Good morning. I was going to wait until tomorrow to do a “recent sightings” post but circumstances have dictated that today is the day instead!
Although the weather was a bit patchy on Sunday, there was still plenty to see. A barn owl was hunting at the edge of the car park first thing.
I had a quick walk around Brandon Fen before work and saw a great white egret feeding with a little egret in front of the Washland viewpoint. There were two great crested grebes on the river and there were at least six bearded tits feeding in Brandon Fen.
As the day went on, a single crane was seen in flight from Mere Hide and at least four stonechats were seen along the riverbank.
The adult Caspian gull was again on the washland and a male merlin was seen from Joist Fen viewpoint. Volunteer Pete was down at Joist Fen viewpoint until it got dark. He saw at least 10 marsh harriers hunting and a bittern flew over the reedbed.
It wasn't a bad day yesterday and local photographer Matt Walton got these incredible images of bearded tits:
He also photographed a bittern:
Image credits: Matt Walton
Thank you very much to Matt for sharing these images with us.
I went for a walk around Brandon Fen this morning and saw at least one great white egret on the washland along with four little egrets. I had a pleasant surprise when two goldeneyes flew around over the main washland pool although sadly, they didn't land. A flock of at least 110 lapwings also flew over the visitor centre.
The weather forecast isn't looking too bad this week so why not come and escape the festive rush for a walk around the reserve? We hope to see you soon.