Apologies for the lack of updates recently, things have been pretty busy here with both wildlife and people. There was a phenomenal mixture of birds of prey around on Saturday. There were at least 27 hobbys over Joist Fen viewpoint and a male Montagu's harrier flew over. There were also reports of a goshawk and a black kite flying over which is very exciting indeed.
One of our locals, Tim James was here on Sunday and got some fantastic photos. We hope you like them:
A reed warbler out in the open:
A dashing hobby:
A female banded demoiselle:
The water violet alongside New Fen North:
Image credits: Tim James
Thank you very much to Tim for sharing these lovely pictures.
There was also a good deal of excitement on Monday morning when a male red backed shrike was found on the riverbank north of East Wood. The bird was present all day but later moved further down the river and spent most of its time on the Norfolk side of the river north of West Wood.
This was only the third record of this species on the reserve. The two previous records came in May 1998 and October 2006. Here is a photo of it:
Image credit: David Johnston
Sadly, it didn't stick around and by yesterday morning, it had moved on. If is reappears, we will let you know!
A more comprehensive report will follow this weekend but until then, we hope to see you soon.