Middle of October

Bearded Tit (c) Peter Milligan

For the past four weeks I have been looking and listening out for Bearded Tits. I have been reliably informed that they have had a very successful breeding season and that this could  be an irruption and dispersal year. I had only managed to get down to the moor a couple of times in the last week as the very wet and unsettled weather made birding last weekend almost impossible. Last Thursday I managed a couple hours between the showers and did think that I might have heard a tell-tale “ping” from the ditch beside  the path to the first screen. I stood and listened but there were no other calls and all I could see were a couple of Reed Buntings feeding in the phragmites. 

All I could spot was a Reed Bunting!

Thus, I had a mixture of feelings when I heard on Friday evening that a pair of Beardies had been seen and photographed from the bridleway close to the kissing  gate to the screens. A little bit disappointed that I hadn’t found them myself, but mostly delighted to know that this charismatic wetland beauty was once again on the moor after a four-year absence. Since then they have been very elusive but were seen several times on Saturday, but of course we failed to locate them on Sunday when I  finally got down there. 

Female Bearded Tit (c) Peter Milligan

There is a huge acreage of reeds for them to hide in and hopefully will be joined by others in the next month or so. If the winter is not too harsh, they may well remain and even breed again next year.

Snipe

Water levels are rising steadily across the reserve now and the muddy edges of the southern lagoon are being reclaimed, just from the sheer quantity of rain that has fallen. The scrapes on Greenaway’s are filling up rapidly after the dry summer. In front of the first screen there are over thirty Snipe hunkered down in the stubble of old cut reeds, although their camouflage makes them difficult to discern. 

Courting Gadwall

There  are over forty Gadwall on and around the two  lagoons and they are actively courting and pairing up, occasionally unpaired females are pursued in frantic noisy flights by amorous males. Shoveller numbers too are on the rise and they are beginning to emerge from their much drabber and dull eclipse plumage.

Both Fieldfares and Redwings are being seen regularly now and there are several small flocks of Meadow Pipits on the main fields.

Meadow Pipit

On Sunday we saw a Peregrine over Greenaway’s and Ashgrave and there have been regular reports of Merlin both male and female. One was seen over the reedbed then hunting what was assumed to be a Meadow Pipit over the Flood Field. A male was seen flying fast and low along the path to second screen and headed straight towards the observer. Three different Marsh Harriers were seen at the weekend.

Goldfinch

There have been several Otter sightings from the first screen. On Wednesday one swam across the lagoon from right to left very close to watchers in the screen. On Sunday we spotted a stream of bubbles in the northern lagoon but were unable to find or see what was causing them and an Otter is the most likely explanation. 

Kingfisher still showing at the first screen (c) Paul Wyeth

Once again, we were surprised at the number of small mammals that skittered across our path on Sunday. It may be that the water on the fields has displaced some of them from flooded burrows and runs. Two barn Owls have been seen hunting on the north eastern side of the reedbed and probably another individual at Noke.

Autumnal female Blackcap

Hopefully our Bearded Tits will stay around, be joined by some others and allow me to get some pictures! Expect an update next week.

Calm at the southern Lagoon (c) Paul Wyeth