Print pageSeasonal highlights
Each season brings a different experience at our nature reserves. In spring, the air is filled with birdsong as they compete to establish territories and attract a mate. In summer, look out for young birds making their first venture into the outside world. Autumn brings large movements of migrating birds - some heading south to a warmer climate, others seeking refuge in the UK from the cold Arctic winter. In winter, look out for large flocks of birds gathering to feed, or flying at dusk to form large roosts to keep warm.
Spring
A wide variety of wildfowl which includes up to nine species of breeding ducks will be going through their mating and courtship rituals. A large black-headed gull colony with up to 600 pairs start to build nests while little grebes, coots and moorhens begin nest building.
Breeding waders will be displaying, such as snipes, redshanks, oystercatchers, curlews and lapwings.
The last of the wintering whooper swans and greylag geese will depart for Iceland, and look carefully for passage waders on their way to their Arctic breeding grounds which use the reserve as a feeding ground to break their journey.
Summer
Up to nine species of ducks including the rare pintail and regionally important numbers of breeding shovelers will have young ducklings, which with patience are quite easy to see. There will be broods of greylag goslings, black-headed gull chicks and waders with young. Watch out for marauding gulls or even a bird of prey coming in to the reserve to try their luck for a meal.
Arctic passage waders appear in late July and August. A few grey herons arrive to take up residence also. Once the black-headed gulls have finished nesting, it is possible to hear the squeals and grunts of breeding water rails. Bog beans, marsh marigolds, cuckoo flowers, northern marsh orchids and marsh cinquefoils will be in flower.
Autumn
Whooper swans arrive in October to spend the winter on the island, and can often be seen on the reserve, with an ever-increasing number of several thousand Icelandic greylag geese. Wintering duck numbers swell, with several hundred teals, mallards and wigeons.
In the fields around the reserve, there may be flocks of several hundred waders such as curlews, golden plovers, oystercatchers and redshanks. Raptors such as hen harriers regularly visit the reserve looking for food.
Winter
Large flocks of wintering ducks such as wigeons, teals and mallards, with smaller numbers of shovelers, pintails and gadwalls. Whooper swans number up to 100 birds with several thousand wintering Icelandic greylag geese. Flocks of wintering waders such as golden plovers, redshanks, oystercatchers and curlews can be found.
These winter months are best for sightings of hen harriers patrolling the reserve and the chance of other raptors such as merlins, peregrines and sparrowhawks.