Final flush count for this winter

Just Graham and me this morning, wading through the marshes. The reserve is really wet now. The rushes that we walked through last month on the edge of School Pond and now part of the pond itself and there is a lot of standing water lurking within the Hay Meadow marsh. The snipe are clearly still happy with the habitat. 14 flew up from School Pond, 20 from Big Meadow and Upper Sowerholme recorded its highest score of the season with 5. Lower overall than last month, but this is to be expected as the birds move off to pastures new. I saw Richard Storton afterwards and he was impressed with the tally. In fact, he is optimistic about the chances of snipe breeding on the reserve. He says that we are most unlikely to ever find a nest, but if drumming behaviour is observed that is strong evidence that the snipe are breeding. Apparently the snipe fly high up in the air and then drop like a stone, the noise being generated by their tail feathers. A weird noise apparently, most likely to be heard around dusk on a still evening. Let’s hope someone hears them!