Good morning. It's been a bit of a mixed bag weather wise this week with some warm sunshine, but also a lot of rain. Monday was the nicest day of the lot. Ali and Dave went to check the water levels in New Fen North, the first area of reedbed. They saw three kingfishers while they were there along with two bearded tits. On the subject of bearded tits, lots of juveniles have been starting to appear recently and here is a picture of one that was taken on Sunday:
Image credit: Matt Walton
Thank you very much to Matt Walton for sharing this with us.
Now, early July is always a good time to look for waders passing through and although we never get a massive variety of species here, this week has been pretty good by our standards. There were eight black tailed godwits on the washland on Tuesday. This theme continued into Wednesday, when a juvenile avocet flew east along the river and a black tailed godwit flew north over the reserve. To complete the picture, two oystercatchers flew over and two curlews flew east along the river.
There were plenty of other things to see on Wednesday and two turtle doves few across the river near the visitor centre. There were at least five common terns over the washland and two juvenile kingfishers were ringed in Brandon Fen.
Meanwhile, further down the reserve, Roy saw at least nine marsh harriers on his travels including five over Joist Fen viewpoint. At least three hobbys were on the wing near the poplar woods and two kingfishers were seen from New Fen viewpoint. He also saw two cranes from Joist Fen viewpoint.
There were plenty of insects to see including an emperor dragonfly in front of Mere Hide. Good numbers of ruddy darters were alongside East Wood and a brown hawker was alongside Trial Wood. There was also a small copper butterfly on the wing near the visitor centre.
It was a miserable day yesterday and while I was out on the reserve bug hunting with a group of children, a greenshank was calling on the washland. The local swifts were living up to their names of "rain birds" with at least 25 individuals feeding low over the visitor centre during the afternoon.
Although it has been a bit damp here this morning, an "early birder" was down at Joist Fen viewpoint and saw a barn owl being mugged of its prey by a carrion crow. Poor bird!
There is plenty to see at the moment so why not come and visit? We hope to see you soon!