Good morning. After I baffled you all with my blog post about surveys last week, here is a more “normal” post.
Katherine blogged on Sunday and shared some of Tim James’ pictures. Here are a few more:
An extremely showy Cetti's warbler:
A grasshopper warbler striking a pose:
Some lovely landscape images:
Image credits: Tim James
Thank you very much to Tim for sharing these great images with us.
I’ll start off where I left off in terms of sightings. A grass snake swam across the visitor centre pond and a marsh harrier was on the ground on the washland.
There were two greenshanks on the washland north of East Wood on Friday and a grasshopper warbler was singing between the visitor centre and East Wood.
Suzanne walked down to Botany Bay on Saturday and saw a bittern over New Fen North. She also saw two kingfishers and two common terns over the washland.
Another greenshank flew over the washland on Sunday morning and Emma saw a bittern at the edge of the visitor centre pond.
There was plenty to see around the visitor centre yesterday. A single crane flew high overhead and a reed warbler was seen at the edge of the visitor centre pond. Emma and Suzanne also disturbed a cuckoo behind the visitor centre.
Meanwhile, up on the washland, there was some excitement when volunteer Paul spotted a little ringed plover at the edge of the large pool. This is the first record of this species on the reserve for a couple of years so Paul was very lucky to see it!
Suzanne and I did our second Common Bird Census (CBC) in Brandon Fen this morning. Don’t worry; I won’t share our map this time round!
Despite it being really rather chilly (and also foggy!) it was a lovely morning. As well as what we heard last Wednesday, a couple of whitethroats had arrived and a reed warbler was singing just east of the washland viewpoint. A collared dove was also perched up behind the visitor centre, which was a reserve year for Suzanne and I!
We also saw a couple of roe deer in Brandon Fen and heard a cuckoo singing in the big willow behind the visitor centre, which is just outside of our patch.
As well as what I have mentioned above, the great white egret is still present and has been seen most days this week from the washland viewpoint. Also, several hobbys have now arrived which is very exciting indeed. Hopefully there will be plenty more to come!
We hope to see you soon.