Good morning. Although the weather wasn’t terribly inspiring last weekend, there was still plenty going on. A group from the Royal Photographic Society came on Saturday and one of their group members photographed these colourful dead nettle leaf beetles:
Image credit: Ann Miles
A stoat was dashing around at the edge of the visitor centre pond and the little bittern was barking intermittently in New Fen North triangle.
At around 3pm, we were really rather surprised to see a pale morph Arctic skua flying east over the visitor centre. It then flew north over the washland. This is an extremely unseasonal record of this species and it is only the forth record of this (presumably lost!) seabird here.
A black tern was seen from Joist Fen viewpoint later in the afternoon. I went a walk with our Wildlife Explorer’s club that evening. We saw two barn owls over the washland and a kingfisher from New Fen viewpoint.
A roe deer was skulking around at the edge of the visitor centre pond on Sunday morning and a cuckoo was calling near the visitor centre.
I came for a walk on Monday evening and photographed this banded demoiselle in Brandon Fen:
Image credit: David White
I also photographed an azure damselfly on the riverbank. I was also going to share that picture but local photographer Matt Walton took a much better picture of one here yesterday:
Image credit: Matt Walton
I encountered a family of mute swans slightly further along the riverbank that were very reluctant to move off of the path (they did eventually!)
I heard the little bittern barking behind Joist Fen viewpoint and a grasshopper warbler was reeling near Mere Hide.
A bittern was seen over Brandon Fen yesterday and Matt Walton took these photographs:
An otter swimming in the river:
A blue tailed damselfly:
Image credits: Matt Walton
Thank you very much to Ann and Matt for sharing these great images with us.
Emma, Suzanne and I did our last Common Bird Census’ of the year this morning. Suzanne and I saw a cuckoo in Brandon Fen and Emma saw a barn owl near Joist Fen viewpoint. She also saw a bittern fly from near Mere Hide into New Fen North.
A coal tit has been calling outside the visitor centre for most of the morning so far and the little bittern was heard near Joist Fen viewpoint.
There is plenty going on at the moment so why not come and visit? We hope to see you soon!