Good morning. There has been plenty going on here over the last couple of days so here is one more recent sightings blog post from me before I disappear for a couple of weeks.
An otter was photographed on the washland on Friday and bitterns were seen from both the Washland viewpoint and Joist Fen viewpoint. Three hobbys were seen over New Fen viewpoint and a kingfisher was seen from Mere Hide.
I went for a walk in the drizzle yesterday morning and I disturbed a green woodpecker that was feeding on the visitor centre lawn. A marsh harrier was hunting over the washland and two Cetti’s warblers were singing near the visitor centre. There were also two juvenile kingfishers perched up at the edge of the visitor centre pond.
As the day went on, an otter was seen from New Fen viewpoint along with a bittern. Volunteer Roy saw two common buzzards from the same place along with a hobby.
There were plenty of interesting insects around the visitor centre. A species of ichneumon wasp, which was most likely to be Pimpla hypochondriaca was perched on the visitor centre window and a small tortoisehell was feeding in the plant bed in front of the visitor centre and a common stretch spider was feeding in the visitor centre pond bed.
We had a bat and moth night with the reserve Wildlife Explorer’s club yesterday evening. As we were walking alongside the northern edge of East Wood, a barn owl flew over and a bittern flew west along the river, heading towards New Fen viewpoint. Two tawny owls were also dueting in East Wood. This was most likely to be a male and a juvenile.
There were plenty of bats around. This included plenty of common pipistrelles and a noctule that kept flying back and forward over New Fen viewpoint. We also found plenty of moths and a list of what we found is attached to this blog post. This coincided with National Moth Night, which actually took place on Friday.
We also found plenty of spiders, which looked very sinister when we shined a torch on them. This included lots of marbled orb weavers, two four spotted orb weavers and more garden spiders than we could count!
It was a great night but I am really rather tired this morning! I will leave you with a couple of landscape photos of the reserve that I have taken this week:
Image credits: David White
I hope you like them!
There is plenty to see at the moment so why not come and visit?! We hope to see you soon.