Friday 4 May 2012

4th of May: Birds Battling the Weather

After a few welcome days of more spring-like weather it's back to biting Northerlies and rain, bleurgh! It's not deterring the birds though, with migrants still trickling through, and breeding birds pushing on with their nesting, albeit a bit slower than we would expect at this time of year.

A Hobby gave a stunning fly-by to the wardens this morning before heading off inland. This migratory falcon spends the winter in sub-saharan Africa, only returning to breed in Europe once it's prey of large flying insects are plentiful enough. Hopefully the weather won't restrict the food supply too much for this bird
Hobby (Joe Cockram)

Willow Warbler and Wheatear (Joe Cockram)

Many of the smaller breeding birds have now got nests on the go. Some of them, such as this Meadow Pipit even have chicks, judging by that beak-full of flies

Meadow Pipit (Joe Cockram)

An adult Spoonbill also visited the saltmarsh briefly today. In 2010, Spoonbills bred just down the coast from us at Holkham NNR, the first British breeding record for 300 years. They bred successfully there again last year, and hopefully will soon become well established in the UK, they are always a spectacular sight, and always brighten up the greyest of days.
Spoonbill (Joe Cockram)

- Joe

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