Water Birds

At this time of year the wetland at Foxglove is full of bird life. Many wading birds return inland to breed and the wet meadows with their shallow pools and banks covered in short vegetation provide the perfect habitat for several species. Lapwing are a familar farmland bird that has suffered significant declines recently and is now a Red List species. There are lots of different local names for this bird: Peewit and Green Plover are both used widely across England and Scotland, but others include ‘Tieve’s Nacket’ (Shetland), ‘Toppyup’ (Borders), and ‘Lappy’ (Yorkshire).

Curlew, Redshank, Snipe are the other species of wader that can be found here during the breeding season. Moorhen live on the wetland all year round and can almost always be seen from the tower hide. They have a really varied diet and eat water plants, seeds, fruit, grasses, insects, snails, worms and small fish.

There are plenty of Greylag Geese on the reserve too. It won't be too long before their fluffy goslings are in tow.

Today's photos were taken by Mark Geering who has managed to capture a Goose in flight too!