Newt Enlightenment

When I opened the Education Centre shutters this morning there was a young smooth newt hiding under the door, no doubt waiting to get education and enlightenment from within. As this was not the safest place for a newt to be, I moved it into the edge of the wood.

a young smooth newt waiting at the Education Centre door this morning

I saw almost all the wildlife I encountered all day in the few minutes it took me to open the hides this morning, after the newt at the Centre I saw the, or more accurately a, bittern at Ivy North hide, it was seen on and off all day.

Bittern at Ivy North hide

Walking to open Ivy South hide I had very close views of a goldcrest, sadly I did not get any good pictures of it, although I did get one that I thought interesting. It was of the bird hovering, the wings are a blur but the head is dead still. They often do this to get at insects and spiders that take refuge at the very end of leaves and twigs, out of reach of less agile predators.

hovering goldcrest

The ringers were in this morning continuing a project looking at moult in young blue tit and trying to catch wintering finches. They seemed to think there were few finches about but a visit to the Woodland hide would suggest otherwise, at least as far as numbers of goldfinch and siskin were concerned.

siskin and goldfinch at feeder beside Woodland Hide

Meanwhile the various developments continue, the new pond at the Centre is being dug, the footings of the Information Hut are in and the site of the new Tern hide is being cleared of an old concrete pad.

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Four Finches and a Hide Away

A fine if chilly day on the reserve and it seemed lots of people were out looking for brambling, although there has been one seen at the Woodland Hide I think it will be a week or tow more before they are regular. Although they are “Winter” finches, they are actually most frequent at our feeders in early spring, so March is often the best month. I think the reason is that they tend to come to artificial feed once the natural food sources reduce. There are certainly more finches at the feeders now than before Christmas, with siskin now present most of the time, with the males singing whenever the sun comes out.

singing siskin

Greenfinch are now probably scarcer than siskin at garden feeders, a reflection of the fall in their numbers as well as an undoubted rise in siskin abundance.

Greenfinch, not as common a sight as once it was

One finch that rarely comes to garden feeders is the linnet, it is a bird of more open habitats, there is a good flock on the shore of Ibsley Water at present and I got a shot of part of the group today.

part of the linnet flock

I took the shot above from Tern hide, by way of a farewell, the hide will be closed as of this evening and tomorrow we start to take it down in readiness for replacing it with a brand new hide. This will mean that part of the car park will be closed tomorrow, although the Centre car park should be back on stream, so overall there will still be plenty of parking.

Although everyone seemed to be looking for brambling, their resident close relative the chaffinch is a very fine bird which we perhaps disregard too easily, probably because it is so common.

male chaffinch

Reports from around the reserve today included –

At Ivy North Hide: the bittern and great white egret, with supporting caste of water rail.                                                                                                                                                        At Woodland Hide: reed bunting and all the regulars.                                                                At Tern Hide: 3 Mediterranean gull, probably 2 Caspian gull and well over 100 common gull, as well as the linnet flock noted above.

As far as I know the yellow-browed warbler has not been certainly seen for a few days now, although I have heard rumours of sightings at various points between Ivy North hide and south of the boardwalk, so who knows?

If you do visit over the next few weeks there will be various works going on, I would ask that you take note of any signs and fences, these will be in place to keep you safe when there is machinery moving around and working. Apart from the Tern hide, which is being replaced, all the other hides remain open and there will always be parking available. The Centre and toilets should be available as usual.

 

A Dull Day Brightened

Things are a little chaotic just now on the reserve, with lots of preparation works underway prior to the various construction projects due in the next couple of months. The major elements have to be completed by 29th March and after several months of planning and discussion we are now getting down to the nitty gritty of delivering the works. So if you visit there is disruption, especially near the Centre, where there is no parking at present, just lots of gravel and yellow lines (not red ones you will notice). However the Centre and toilets are open, as are all the paths and hides, in addition the pop-up cafe will be back this Sunday and if needs be I will open up the overflow parking near Tern hide so there should be space for all comers.

Despite a poor day for weather the wildlife continue dot put on a good show. Opening up the hides we had great close views from Ivy North hide of bittern, water rail and Cetti’s warbler, three notoriously skulking species and on show at the same time! The Woodland hide is really busy with a wide range of the usual species and down near the Ivy South hide the yellow-browed warbler was seen well by a steady stream of visitors throughout the day.

It was a day that could have got you down, dull and drizzly, but seeing wildlife can give a lift to me and probably lots of others. Looking out of the office window into dreariness Jim spied a kingfisher beside the pond, a flash of brilliance against the grey.

kingfisher taken through the office window (which could probably do with a clean!)

There seems no doubt now that being outside in “Nature” is really good for our mental health, perhaps even on a day like today, maybe especially on a day like today. I have worked  along time in conservation and the countryside, during which it has often been said to me that “Wildlife is all very well, but it does not pay the bills”. Maybe so, but if it can improve our health and well-being as a society this will save lots of money to pay the country’s bills. Maybe we should prescribe a kingfisher or three and save the NHS a pound or two.