Can't I write this blog outside? It's a beautiful day here at Leighton Moss! The sun's out and the air feels warm. Walking along the Griesdale trail I hear warblers on fine form and see the insect life is coming out in force. Willow trees are releasing their tiny seeds on fluffy parachutes and the sunlight catches them as they float on a gentle breeze. It's like walking through a spring wonderland! Ahhh! Anyway, I've had to come back indoors now to tell you about the highlights of the sightings over the last few days...
If you had been around Public hide or Lower hide early yesterday morning (19 May) then you may well have seen a couple of ospreys over the water as they hunted for fish. About 8 am one of them made a catch then flew off towards the Kent Estuary. The other osprey hung around until 8:30 am then moved on too.
Otters have been making an appearance again. Two were seen from Lower hide at some time on Wednesday (16 May) and then very early on Friday (18 May) morning, 6 - 6:30 am, four otters were seen from the Public hide. Today (20 May) a visitor saw one from Lower hide at 9 am. Early morning is the best time to spot them though we have had past sightings reported at various times throughout the day.
One of our elusive and rather quiet bitterns was spotted flying around our new Tim Jackson hide on Friday (18 May) about 10:25 am. It flew from behind the hide then went left to right in front of the hide and dropped down into the reeds behind some dead trees. Thank you Ken Harrison for writing this one in our sightings book :-)
Little babies everywhere springing up like daisies! Ducklings at Lilian's, goslings at Tim Jackson's and ten nests of avocets down at Allen hide contain 27 new balls of fluff between them! I also saw a great tit taking some food into one of the nest boxes on the Griesdale trail this morning and heard the chicks cheeping inside. Aww!
Doesn't nature make you want to get outside? It sure does for me! I'm off now! :-)
