Trip reports

Visit to Saltholme-28/4/2012

What's this Bird?-Saltholme-Bill Young

Sunday, 29 April 2012

The bird counting started as we arrived at the reserve on the ponds near the coach park. Here a Canada Goose was sitting on a nest on the island, a Coot searching for food and a Reed Bunting in the reeds. The visitor centre board mentioned Glossy Ibis with a selection of photos of this bird, so the race was on for the first spotting of this rarity.
From the first hide we picked up Pochard, Mallard, Teal, Moorhen, Grey Heron, Great Crested and Little Grebe. On the feeders were Greenfinch, Goldfinch and Great Tit and feeding on the ground a Stock Dove.
Our walk took us around the Kestrel trail, but alas, no Kestrels seen today! But we did see Swallow, Swift, House and Sand Martin which was a bonus.
We took a wander around the Wild flower meadow where there was an abundance of cowslips with Meadow Pippits and Skylarks up in the air. On the ponds were seen Black Tailed Godwit, Lapwing, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Cormorant, Tufted Duck and Gadwall. From the next hide we found the noisy Black Headed Gulls. Also Lesser Black Backed, Great Black Backed and Herring Gulls. Out on the fields and ponds there were Greylags and many more Canada Geese with Carrion Crows, Jackdaws, Starlings, Wood and Ferrel Pidgeons. Shelduck and Shoveller were also seen from here. At the next hide we were treated to excellent views of Yellow, White and Pied Wagtails and it was good to see the differences between the two black and white varieties. Here we also found Little Ringed Plover, Redshank, Brent Geese, Magpie and Goldeneye.
On the feeders back at the visitor centre we added Blue Tit, Chaffinch and a Fox, yes I did say a fox. She was having a good hoover up of the scraps left by the birds and then tackled the fat balls. Another mammal spotted today was a Hare and of course the Shetland sheep who help with the conservation on the reserve. As for the Glossy Ibis it was seen from the hilltop overlooking the ponds from the wild flower meadows by a select few of the 26 in the group today. Bird of the day was a toss up between Glossy Ibis and White Wagtail out of the 51 different species seen.