...the birds were worth making the effort of putting on the winter clothes. We had hundreds of low-flying swifts, swallows and house martins hawking over lakes and tracks, and occasionally swifts whizzed through the car park at ankle height. Fantastic, though risky!
A black tern was watched on Ferry Mere during our dusk chorus walk on Friday, and a grasshopper warbler sang near Moore Lake - both of them "new" birds for several participants. The evening ended with bat detecting - noctule, pipistrelle and Daubenton's made it onto our list.
After drawing a blank yesterday, a black tern was found on Moore Lake this morning, then it relocated to Ferry Mere this afternoon, to the delight of members of the South Lincolnshire RSPB Local Group, who saw the daity bird just before they headed off for home.
Water levels are falling slowly, and paths still have standing water in places, but the bird watching has been very good recently.
We watched at least five hobbies flying together, catching damselflies and eating them as the predators continued to fly. Common terns seemed to be favouring one area of Elney Lake for hunting, and a carrion crow took exception to buzzard that flew over, which entertained the group I was guiding.
Flooding has receded and our car park is accessible again, but with more heavy rain forecasted, please keep checking the situation with us before making a long journey.
An avocet flew over the car park just after people left following our guided walk this morning; we had birded along Holywell Ferry Road, recording nine different warbler species, then we saw a hobby on the south side of Elney Lake.
Flooding has continued through Sunday, and each of our lakes is overflowing into the adjacent lake, creating one super lake.
Visitors can still see birds from the entrance road - today there were some yellow wagtails (before water levels completely covered the area they had been in), swallows, house martins and swifts were swarming low over the water for insects, and warblers were singing in the hedges.
We'll meet and greet visitors on Bank Holiday Monday somewhere on Holywell Ferry Road - the road is now flooded before it reached the Guided Busway.
Access update: The small (Elney) car park is now flooded and the main car park also remains closed. Many footpaths are flooded, including access routes to the hide.
Water levels have risen again overnight, particularly around Elney, Drayton and Moore Lakes. Elney Lake has risen by nearly 2m since the flooding began on Sunday and Moore Lake is now a sea of water - all the islands are submerged. This has obviously had a massive effect on ground nesting birds on this part of the lakes, but many smaller creatures are struggling too. Whilst reading the water levels yesterday I found many invertebrates clinging to anything that emerged from the water - vegetation, fence posts etc. I've put some pics of these in the photos section. There were snails, woodlice, various beetles, spiders and earwigs all piled on top of each other in an attempt to climb out of the water. Unfortunately today the levels had risen again in this area and still appear to be rising. The Moore Brook has been flowing backwards onto site for most of this week!
If you do visit the site, please take care. We'll keep the blog updated with access info until things dry out.