Good morning. The weather has continued to be rather unpredictable over the last couple of days but there has been plenty to see nonetheless.
If I start off where I left off on Tuesday, volunteer Paul counted 124 coots on the washland which is a pretty good count for this time of year. I lead a guided walk in the evening and we were very surprised to see an albino house martin feeding in amongst several other "normal coloured" ones. I have certainly never seen an individual like this before so it was a real treat.
We then started walking down towards East Wood and a juvenile cuckoo flew out of a bush right in front of me. We went down to New Fen viewpoint and enjoyed a lovely sunset. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me but as they say, "here is one I took earlier" (or last week in fact:)
Image credit: David White
A kingfisher flashed across the pool in front of us and a female roe deer wandered across the hard track in front of us as we walked back.
It seems like Wednesday was definitely a day to see kingfishers. They seemed to be popping up all over the place. At least three were seen from New Fen viewpoint and singles were seen from both Joist Fen viewpoint and Mere Hide over the course of the day. Several bitterns were also seen, with the majority of sightings coming from Mere Hide.
Yesterday started well with the surprise appearance of presumably the same juvenile cuckoo from Tuesday perched on one of the perches at the edge of the visitor centre pond. It was soon replaced by a kingfisher, which spent most of the morning fishing in the pool at perching at the edge of it.
I went out for a short walk up to the Washland viewpoint with the attendees of the Wildlife Explorers summer club meeting. We saw two common buzzards and a red-banded sand wasp. If you are not familiar with these slightly scary looking parasitic wasps, here is a picture of one:
Image credit: Tim James
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the reserve, the great white egret was seen from the Washland viewpoint and there were several painted lady butterflies on the wing. Local photographer Matt Walton also photographed this kingfisher in front of Mere Hide:
Image credit: Matt Walton
If you are planning to visit this weekend, the weather forecast isn't looking too bad. Sadly, most of the planned events won't be taking place tomorrow but please see this blog post for what you can do if you come and visit. We hope to see you soon!