Good morning. With the exception of Monday, the weather has been really good for birds of prey this week. It has been sunny and breezy which have meant that we have had great views of them.
The conditions were especially good on Tuesday morning and local photographer Matt Walton was out and about taking photos:
Some very variable common buzzards:
A hunting marsh harrier:
A perched up kestrel:
Image credits: Matt Walton
Thank you very much to Matt for sharing these great pictures with us.
Staying on the theme of birds of prey, Suzanne and Dave went down the reserve on Monday (before it started raining). They saw a peregrine over Joist Fen. They also saw four cranes and a stonechat.
I escorted a colleague from Devon around the reserve on Tuesday. We saw a single crane high over Joist Fen and there were at least five marsh harriers hunting over the reedbed.
A great white egret was on the washland along with a good selection of wildfowl. A little bank vole was also scampering around underneath the bird feeders behind the visitor centre.
I went for a walk around the reserve this morning in the sunshine. There were two great white egrets on the washland and there were two different species of grebe on the river. This included two great crested grebes and two little grebes.
A water pipit was showing well alongside the riverbank and around 20 fieldfares flew south over New Fen North. There was some excitement when I heard a bittern “grunting” in New Fen North which is a great sign. One of our volunteers saw seven roe deer alongside the entrance track as she arrived.
The weather forecast for the next couple of days is looking slightly changeable. We hope to see you soon nonetheless!