the site to roost at the end of the day when we will be done and out of the way to let them settle in for the evening.

Middle Point

Over high tide there were six Spoonbill, 2 Great Egret, 10+ Little Egret, 120 Curlew and a mobile small wader flock that included 3 Knot, 3 Curlew Sandpiper, 63 Ringed Plover, 150 Dunlin, 7 Sanderling, 3 Little Stint and 2 Ruff. Whinchat and 2 Stonechat on the fence, Sedge Warbler in the reeds. Five Ruff and 4 Sanderling were the best of the early morning low tide waders and they were independent of the larger mixed Ringed Plover/Dunlin flock.

Estuary Tower

Lesser Whitethroat, 5 Chiffchaff and a dozen Blackcap in the hedge.

Top New Piece

At least three Little Stint, 30 Dunlin and 150 Ringed Plover came in over the tide. A Stonechat, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Reed Warbler in the hedge along the seawall, 2 Little Grebe and 3 Kingfishers on the deeper fleet, 5 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Ruff and 3 Wigeon among the Teal. Grounds/Matrix- 30+ Chiffchaff and 10+ Blackcap.

Rushy Hide

At least two Spotted Redshank (another two flew to South Lake), 3 Snipe, 8+ Redshank, 6+ Ruff, a few Black-tailed Godwit, 40 Teal.

Knott Hide

Green Sandpiper and Little Egret + Shoveler and Teal on the Pill Box Pool.

Tack Piece

60 Teal.

South Lake

Cattle Egret early morning,12+ Ruff, 4 Snipe, 150 Black-tailed Godwit, very busy with birds, mostly Teal, Greylag, Shoveler feeding/roosting on the scrape and lake.

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