On arrival after the short journey down the M180 i was greeted by the sight of a Great-spotted Woodpecker and a male Pheasant and his harem around the mini feeding station near the car park...a pleasant start to proceedings.A quick walk up along the approach track revealed some nice signs of spring in the form of a singing male Reed Bunting and a flock of 17 north bound Redwings,breaking into their song,no doubt limbering up for their breeding territories further north and east.
To be fair even though it was an overcast sky,there was plenty of spring bird song elsewhere to cheer me up,from the spritely Coal Tits in the pine plantation to the lovely song of local Mistle and Song Thrushes and an electric blue flash saw me disturbing a Kingfisher from it's fishing perch.The song theme was continued as i approached the final stretch of path up to the duck hide,with an explosive burst of Cetti's song and the obligatory fleeting glimpse as the bird shot around the corner of a bush...a nice surprise and my first here for several years.
On to the duck hide and several expectant scans of the sparse reed beds revealed no sightings of the reported recent Bittern records,but fine compensation was had in the form of 7 beautiful Whooper Swans.
As i have mentioned here on many occasions these lovely birds rate as one of my all time favourite birds,they are just stunning with that lovely trumpeting call and gleaming white plumage set off perfectly with the yellow blaze on their bills.Added interest was provided by one of the adult birds having a yellow darvic ring with B4A in black lettering on it's right leg and on arriving home and some quick response from the WWT conservation body and particularly Kane Brides i was told that this bird had been ringed as a cygnet in Iceland in 2006.It was an interesting piece of information and iam waiting for some further history of the bird from the C-Ring website from which i have submitted the sighting.Its amazing to think that this bird has made it's ninth visit to the UK to get away from those harsh Icelandic winters.
Other sightings on the main lake included 17 Cormorant which were indulging in some courtship display,21 Shoveler,15 Teal and as previous springs,a displaying pair of Lesser black-backed Gulls.Hopefully one day both the Cormorants and the Leebs will stop to breed.
The remainder of the reserve was fairly quiet apart from more of the same species in the plantation as earlier with the added sightings of a hand full of Goldcrest.
Another great visit to this gem of a reserve.
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| 6 of the 7 Whooper Swans,with the colour-ringed bird central in the photo. |
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| Whooper Swans. |
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| Whooper Swans. |
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| Colour ringed adult Whooper Swan,B4A. |
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| Cormorants. |
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| Courting Lesser black-backed Gulls. |
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