Pitsford Reservoir SSSI (Day Trip)

Spring

During the spring, bird song will be full on as we attempt to decipher the calls and songs of resident and passage birds before the leaves and buds completely hide the songsters concerned! And at this time of the year we always look out for something a little out of the ordinary and will delight in the first butterflies and other insects of the new season. Residual waterfowl will still be with us from the winter months and breeding geese, Coots, Mute Swans and grebes will be obvious and noisy. We will look for Bee-flies, mining bees and Grass Snakes and keep an eye out for foraging mammals. The Rooks will be noisily attending their nests and we can watch and listen to the antics of the busy Cormorant colony.

Summer

The longer days of summer will be dominated by breeding birds such as diving Common Terns, warblers, recently fledged birds of the woodland sections and lots of insects including particularly large concentrations of meadow butterflies, day-flying moths, damselflies, dragonflies, grasshoppers and the like. Kingfishers are heard and sometimes seen well and we can appreciate how valuable this site is for locally breeding martins, Swallows and Swifts as they skim over the water’s surface. A pair of Oystercatchers are normally present to provide a little colour and vibrancy! On some days there are literally tens of thousands of damselflies rising from the waterside vegetation and patrolling the open water. A fishing Osprey would be a wonderful bonus, perhaps being harried by the local Red Kites for its hard-earned prey! Muntjacs will have attendant fawns and the fledged young of Tawny Owl are frequently heard and sometimes glimpsed. Butterflies such as Marbled White, Brown Argus, Purple and White-letter Hairstreaks, Essex Skipper and Small Copper can be found without straying from the mown paths. The moth-traps will be at their best with a large variety and number of specimens to examine, often including wonderful hawk-moths.

Autumn

End of season butterflies and dragonflies linger in good numbers, emergent fungi proliferates and the seasonal bird flocks include lots of tits including Marsh Tits, migrant warblers, Treecreepers and the chance of passage Common Redstart. The meadows sometimes attract passing Whinchats and Wheatears and any draw-down is quickly exploited by waders on long-distance migration – most frequently Common and Green Sandpipers, Black-tailed Godwit, Snipe, Greenshank, Dunlin and Ringed Plover – but any species is possible. The late summer/autumn period sees a regular build-up of moulting ducks including good numbers of Gadwall, Pochard, Tufted Duck and increasingly regular numbers of Red-crested Pochard. This is the best season to look for Garganey, Black Tern, Hobby and Yellow-legged Gulls. Great Crested Grebe families will still be a common sight with the stripey youngsters still begging for food from their attendant adults and the early autumn will provide opportunities to enjoy close-up views of Common Terns and their fledged young, gawky-looking juvenile Grey Herons and the forming-up of the Greylag and Canada Goose flocks. Late autumn sees the decline in insects but an increase in waterfowl with flocks of whistling Wigeon, the first returning Goldeneye and small groups of Pintail and flights of Teal.

Winter

A cold, crisp winter’s day is to perhaps see Pitsford at its best with a large variety of ducks, and small birds. The year-round feeding station in the Scaldwell Meadow attracts Tree Sparrows, Yellowhammers, Reed Buntings and many others, and a seasonal woodland feeding station provides close views of tits, Great Spotted Woodpecker and common finches. Muntjac are easy to see and wintering Snipe and Lapwings are always a pleasing sight. Sparrowhawks, Common Buzzards and Red Kites forage and hunt and we encounter Raven, Woodcock and Great White Egret. Small numbers of Siskins, Redpolls and sometimes Brambling add a splash of colour in hedging and waterside trees and we scan rafts of ducks for anything out of the ordinary. The resident but elusive Otters are perhaps best looked for at this time of the year and sightings of Weasel and Stoat are relatively regular. Extreme weather at this time of the year can drive in harbouring waterbirds from the continent and we will be assured of plenty of Redwings and Fieldfares on our circular walk.