Firstly, I'd just like to apologise that it's been such a long gap since we last blogged. With David away in sunnier climes, it has fallen to the rest of us to blog, and it's just been one of those really busy weeks!
On Saturday, the osprey was seen several times cruising over the river and washland and perching up on the willows near the Wilton Bridge. It has been seen most days since, including earlier today. The great-white egret is also still around. Two male red-crested pochards showed well on the washland on Tuesday, along with 15 little grebes, 83 mute swans and 99 black-headed gulls! Apart from that, it has been fairly quiet with birds.
Osprey by Dave Capps
I had the pleasure of doing the Long Walk on Sunday, something I had been looking forward to doing! It’s a good chance for me to get out and walk the reserve trails and see what’s about, instead of whizzing past in the truck or the quad bike. I had a very small group of six people, so Darren, who was back-marking had a fairly easy job of keeping everyone together!
We had perfect weather for the walk, sunny and not too breezy, which I was quite pleased about as the last few Long Walks have been a bit wet and windy! The route we walked took us up to New Fen North, through Trial Wood and down to Joist Fen viewpoint on the main visitor trail. From there we took the surfaced track all the way through the middle of the reserve and down to Botany Bay. Sightings along the way included lots of ruddy and common darters, and migrant hawkers. Bird-wise it was pretty quiet, apart from three marsh harriers, and although we heard plenty of bearded tits and water rails, they remained elusive!
We made a quick detour into an area of reed that was cut last year, with the aim of showing everyone a disused cranes nest. It was a little boggier than expected, and to be fair, crane nests aren’t terribly exciting, but everyone seemed to enjoy going to see it nonetheless. Again bearded tits were close by, but not showing!
We didn’t quite have time to go into Botany Bay, instead we carried on to the apple tree near the Green Dragon Pub to have some lunch. It was a nice spot for lunch, although there were a few disappointed faces when I carried on to say that the pub had closed over 40 years ago and all that was left were the foundations!
Green Dragon pub as it would have look 50 years ago. Photo by Ken Engle (I think!)
Carrying on down the riverbank, we were treated to a sparrowhawk soaring right above our heads, while a large flock of long-tailed tits busied themselves finding food in a nearby willow. Three hobby’s were hawking for dragonflies alongside East Wood, and as we got closer to home we saw the great white egret wading in the shallows. And so we arrived back at the visitor centre, tired and looking forward to a cup of tea (and an ice-cream)! Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it, and there were several comments that they’d sleep well that night (me included!).
The long walks are an excellent way to see the whole reserve, including areas that aren’t usually open to the public. The next Long Walk will be celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the reserve on 31 October.
Cheers, Katherine
Warden