It's been a quiet couple of weeks or so on the Meadow. We're still blessed with plenty of water (though the floods are now starting to shrink quite quickly) and it all looks great but the much prophesised wader passage just hasn't materialised. Indeed it's been a very poor spring in this respect so far right across the county. Apart from the usual OYSTERCATCHER or two there has been just the odd COMMON SANDPIPER or RINGED PLOVER that has been seen. On Friday we had four of the latter species though they didn't linger and were gone within ten minutes of my finding them.
There has at least been a pick-up in general bird numbers. Whilst a couple of weeks ago the floods were almost deserted, now as they are on the wane the birds are descending to pick off the trapped invertebrates and fish fry. There are hoardes of Black-headed Gulls and up to four LITTLE EGRETS as well as a couple of Grey Herons. As everything is a couple of weeks late this year there's still time for a Wood Sandpiper, or at least a Greenshank or Sanderling, neither of which we've had so far this year.
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| A Little Egret wading through the Spring Rush |
On the Odonata front things have at last kicked off with the first Damselflies now on the wing and Nicola Devine has spotted several species of dragonfly in the Trap Grounds with Black-Tailed Skimmer, Broad-bodied Chaser and Hairy Hawker all having been seen.
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| Broad-bodied Chaser courtesy of Nicola Devine |
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