Its been a really beautiful day on the reserve today despite being a bit frozen up at the moment. With the sun and a bit of work it just did'nt seem like the chilly -4 it registered on my car computer.
Yesterday was quite interesting too and seemed a bit like day of movement with 5 whooper swans and a grey plover over plus plenty of ducks on the lagoons including two very dapper male pintail. Plenty of the little birds about too at the moment with some lovely photo's sent to me today by Tim and Si of birds that people often pass by on the reserve (the tree sparrow and songthrush below). For me I love to see the common (ish) species as well as the unusual especially in winter when the crisp white frost makes their plumage details shine through beautifully.
The ever reliable marsh and hen harriers are still about but keep an eye out too for something different. I was at a meeting on the other side of the river yesterday (at a local farm) and had a brief and distant view of a buzzard species with a very pale rump and tail. Unfortunately it was too far away to full make out if it was a rough leg but with all this cold coming in from the east it was a good bet. Maybe it will visit the Harrier roost this weekend?
You may have noticed recently that a bit of fencing is starting to spring up around site. Some of this is only temporary and part of a wider experiment to see if light grazing with the Koniks can help to create better habitat around the lagoons for both breeding birds and passage waders. We are hoping that the combination of grazing and horse poo will mix together to give a real boost to the insect life around the waters edge. Only time will tell if this approach will work but of course if we don't try we will never find out! It certainly is an interesting time at the reserve in terms of trying different management to look at how we cost effectively manage the reserve and the wider landscape in the future with dwindling natural resources. Whats the saying, only the brave (or slightly mad!) succeed?
Anyway to try and tempt you out to visit this weekend and enjoy a drop of beautiful countryside here are a few recent photo's minus unfortunately a few nice ones I accidentally wiped of my camera. D'oh!
PS - remember to wrap up warm
In order - bracket fungi species, songthrush, tree sparrow and pochard.