Good morning. There has been plenty to see recently so here are some recent sightings from Saturday onwards:
An Arctic tern was feeding over the washland first thing and four common terns were feeding over New Fen North, the first area of reedbed. There were also a good selection of wader species in New Fen North, including a greenshank and an avocet.
As the morning went on, a drake garganey was seen along the river and a grasshopper warbler was singing near the photography station. I spotted two turtle doves in flight over the visitor centre pool. A grass snake also swam across the visitor centre pool which was nice to see.
Meanwhile, further down the reserve, two cranes were seen from Joist Fen viewpoint. There was also a good count of 40 hobbys from Joist Fen viewpoint.
I got here just before 4am on Sunday morning in advance of the dawn chorus walk and headed straight up to the Washland viewpoint in the darkness. I heard a redshank and a bittern “gull calling”, which is a call that you don’t tend to hear very often during daylight hours.
When I got back to the visitor centre at around 4.15am, a male tawny owl was singing in our staff car park and a grasshopper warbler was singing at the edge of the visitor centre pond.
During the walk itself, we had great views of a bittern flying high over New Fen North and we could hear a greenshank calling in the same area. We also had good views of a variable damselfly at Joist Fen viewpoint.
A colleague from our regional office saw three cranes from Joist Fen viewpoint and a drake garganey along the river. These wonderful photographs were also taken over the course of the day:
Hobby:
Three bitterns flying together:
Male bearded tit:
Bittern in flight:
Image credits: Robin Johnson
On Monday, two bitterns and a whooper swan were showing well from Mere Hide. You can see photographs of them in this blog post. There were also at least 56 hobbys hunting over Joist Fen viewpoint which is a good count for here.
A wood sandpiper was seen in New Fen North on Tuesday which is a good record for here. Former reserve volunteer Les also took this lovely photograph of a male cuckoo in East Wood:
Image credit: Les Bunyan
Thank you very much to Robin and Les for sharing these images with us.
Suzanne and I did our latest Common Bird Census (CBC) around Brandon Fen on Wednesday morning. We were treated to fantastic views of a singing garden warbler near the photography station and there were also several invertebrates around in the morning sunshine. This included a couple of four spotted chasers and a drinker moth caterpillar.
As the day went on, Suzanne saw at least 30 swifts over the Washland viewpoint. A red kite also flew over Joist Fen viewpoint.
Although the weather wasn’t great yesterday morning, I had a good view of a kingfisher from New Fen viewpoint and two common terns from the Washland viewpoint before work. Two cranes were also seen in flight from Joist Fen viewpoint during the afternoon.
I walked around Brandon Fen early this morning and saw two mistle thrushes feeding in the grazing marsh. I had a look in New Fen North for waterfowl and saw the following:
I also saw two bitterns in flight as I walked along the river which were nice to see.
We hope to see you soon!