The wildlife-watching experiences here have been superb in recent days, starting with a bat-detecting evening with a local Guides pack last Thursday. They saw the common pipistrelles that the hand-held detectors detected, but the Daubenton’s bat eluded most pairs of eyes, only the detectors giving them away.
Our starling roost is building nicely, and the flock “performed” brilliantly for the guides (and again the following night) before the bats took centre-stage. The current estimate is 1000-1200 starlings, performing as one.
I asked the Guides to use their imaginations and call out whatever shapes or patterns they could see. There were ribbons, Mexican waves, fish, snakes, hearts, balls, Africa and leeches, to name just a few. There were also lots of “wow” and “why”, and starlings have more admirers as a result.
This picture (Africa in starlings) was taken by Nev Tait.
Anyone can watch starlings from the car park overlooking Holywell Lake – only 250m from the Cambridgeshire Guided Bus request stop, so access is really easy, and always open. We are running some roost watch events in the coming weeks (check the events list) – the best performances are when the weather is calm, and good sunsets provide a fantastic backdrop.
If you can choose when to come, very windy conditions and heavy rain are best avoided – these aren’t comfortable for us, and the birds don’t enjoy them either, and tend to cut short their show.
Several visitors were lucky enough to see black terns here over the weekend; others saw an osprey, a wheatear, black-tailed godwits, a kingfisher, a grass snake or a slow worm.
My personal highlight was undoubtedly a juvenile bearded reedling, or bearded tit, which I was seeing here at Fen Drayton Lakes for the very first time. A few have been around for a few weeks now, but they’re always on the move through the reeds. It was just a matter of time before I’d be in the right place, at the right time, and this sunny morning was my right time.
Should I head for the Ouse Washes and look for the cranes on my day off? Will my good run continue?