“Hi everyone I do hope you are all well and keeping safe. I am in the very fortunate position of living in Nosterfield so my daily exercise is mostly on either the reserve or the quarry. I’ve also been monitoring water levels.
The weather has been very kind, mostly, apart from a sneaky northerly wind and a severe frost one day which did for my neighbour’s magnolia.
The sun has brought out the butterflies, I’ve seen a marvellous peacock feeding on a blackthorn flower.
Bloody nosed beetles have started to appear both near the dipping ponds and on the footpath towards Thornborough.
The footpath around Kiln Lake is looking great with the leaves appearing on the trees. It is a week since I took this photo and the ‘greening up’ is moving apace.
Water levels are dropping from near record levels and Cobble Island is starting to re appear. This has resulted in birds starting to nest.
The Little Owl pair have been most obliging and sit in their tree most days on the footpath between Flask Lane and the quarry. There have been 3/4 Little Egrets Flying around the site, very nervous birds and difficult to photograph. The Grey Heron numbers have reached at least 7 possibly more.
Last Saturday morning we were visited by a herd of about 50 Whooper Swans. I was on the Causeway and heard them coming in, thinking they were geese initially, but what an amazing sight as they landed on Flask to join the resident Mute Swans. By the afternoon they were gone.
All the birds are in full breeding plumage. 10-12 Black Tailed Godwits looking very ginger on the main lake at the reserve.
The Snow Goose has remained on Flask for the last couple of weeks and now appears to have paired up with a Greylag, a rather odd couple. What will the offspring look like?
The same day whilst walking around kiln I caught a brief sighting of a male Pied Flycatcher. This got Simon rather excited as it is the first record on the site. They do, however, breed nearby so it was not a total surprise.
Birds of note recently include Yellow and White Wagtails, singing Skylarks, a pair of Little Ringed Plover, a pair of ‘chatting’ stonechat and yesterday a fabulous cream crowned Marsh Harrier which flew over Flask and the reed bed but kept going towards Well.
Lastly, yesterday about 5pm a Red Kite flew into the field behind the layby in the village and picked up something and hung around for a while. This bird comes and goes but appears to be spreading our way.”
