Wednesday 29 May 2013

Paxton Air Show... don't be put off by RAIN!!!

It remains cool, overcast with occasional showers at Paxton Pits Nature Reserve.

The trails are wet with some wet muddy areas; therefore walking boots or wellies for long walks will be required.

Despite the weather there is always something special to watch...

Common terns, black headed gulls, swifts and martins are performing some mesmerising aerial manoeuvres fly catching and this spectacle can be viewed from the Hayden and Kingfisher Hides.

Nightingales, garden warblers, whitethroats and lesser whitethroats continue to reverberate along the trails.

Kingfishers are very active and viewable with patience... 

Look at the young cormorants, which are developing quickly... 

Cuckoos are quite flighty at the moment and can be seen in flight almost daily...

Heron Trail:
4 (singing) Nightingales, 3 garden warblers, 2 goldcrest, 1 cuckoo, swift, house and sand martin and swallows over Heronry North & South , lesser whitethroat (in brambles at start of trail), whitethroats (at least 5 along trail this morning), common tern, black headed gull, great crested grebes, kingfisher

Meadow Trail:
Cetti's warbler singing, (dozens of) swift, 1 (singing nightingale), lesser whitethroats (in meadow scrub), whitethroats (in meadow), blackcap, garden warbler, kingfisher (pair by riverside)

Sailing Lake:
Common tern, oystercatcher (2 juvs), black headed gulls, greylag goose (with 3 goslings), 4 lesser black back gull

Ouse Valley Way: (first 0.5km N off reserve)
Turtle doves, sedge warblers, reed warblers, whitethroats, lesser whitethroats, blackcap, kingfisher, bullfinch, reed bunting

It is always worth walking the public footpaths around the reserve (maps can be obtained from the Visitor Centre). From Stirtloe Lane (off Ouse Valley Way) you can watch the latter stages of tern and wader passage.

Please call us with any sightings on tel: 01480 406 795 or pop into the centre and write them into our sightings book.

What is life like for the Ranger of Paxton Pits? Jim Stevenson keeps you up to date on his own blog, the inside-track on life in charge of cows, sheep, birds and volunteers.
http://www.paxton-pits.org.uk/ranger.htm


Join The Friends and you will be helping to make Paxton Pits Nature Reserve a better place for wildlife and people, for now and the future.
http://www.paxton-pits.org.uk/friendsjoin.htm

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