Good morning. It has been really rather cold this week so wildlife watching has been limited to short forays out onto the reserve. However, you don't necessarily need to be out for very long to see something good!
I went out briefly on Tuesday morning and here is the view that I had of the washland in the morning light:
If you look carefully, you can see five white dots. Here is a slightly closer view of these five white dots:
Image credits: David White
Well, two of them are obviously mute swans and the other three are egrets (although due to my rubbish camera, it isn’t obvious what type.) Despite the fact that they all look the same size, the bird in the middle is a little egret and the other two are great white egrets.
A single whooper swan was also present along with around 60 lapwings. I also heard a brambling and a lesser redpoll calling as they flew unseen over my head.
We had a meeting for most of the day but fortunately, that meeting was about the Brandon Fen family trail so we got a chance to walk around it. A chiffchaff was bashing around near the pond dipping platform and a Cetti’s warbler popped up on the top of a bush next to the Washland viewpoint.
As we went further, two bearded tits popped up in front of us and we flushed a common snipe out of the grazing marsh. A pair of stonechats also kept perching up in a willow bush at the eastern edge of the trail.
It wasn’t a great day yesterday but Suzanne saw a green woodpecker in Brandon Fen along with two bearded tits. She also saw a barn owl hunting in front of the visitor centre later on in the day.
It was freezing cold when I got here this morning but things started well with two roe deer browsing alongside the entrance track ad I drove in.
Considering that I was only out for half an hour I saw plenty of great wildlife. A barn owl was hunting behind the visitor centre and a great white egret was present on the washland. There were also a family of three Bewick’s swans present, which was nice to see.
As I walked along the riverbank, I spotted a roe deer skulking around in East Wood and a male hen harrier was hunting over New Fen North.
My last sighting was of two bearded tits that were feeding just behind New Fen viewpoint. That's not bad at all for 30 minutes if I may say so myself!
If you are planning to visit this weekend, we have our Big Garden Birdwatch themed bird ringing demonstration on Saturday. Please click here to find out more details. If you are not going to be able to make it this weekend, we hope you enjoy taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch!