Good morning. Now that the community pages are back up and running again and I have worked out how to use them (!), here are some sightings from the last week:
I had a pleasant surprise in an unusual location last Thursday afternoon when I found a smart brown spotted pinion moth in the men's toilet. Talk about glamorous!
In the misty sunshine on Friday morning, at least a dozen bearded tits were showing well from the Washland viewpoint. A single golden plover was also present with the lapwings, which is a good record for here.
As the day went on, volunteer Mark found some smart fly agaric fungi at the edge of the car park. Here are some pictures that I took on Saturday:
There were still good numbers of insects on the wing in the early winter sunshine. This included one migrant hawker and at least six common darters alongside Trial Wood. A red admiral butterfly was also on the wing in the same area.
On Saturday, a great white egret was showing well from the Washland viewpoint. At least three different bitterns were seen in flight from Joist Fen viewpoint and a barn owl was hunting behind the visitor centre late afternoon.
On Sunday afternoon, Warden Katherine saw the following over the far end of the reserve:
Presumably the same male hen harrier was seen over the far end of the reserve on Monday. On Tuesday, Suzanne saw a peregrine and a kingfisher from New Fen viewpoint.
On Wednesday, Katherine saw a red kite over the Washland viewpoint and a stoat on the visitor centre veranda. There were once again good numbers of insects on the wing in the sunshine including the following:
In the afternoon, I saw a sparrowhawk and a merlin over New Fen North, the first area of reedbed. There was also a beautiful sunset. Here is one of my many pictures of it:
Image credits: David White
Although it was pretty quiet with both people and wildlife yesterday, a kingfisher was showing well at the edge of the visitor centre pond which was nice to see.I nipped up to the Washland viewpoint before work this morning with my telescope and saw the following:
If you are planning to visit the reserve, please note that the riverbank Public Footpath between the Washland viewpoint and Joist Fen viewpoint is currently muddy in places. All of the other reserve paths are fine at present.
We hope to see you soon!