Birds have been quick to take advantage of the creation of new wetland habitat after gravel extraction ceases. As scrub and woodland develops around the Pits, other birds move in. We’ve selected some of the special birds that make Paxton Pits their home.

Nightingales
These famous songsters have been regular breeders at Paxton since the mid 1980s, but increased through the 1990s, when numbers have fallen elsewhere in the UK. Around 25 males sing each spring, from the second week of April to the middle of June. The best time to hear nightingales at Paxton is at dawn or dusk, in scrub along the Haul Road or the Heronry Trail. Perhaps because they are present at such a high density, some of Paxton’s nightingales sing throughout the day during May.

Paxton Pits held more than a quarter of the nightingales found in Huntingdonshire during the BTO’s national survey in 1999; their conservation is a key objective of the Reserve’s management. Find out more about our nightingales here.

Cormorants
One of the spectacles of a visit to the Reserve is the cormorant colony, best viewed from Hayden Hide. A breeding colony was established by a single pair in 1988. Numbers increased rapidly during the early 1990s to 180-200 pairs during 1994-98, but have since stablised, fluctuating between 100 and 180 pairs. Paxton Pits is also used as a roost by wintering birds, which appear to be almost entirely different individuals from those that breed. The peak winter count was 1153 in January 1997, though the average is about 400 birds. Hard weather in eastern England tends to concentrate most of the Ouse Valley’s birds at the Paxton roost, though ringing indicates that Paxton’s wintering birds include individuals hatched at Rutland Water, Besthorpe (Nottinghamshire), Abberton Reservoir (Essex) and Jylland (Denmark).
Find out more about our cormorants here.

Winter waterbirds
From September, the first of the winter visitors begin to arrive at Paxton Pits. Gadwalls (250-300), Wigeons (1000+), Tufted ducks (400-800), Pochards (200+) and Coot (1000+) are among the commonest, with smaller numbers of Goldeneyes (up to 150), Shovelers (50+) and Teal (100+). A handful of Goosanders (c.12) and Smews (up to half a dozen) occur in colder winters. Small numbers of each can be found on Heronry Lake (best viewed from the hides). The A1 lakes also hold good numbers, particularly Wigeon (though are best viewed on early mornings, before they are disturbed). The largest numbers of Tufted ducks and Pochards are often on Island Lake.

Wild geese are rare at Paxton, though White-fronted and Pink-footed Geese are sometimes seen with the resident, feral Canada and Greylag geese. The highest numbers of wildfowl occur in cold or wet weather, when the Ouse Washes are frozen or flooded. Waterbirds are counted every month through the autumn and winter as part of the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS), organised by the British Trust for Ornithology. Find out more about Paxton's WeBS counts here.