Our Wildlife Enquiries service gets very busy this time of year from people who have found young birds that appear to be distressed or abandoned - A walk down to the hide may put you in this situation but be assured, as I found out on Friday evening that the parents are never too far behind to look after them.
Young birds seem to be everywhere at the moment, some more obvious than others. Contact calls are constantly being piped out from the vigilant adults whilst the begging calls of the young ensure that they proud parents don't get too far without being hassled for more food.
That evening I saw young whitethroat, sedge warbler, long-tailed tit, great tit, blue tit and although I didn't see them, the amount of noise coming from an ash tree assured me that the great spotted woodpeckers would soon have hungry fledglings too. The pools delivered yet more "fledglings" as it appears that one pair of moorhens have successfully raised 3 chicks.
Now that many dragon and damsel flies have emerged your chances of seeing a hobby are increased as these birds of prey specialise in catching these winged mini-beasts in flight. The flock of black-tailed godwits numbers around the 200 mark but counts of 300 have been made in the past week. Late afternoon and into the evening is a good time to visit IMF to see these birds come to life as they start to feed and squabble whilst little egrets return to their roosting quarters. Yellow and pied wagtails frequent the edges of the pools in an evening too.
Latest Baby news .... 11 young gadwall following a proud mother
More younsters, this time on the marsh road and Denhall Lane as 100's of starlings feed along the sheep fields and marsh.