Tring Reservoirs Wildlife By The Season
All year
Little Owls can be seen in various places around the reservoirs perched in trees and on posts. Kingfishers whiz past the hides and perch on branches around the reservoirs.
All 3 species of woodpeckers are present although we only received 2 records of Lesser-spotted in 2000.
Tits and thrushes in surrounding hedgerows and trees.
Geese and ducks are present all year but the main influx is during the winter.
Winter
Geese and ducks. Sawbills are present, usually Goosander, but Smew and Red-breasted Merganser are sometimes seen during periods of cold weather.
Bitterns overwinter in the reedbed at Marsworth Reservoir.
Redwing and Fieldfares are commonly seen in the adjacent fields.
Merlin and Peregrine are sometimes seen.
Spring
Migrant wading birds such as Curlew and Whimbrel, also Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwits.
Common Sandpipers and Dunlin are more common along with Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers.
Migrant gulls and terns such as Little Gull and Black Tern.
Migrant passerines such as Wheatear, Redstart and Whinchat are sometimes seen around the edges of the reservoirs.
Hobbies arrive in late April and are seen well into June.
The rarer grebes may sometimes be seen during April and May.
Ospreys and Marsh Harriers are regularly reported from March to May but few stay more than an hour or two.
Summer
Common Terns are usually present feeding all summer.
Swallows , Martins and Swifts are present all summer. Whitethroats, Sedge Warblers and Reed Buntings are visible in surrounding hedges and scrub in early summer.
Common Scoter are sometimes seen for a day or two in July and August.
Most of the commoner butterflies can be seen and it is also possible to find a few scarcer species, such as Essex Skipper, Holly Blue and Ringlet, particularly along the dry canal and in the relatively unimproved meadow behind the hide at Wilstone Reservoir. The Marbled White, Comma and Speckled Wood are species that have increased over recent years. Migrants like the Red Admiral and the very occasional Clouded Yellow also occur.
Dragonflies include Emperor Dragonfly, Black-tailed Skimmer, Four-spotted and Broad-bodied Chasers, Common Darter and Emerald Damselfly, and good numbers of Southern, Migrant and Brown Hawkers often patrol the area behind Wilstone Reservoir in late summer.
Common and Azure Blue Damselflies are seen around the banks as well as Blue-tailed Damselfly.
Autumn
The autumn passage of waders starts in July and goes through to November. They usually include Greenshank and Green Sandpiper.
The rarer wading birds can include Wood Sandpiper, Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper.
The first Wigeon appear for the winter during September and the first Goldeneye at the end of October / early November.
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