The first sight that assailed me early this morning as I arrived at the reserve barn, was the sun breaking through the clouds, yes the sun, a rare sight recently. Not only that, it got sunnier, with patches of blue sky breaking through and with no cold wind, it felt great, it felt like Spring was just around the corner. Clearly the birds felt the same because Skylarks seemed to be singing from most patches of sky, the whistles of Wigeon and Teal were everywhere and even a few pairs of Lapwings were performing their aerial courtship displays. To round this "feel" of Spring off, I found the first newly created Lapwing nest scrape. Yes, not only was Spring in the air but I had one in my step as I walked round.
The reserve has had a real, proper look of a wetland nature reserve just lately, with large areas of flooded or boggy grass permanently covered with shed loads of wildfowl and waders, feeding, roosting, washing and now courting. Many ducks are back in numbers that we haven't seen for some time and as I said recently, even the Coots have got back to there normal winter flock sizes, some can be seen below.
I don't normally do lists of birds on here that much, I find that those lists can get a bit repetitive and boring on a daily basis, much preferring to simply describe the general goings on and gossip from the area, but for a change, here's a few of today's sightings.
2 Little Egret - 3 Grey Heron - 2 Little Grebe - 30 Mute Swan - 70 White-fronted Geese - 5 Barnacle Geese - 50 Greylag Geese - 600 Brent Geese - 300 Shelduck - 3 Tufted Duck - 160 Pintail - 600 Teal - 700 Wigeon - 20 Gadwall - 60 Shoveler - 200 Mallard - 1 Buzzard - 6 Marsh Harrier - 1 ringtail Hen Harrier - 1 Kestrel - 2 Barn Owl - 110 Coot - 800 Lapwing - 20 Meadow Pipit - 2 Bearded Tit - 1 Hooded Crow - 80 Carrion Crow - 20 Greenfinch - 8 Chaffinch - 16 Reed Bunting.
