Good morning! It has been an interesting week in many ways. The weather has been fairly mild so it has felt really rather spring like at times. As Ali mentioned in her blog post on Wednesday, there were two cranes in the grazing marsh in Brandon Fen, which is only a stones throw from the car park. This really helped to set the tone for our sightings this week, as cranes have very much been in the headlines.
If you read our blog posts regularly, you will know that we have two resident pairs of cranes and they have been here since 2007. Occasionally though, other individuals or pairs do visit. Fortunately for us, our four resident birds are very distinctive and provided we get a good view of them, we can usually tell which pair we are looking at. So, when a pair turned up in and unusual part of the reserve (for cranes anyway!) we needed to have a good look at them to try and work out who they were...
...I went up to the mound outside the visitor centre armed with the office telescope and had a good, if brief look at the pair of cranes in Brandon Fen. Sure enough, they were a different pair! They eventually flew off towards the washland but they returned to the area yesterday, as the same pair was seen on the washland itself. This is great news, so lets hope they stick around for a while.
While all of this drama was going on near the visitor centre, our two resident pairs have been going about their daily business as normal and have been popping up in their usual haunts. If you would like to come and see them, the best place to look is from Joist Fen viewpoint but if you are lucky, they may even fly over our new bird hide, Mere Hide.
While I am on the subject of Mere Hide, I went down there for a first time in a while yesterday and as I walked along the boardwalk up to the hide, a bittern was flying right alongside me! A cormorant was diving around in front of the hide and while I was there, I had a look at the sightings sheet. Over the course of the week, as well as several sightings of two cranes, kingfishers have been seen on several occasions and the wintering pair of stonechats have been entertaining the crowds.
As many of you know, I can't blog without including any pictures so here are a few that Matt Walton took on the reserve yesterday yesterday:
A lovely male reed bunting:
A pair of tufted ducks:
Some greylag geese in the evening light:
Image credits: Matt Walton
If you are planning to visit over this weekend, please note that the roadside barrier is still being closed overnight. It will open before 08.30 in the mornings and will close by 17.15 in the evenings. We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused. If you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to give the office a ring on: 01842 863400.
We hope to see you soon!