Good afternoon. Finally, we have had some cold weather! I escaped down to Dorset for the weekend this past weekend so thank you very much to Emma for here fantastic blog post from Sunday. If you haven’t read it yet, it can be found here.
A bittern swimming across the pool in front of Mere Hide:
Image credits: Mali Halls
Two otter cubs playing on the riverbank on Sunday morning:
Image credit: Ian Gillies
Thank you very much to Mali and Ian for sharing their great images with us.
Mark, one of our volunteers went up to the Washland viewpoint yesterday afternoon and saw a good selection of birds. A great white egret was showing well in front of the viewpoint and two stonechats were showing well nearby. A marsh harrier and a common buzzard were also hunting in the same area.
My morning walk was rained off this morning but I did catch a glimpse of a barn owl hunting in front of the visitor centre shortly after I arrived. Shortly after everybody else arrived, an otter appeared in the visitor centre pond and fished in full view for a couple of minutes. What a great start to the day!
Simon, our local bird ringer spent some time in Brandon Fen this morning. He saw two bullfinches feeding near the visitor centre along with around 40 lesser redpolls.
He also spent some time at the Washland viewpoint and he saw a large dog otter. He also saw a great white egret, at least 84 shovelers and two redshanks.
As the morning went on, two jays were feeding at the edge of the visitor centre pond which was nice to see. Dave and Suzanne headed down the reserve for a meeting. They saw a bittern and a common snipe at the far end of the reserve.
I went for a walk around Brandon Fen at lunchtime. Despite the fact that it was raining, I saw a water pipit and a kingfisher so it was worth getting wet.
I will leave you with a little bit of fun just to brighten up a dreary afternoon. We were one of only three RSPB reserves to receive Visit England’s Welcome Award last year. In recognition of this, we received the coveted Golden Gnome from colleagues at our regional office. As we are sharing the award with RSPB The Lodge nature reserve, they have had it for six months and now we have it for six months. I couldn’t resist sharing these two pictures:
The Golden Gnome posing with me and me feeble attempt at a moustache:
Image credit: Suzanne Harwood
The Golden Gnome posing with a willow reindeer, that Warden Emma made to guard our Christmas tree:
Image credit: David White
Anyway, I think that’s quite enough of that nonsense for now! We hope to see you on the reserve soon!