Good afternoon. I've got a busy day planned tomorrow so, slightly earlier than usual, here are some recent sightings.
Suzanne went for a walk at lunchtime on Thursday and saw two great white egrets from New Fen viewpoint. She also saw a stonechat perched up on the riverbank.
The reserve team were also busy building a willow fence between the path up to the washland and the pond dipping area. Here is the finished product:
Image credits: Emma Greenacre
It wasn't too bad a day yesterday and one of our regular visitors was lucky enough to see an otter from New Fen viewpoint. He also saw around a dozen redwings in Brandon Fen.
I came in early to do a radio interview for BBC Radio Suffolk this morning (at around 07.50 if you really want to listen to it by clicking on the link above!) I did my interview at the Washland viewpoint and I had a great view of a great white egret right in front of the viewpoint. There was also a song thrush belting out its song from Brandon Fen.
A coal tit was on the feeders in front of the visitor centre which was nice to see. I had a quick walk around Brandon Fen at lunchtime. A marsh tit was singing and a female marsh harrier was hunting over the washland. There were also at least 30 tufted ducks on the large washland pool, which is a good count for here.
Meanwhile, further down the reserve, three cranes have been showing well from Joist Fen viewpoint for most of the day, although a telescope has been helpful as they have been fairly distant.
This leads me neatly on to a few pictures of the cranes that were taken recently on the reserve: