A sunny day at Besthorpe 1st March

As if on cue, the weather, which had been gloomy at best the last couple of days, stepped up the game when it realised it was the first day of March - arguably the first month of spring! I was working at Besthorpe nature reserve, clearing some of the trees around the hides to allow better views of the newly landscaped Mons pool, and the sun was shining all day!

The birds seem to be enjoying the new habitat here which is a re-working of the old lake, complete with new muddy scrapes, shallow banks and islands. Its been a good spot for birds for years, but hopefully now, with a bit of management, more will be attracted to the reserve at all times of the year.

Shelducks were the stars of the show today, i counted 18 across the reserve, a personal record for me, the site last year held a few, but 18 was brilliant. They looked lovely in the sunshine with their stunning plumage and bright red bills. Hopefully the majority will find it suitable here to breed. Other ducks were present too with small numbers of Teal, Mallard and Gadwall, and my first Nottinghamshire Pintails. I've been after seeing pintail in notts for ages and finally have caught up with them, a pair which were quite elusive but again looked resplendent in the sunshine.

The reserve is a good one for attracting passing waders and although the majority don't stay long, the summer months can bring some surprises, while longer stayers include Lapwing and Little Ringed Plover. Today they were represented by 7 Redshank, probably wintering birds as they are often noted here over the winter months. Small flocks of upto around 100 Lapwing passed overhead intermittently too.

Recently a small feeding station has been set up near the main bird hide, and this was busy with bickering Goldfinches, a few Great Tits, as well as good numbers of Reed Bunting. With reedbeds establishing on the reserve, its good that this species seems to be doing well, and it's encouraging to see them so happily using the feeders.

I'm excited to see what drops in over the next few months, and hopefully we'll get some nice breeding birds too. What the reserve needs now is a bit of vegetation, as the reprofiling has left a lot of it looking a bit barren, so we'll have to see how the young reeds we planted last year do, as well as anything else that happens to grow.