Territorial Disputes at Lemsford Springs

2nd March 2023

The watercress beds were looking superb with plenty of fresh green growth and the usual gin-clear spring water so time to settle down and see what comes along. A little Jenny Wren was feeding in amongst the piles of old cress but largely playing hard to get and just once stuck its head out to see what was going on.

Grey Wagtails are fairly regular at Lemsford but today there was just this single male with his summer plumage black bib just starting to show through. What a fine specimen.

The Teal excelled themselves today with a record number for me. Usually there are just 3-4 but today a staggering 22 were present, far exceeding my previous best.

And all the males looking dapper in their fresh breeding plumage.

Stock Doves are also common here but all too often just seen high in the bare trees by the river bank. But today this one was obviously well fed and was content to sit in the sun on a pollarded willow.

It then flew down for a drink and was looking for a place where it could reach the water.

This is a bit of a balancing act......................

 ........................and look how it closes its eyes when taking that first sip of cold spring water!!!

But one of the highlights for me today was seeing a Rabbit collecting nest material. I have often seen birds collecting material but never a Rabbit, a first for me!!

And now for the Green Sandpipers. The sandpipers are attracted to Lemsford Springs by the abundance of fresh-water shrimps. The shrimps are grey in colour when eaten but get cooked inside the stomach of the sandpipers and turn orange, much the same as when you cook raw prawns at home. Therefore when the birds cough up the scales from the shrimps in a pellet, the pellets are orange as can be seen in the first photo.

Today there was a great deal of flying mainly due to territorial disputes.

We all know about and understand territorial disputes on the breeding grounds, but Green Sandpipers are also territorial on their wintering grounds. I have seen minor skirmishes at Lemsford before but today they were taking it to the next level, with the skirmishes being a lot more vicious...................

.......................even to the extent of birds being pinned down in the water!!!

You would normally think this was mating but I can assure you it wasn't.

And they eventually broke free.

Well, that was amazing and I assume the disputes are more common at Lemsford than at other sites due to the number of birds involved which frequently exceeds double figures. What a gem of a reserve!!!