Its great to be out on the reserve at the moment as the sunny and warm weather really encourages lots of species of wildlife to show themselves. Here are some lovely photos from last weekend:
A close up view of a wren:
A posing sedge warbler:
A common whitethroat striking an "interesting" pose:
An "action shot" of a greylag goose:
Image credits: Andrew Ward
Thank you very much Andrew for sending these pictures over.
I walked around the reserve with a group on Monday and things started well with great views of a drake garganey on the washland. We saw several long bittern flights over New Fen North and the local hobbys were tearing around the sky in their usual aerobatic fashion.
A barn owl was hunting in front of Joist Fen viewpoint and a kingfisher was hovering in search of prey from the same viewpoint. Things were going so well until we got up on to the riverbank. Unfortunately, the heavens opened and we had to enjoy (or endure!) the one and a half mile trudge back along the riverbank in a hailstorm. Not a pleasant experience at all!
A whinchat was present on the riverbank on Wednesday and at least 21 hobbys were hunting over Joist Fen viewpoint. There were three common buzzards circling over the visitor centre and Dave spotted a green hairstreak butterfly alongside the entrance track.
It was a lovely and warm morning yesterday and dragonflies and damselflies were conspicuous. I saw a hairy dragonfly alongside Trial Wood and at least four common blue damselflies were in a similar area. Our first banded demoiselles of the year were seen along the riverbank. There were also several four-spotted chasers on the wing including this one that volunteer Les got a picture of:
Image credit: Les Bunyan
There was also great news as all six great tit chicks in our visitor centre "nestcam" fledged yesterday morning. Incredibly, I managed to successfully predict their correct fledgling date when the eggs hatched. I'm rarely right about anything so I suppose there is always a first time for these kinds of things!
There was a lot of uncertainty about golden orioles yesterday with a mystery bird in Trial Wood which made intermittent "oriole-like" cat calls and single fluty notes throughout the day. However, frustratingly, its identity was note conclusively proven by staff so we will have to wait and see on that. Several people are out listening this morning so if anything is confirmed, we will let you know as soon as possible.
If you are planning to visit this weekend, I am pleased to say that the weather is looking lovely. We hope to see you soon!