The week's wildlife

The White-spotted Bluethroat remains at Middle Point and a few other new arrivals end our week

The White-spotted Bluethroat remains at Middle Point, showing and singing occasionally but the bird remains very shy and elusive. Today (Friday) we've also seen the arrival of two Wood Sandpiper on the South Lake, and a Spoonbill was seen flying off the river at high tide heading inland before dropping in on the Top New Piece.

This week we've been busy counting ducklings as part of our breeding surveys. Broods of Gadwall, Shoveler and Tufted Duck have all been noted along with numerous broods of Shelduck and Mallard.

A Cuckoo was still singing yesterday (Thursday), mainly around the Decoy Wood and Canoe Safari area.

Rushy Hide
We now have two pairs of Common Tern on upper pond, settling on islands and courtship feeding. The Little Ringed Plover pair still have two chicks, and also on the lower pond were a brood of ten Tufted Ducklings, a brood of Gadwall, three broods of Mallard and five broods of Avocet. On the upper pond islands were 62 Gadwall, a drake Teal and unusual count of eight Oystercatcher, possibly displaced from the river at high tide.

Zeiss Hide
At least one drake eclipse plumage Garganey was with 38 Teal on the Top New Piece. Also counted were 18 Gadwall and two broods of Gadwall totaling 15 ducklings, six Shoveler, 48 Avocet, 15 Black-tailed Godwit, two Oystercatcher and a brood of four Shelduck. Several Sand Martin were also feeding low over the water in a mixed flock of House Martin and Swallow. The Spoonbill seen earlier over the Dumbles dropped in here mid-morning.

Estuary Tower
One of the fledged Little Grebe from the Pillbox Pool has now moved to the Long Ground Pool. A Little Egret was on the Pillbox Pool. Out on the riverbank the roost held at least 55 Curlew with 7 Oystercatcher and 85 Shelduck. A Redshank was with a chick on the Dumbles, and the pair of Avocet with 2 chicks were on the scrape near the hide along with a brood of Shelduck.

Summer Walkway
A Spoonbill flew over and headed inland around 9:40am. Out at Middle Point the White-spotted Bluethroat was heard singing twice and gave brief views between 8am and 9:40am. A Grasshopper Warbler is also reeling from the reedbed area here too.

South Lake
Two Wood Sandpiper and three Green Sandpiper were on the wader scrape this morning amongst 33 Black-tailed Godwit and 27 Redshank. A flock of 66 Shelduck were loafing on the back shoreline and dotted across the scrape were 61 adult Avocet with 19 chicks. Three Oystercatcher were towards the Hogarth Hide and a pair of Little Ringed Plover were nest scraping and displaying. The moulting flock of Gadwall on the deep lake totaled 47 birds.

• Share this article