I was out on the reserve on Wednesday morning armed with my camera and I came across this female common darter resting on one of our direction posts:
Image credit: David White
Now, I know that it was most likely to be bathing in early morning sun but I couldn't resist letting my imagination run away with me a bit. Maybe, it was trying to tell me that if I walked that way, I would see more dragonflies. Or maybe, it was struggling to decide which way to go next as there were just so many tasty insects to catch on such a warm morning. Although I will probably never know, it did make me chuckle!
There was plenty of other wildlife out and about enjoying the sunshine including this posing gatekepper:
And this pretty blue-tailed damselfly:
I also went down the reserve with Katherine this morning to see what goodies were in the moth trap. This gigantic privet hawkmoth was resting on the vegetation near the trap:
In other news, the visitor centre kingfishers continue to show themselves most days and two were fishing in the pool on Sunday afternoon. One even flew over the visitor centre on Wednesday. It literally looked like a blue lightning bolt as it whizzed past the office window!
We seem to be back down to our usual compliment of cranes again after last weekend's confusion. Two birds are being seen most day and they are best seen from Joist Fen viewpoint. Bittern surveys continue and there were plenty of "ins and outs" from birds commuting between New Fen North and other areas on the reserve yesterday. There is also one wandering around at the edge of the visitor centre pond this morning as I type which is a great start to the day!
There are plenty of young marsh harriers out and about on the reserve and myself and Katherine saw three perched in the same bush this morning near Joist Fen viewpoint. Our local bearded tits continue to show themselves well in the sunny weather and two juveniles were using the grit tray in front of New Fen viewpoint yesterday morning.
We have several events on this weekend including our FREE Saturday saunter guided walk tomorrow and our ten kilometre "long walk" around the reserve on Sunday. There are still a couple of places available on the latter walk. If you are interested in coming along, please click on the link above to find details on how to book places. We hope to see you soon.
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