Hi everyone, it's Liam here from a shot of wildlife and today we are at Welney reserve on the
Ouse washes. Now hopefully because it's the beginning of spring we're going to
catch the last of the winter migrants before they head off to their summer
grounds and some of the early arrivals that spend the summer here in the UK.
There are several hides at Welney and all of them give massive views out
across the Ouse washes. So I've come to the first hide of the day this is the
main observatory and although theres lots of birds way out in the distance, the stars
of the show are definitely just here, two Whooper swans. From behind all swans look
the same however unlike the more common Mute swan, Whooper swans have yellow at
the base of their beaks and don't have the large black bump that mute swans
have. Most of the Whooper swans in the UK have migrated here and breed much
further north in subarctic iceland but in recent years some birds have bred in
the far northern parts of the UK. In 2011 a pair actually bred here at Welney but
that was not by choice. A female had got injured and couldn't make her spring
migrations so her mate stayed with her and they nested here instead. You'll
notice that these birds have leg rings. This is to help researchers to identify
them and track them as they migrate.
Out on the water there were also some scattered pairs of diving ducks. This is
a female Pochard and here is the male. Just like the Whooper swans Pochard are
mainly winter visitors, but do breed in the UK in small numbers. Those that
migrate spend their summers in Russia and Eastern Europe but only around 700
pairs actually breed here. These Ducks are excellent swimmers and spend most of
their time beneath the surface, finding seeds and aquatic invertebrates
to eat. On the pool in front of the main observatory there are three man-made
islands. One of them was completely full of black-tailed Godwit although most of
these were asleep.
Just on the edge of the other islands there is a pair of Avocets. Although it
might look like these birds are just preening, there definitely seems to be
some courtship behaviour involved, normal preening doesn't involve so much head
bopping and the birds seem to be mimicking each other at some points.
Avocets only pair up for breeding so each year they have to find a new mate
before nesting begins again in April.
There was also a pair of tufted ducks out on the water, but these only came up
twice close enough to the hide for me to film them. Look how they jump from the
surface before diving beneath it.
It was time to move on to the next hide but this one was less than impressive.
Well coming from that main observatory I have to say this hide could do with a
little bit of work... I joked too soon as getting to the next hide wasn't going to be a
walk in the park and I definitely grabbed hold of some stinging nettles on my
way across.
After navigating a slightly less than conventional path, I've made it to the
reed bed hide however, I can't really see much wildlife from here but I'm gonna
take a closer look. The reed bed in front of the hide had been given a close
shave so there weren't any birds close in, and aside from the beautiful scenery
all I saw outside was a pair of Coots passing by in the distance.
However the inside windows of the hide were a hive of activity. One of the most
interesting creatures was this parasitic wasp. There are more than six and a half
thousand species of parasitic wasp in the UK and I have no idea which one this
is. Their life cycle is pretty fascinating.
Many of the species lay their eggs inside a living insect and then the wasps larvae
develop and burst out when they're fully grown. Some of their favourite hosts are
caterpillars and spiders. There was a more familiar species of wasp inside the
window too, a common wasp. Almost four centimetres long this isn't
a worker but is actually a young Queen.
In the springtime they emerge from hibernation and begin searching for a
new place to start to build a nest.
Another stripey windowsill resident was this separate jumping spider they're
really fast movers and catch their prey by jumping at them and grabbing hold
with their large forward-facing fangs.
So it just goes to show how sometimes you don't have to look outside of the
windows but actually on the windows themselves. There was so many invertebrates
about, I could have made an entire film about just them. The journey back
from the hide was easier and I definitely didn't get muddy boots, well
maybe I did but I didn't wear boots for them to stay clean.
So I've come to Nelson Lyle hide now and although the view from here is absolutely
amazing, I'm not sure there's any birds out there that I haven't seen from one of
the two previous hides. I was wrong, among some reeds there was a grey heron
stalking for prey. During the spring, a lot of their diet is made up of
amphibians which are in plentiful supply and are distracted by the possibility of
breeding, so not on the lookout for predators.
There was also an obviously named black-headed gull out on one of the
scrapes. Most of the UK's other gold species are associated with the coast
but a majority of black headed gulls are found further inland on freshwater
lakes and rivers, and sometimes away from water entirely. I've been told that the
next hide was closed to visitors as the roof had been blown off in recent bad
weather so I headed on to Friends hide.
So I've come to the last hide of the day and this is friend's hide and luckily out
there is an old friend of the reserve, Remy. Remy is the black-tailed Godwit
here on the right. She is a headstarter bird that was raised
in captivity by project Godwit and released at Welney in 2017. The Godwits
that breed in the UK migrate south for the winter.
It isn't clear where Remy spent her first winter but in the April of 2018
she was spotted in Belgium and remarkably she was showing courtship
behavior with a wild Belgian bird. Usually these two subpopulations don't
cross over and Remy must have learnt this as a month later she was spotted on
the Nene washes in Cambridgeshire and by June she had paired up with a wild male
and was rearing chicks. This is again unusual behaviour as Godwits
don't usually breed until they're 2 years old.
It isn't clear where Remy spent the winter of 2018 but she again returned to
the UK in 2019. Since then she has overwintered in Senegal down on the west
coast of Africa and been spotted in Portugal. This was filmed in March 2020
and was actually the first time she had been seen back in the UK this year. If
you'd like to know more about project Godwit, why they do their work and
how you can get involved, I will leave a link for it down in the description.
On the way back to the Visitor Center I decided to have one last check in the
main observatory and caught this pair of greylag geese trying to make some eggs
in the evening sunlight.
Unfortunately for them a nearby whooper swan stepped in to break things up. If
this one was a male you could say but he Cob-blocked them.
Well unfortunately that's all we've got time for in today's video, I hope you've
enjoyed it. If you did be sure to subscribe to the channel and also check
out some of the other British wildlife videos that you'll find there. Thanks for
watching and I'll see you next time.