The weather has been really unpredictable for the last couple of days but during the better weather, there has been plenty to see.
Here are a couple of pictures from earlier on in the week:
A cuckoo in flight:
A common whitethroat:
Image credits: David Sherlock
Many thanks to David for sending these great photos over.
Ali was out and about on Friday and saw a common frog in one of the bays at the southern edge of New Fen North, the first area of reedbed. She also saw a speckled wood butterfly at the far end of the reserve. Meanwhile, a bittern flew over Mere Hide and a drake garganey was showing from the Washland viewpoint.
After an ominous start yesterday morning, it did brighten up but it was really rather windy. A mistle thrush flew over the car park and presumably the same drake garganey from the previous day was present on the washland north of East Wood. There were plenty of birds of prey enjoying the wind including at least six marsh harriers and four hobbys over Joist Fen viewpoint. A stoat was also seen several times near New Fen viewpoint.
Dave went out for a walk in the afternoon armed with his camera and there was plenty to see. There was plenty of bittern activity and here is one that clambered up on to the reeds in front of Mere Hide:
There were also plenty of "minibeasts" to see including plenty of hairy dragonflies:
And lots of nursery web spiders:
Image credits: Dave Rogers
I went for a walk in the rain this morning and despite getting really rather wet, I saw a male cuckoo in Trial Wood and a male marsh harrier over New Fen North. There was also a female marsh harrier over the washland with wing tags. It had one white tag and one red tag and had the number 59 on it. I have sent the details of to Simon, our local ringer so hopefully we should find out where it came from.
The weather is due to improve as the week goes on so fingers crossed it will be a bit more predictable! We hope to see you soon.