First signs of spring
Since the start of March we have seen various signs of spring emerging with hares boxing, lapwing performing aerial displays and songbirds filling the car park with music in the mornings. Visitors can listen to song thrush, great tit and chaffinch before you even step foot into the centre.
Male shoveler and goldeneye have been displaying to the females out on the reserve and Welney has seen bumper numbers of snipe too, with up to 46 individuals from the main observatory alone. The first avocets returned to us on Sat 2 March and the first male garganey came back to a chilly Welney on Mon 18 March. The secretive garganey winters in Africa and returns to the UK for the summer. Males have a distinctive white crescent over their eye whilst the body is a mixture of stripey, spotty and scallop-shaped feather patterns. Staff at Welney are looking forward to a female joining him and the weather warming up to that he does the characteristic display-call which sounds like running a fingernail across a comb.
