At this time of year the marsh comes alive with the sound of birdsong as migrant warblers return from Africa to breed. The Warden will spend the morning showing visitors the best places to see sedge warblers, sand martins and much more. Meet: Marazion Marsh (SW514312) opposite small private car park Time: 9am - 11am Bring: Suitable outdoor clothing, binoculars. Cost: £3 Booking: Essential For more information contact Jenny Parker on 01736 360624 or email jenny.parker@rspb.org.uk
In spite of the mild climate here in the south west, we haven't completely escaped the cold weather and the marsh has frozen over on several occasions in January and February. Fortunately, the week we spent opening up the network of channels in the reedbeds with our amphibious 'Truxor' remained ice-free and we completed the work without mishap. Our trusty volunteers are now busy clearing up after the cut, mostly burning the cut reeds - when weather permits. Our other major work, removing invasive willow scrub from the flooded reedbeds, however, has been curtailed due to the nesting herons. We have between seven and eight active nests at the moment but lately the birds have been disturbed by helicopters flying directly overhead. I have written to RNAS Culdrose about this and we await their reply but in the meantime if you witness any disturbance from these please do contact me.
Up to three Bitterns have been sighted since the above work took place but if the current cold snap continues we should expect more; after all we had seven here last winter! There are a number of Chiffchaffs also using the cut areas and any small bird you see flitting through the reedbeds at the water's edge is either likely to be this species, or a Blue Tit at the moment. The increase in open water brought about by the cutting has also attracted up to 70 Teal and a few Gadwall, Shoveler and Mallard. The Mute Swans have moved in and are staking out their territories as I write and we appear to have about four pairs here again this season.
With Swallows reported from Helston, Truro and Porth Leven recently, we may not have much longer to wait for spring to arrive - or were these simply over-wintering birds that had remained elusive until recently?
On the way into work today I saw a bittern fly into the reedbed at the back of Longrock Pool, a very nice start to the day. The pair of shoveler are also still on the pool.
Incredibly, the grey heron’s are already starting to gather nesting material and are building nests in the reedbed. One pair is nesting north of the railway and can be seen from the railway bridge as you look towards Cheshire Homes, they are rebuilding an old nest in a small willow tree. The second pair have selected to nest on the ground, on an island in the sanctuary area. You can see these birds from the pavement if you stand east of the viewing lay-by looking north-west over the Cornish hedge. We usually have six to eight breeding pairs so there will be plenty of opportunity to see the herons over the coming months.
Our breeding birds at Marazion started well with several broods of Mallard, Moorhen and Mute Swan appearing quite early on. However, the exceptionally low water levels have meant few will have survived the foxes and other predators which have had easy access to areas normally deeply flooded.
The highlight this spring/summer has again been the influx of Red Kites during 3rd-5th June. On the first day 19 appeared over Marazion. On 4th there were 24 over Marazionbut on of 5th they had all moved back east with the last, a flock of ten over Hayle that day. These birds are almost undoubtedly from the various reintroduction schemes the RSPB has undertaken over the last decade but as they are becoming more numerous, fewer are being wing-tagged and most of our birds in Cornwall this spring didn’t sport any tags. However, one bird with green tags on both wings gave a clue to its origin: Dumfries & Galloway and although the precise colour of the tag on the right wing couldn’t be determined it was either tagged in 1998 (lime green) or 2006 (green). Let us know if you see one of these wing-tagged birds and we’ll try and trace it for you.