Good afternoon. There have definitely been plenty of signs of bird movements over the last couple of days. There was an impressive count of 97 mute swans on the washland on Monday. These are mostly non breeding birds that begin to congregate in large groups before dispersing to their wintering grounds.
I went for a walk this morning and there were plenty of birds on the move. I flushed a juvenile green woodpecker near the car park which is likely to be a bird that has recently fledged in nearby Thetford Forest, as they don’t seem to have nested on the reserve this year.
A few summer migrants were on the move including a willow warbler that was singing near the visitor centre and a female blackcap that was feeding quietly outside the visitor centre. A swallow flew south over the Washland viewpoint and a yellow wagtail was calling overhead.
A juvenile kingfisher was fishing in the visitor centre pond, which has probably fledged on the reserve fairly recently itself. The same could probably be said for the flock of bearded tits that were feeding in front of the Washland viewpoint. Although they don’t nest very close to the visitor centre, we quite often find them nearby outside the breeding season.
There were also some interesting mammal sightings this morning. A stoat and it’s young kit was skulking around near the Washland viewpoint. An otter with its cub was also seen feeding in front of New Fen viewpoint at around 11.30am. This is a very unusually sighting, especially in the middle of the day!
Whilst on the subject of mammals, Site Manager Dave and his boss (who is also called Dave!) found a recently excavated wasp nest on the riverbank. This is mostly likely to have been dug up by one of the local badgers, as there were plenty of recent signs of them when I walked around Brandon Fen this morning.
It has not all been about movements and migration this morning though. We did some bug hunting as part of our regular Wild Wednesday sessions of family activities. We found several slightly sinister looking red-banded sand wasps. These delightful creatures lay their eggs inside caterpillars before transporting them back to their burrows and burying them. How lovely!
Image credits: Tim James
We also did some pond dipping. We found a water stick insect, several water scorpions and two of the largest pond snails that I have ever seen! They were being watched closely by the dragonflies that were patrolling the skies. This included a very curious emperor dragonfly and a ruddy darter that kept landing on the pond dipping platform.
I will return with some more recent sightings at the weekend. Until then, enjoy the rest of the week and we hope to see you soon!