Good morning. I am very pleased to announce that a new species of bird for the reserve was found yesterday, a bluethroat!
Simon Evans, our local bird ringer and Pete Dolton, one of our volunteers were undertaking a Constant Effort Site (CES) in Brandon Fen early yesterday morning when they were very surprised to find a first winter male bluethroat in one of the nets! It looked something like this (image not taken on the reserve):
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
This species is not a regular breeder in Britain and is mainly seen as a migrant on the east coast in the autumn. Although inland records are unusual, this species does occasionally appear in odd places.
Simon and Pete released the bird near the visitor centre and it was seen several times after that. It was last seen near the pond dipping area at around 10.30am. Sadly, it hasn't been seen since but hopefully it will still be in the area somewhere.
I will return with a more comprehensive recent sightings post at some point over the next couple of days.
We hope to see you soon!