Although we have had some nice weather this week, it has been far from predictable! I will begin with the results from the bird ringing demonstration from Sunday. I have attached the final totals below but here are the headlines: In total, 56 birds were caught. This included 29 newly ringed birds and 27 retraps.
According to Simon, our local ringer, several of the great tits that were caught had not been seen here for a couple of years. Of course, they could have just eluded the nets for several years! However, they could have been ringed as juveniles here and then explored the area for a couple of years before coming back here to breed. Thank you very much to Simon and his merry gang of ringers for enduring the damp and wet weather on Sunday!
There were also some interesting sightings on Sunday, mainly from the washland viewpoint. While people were admiring the great white egret, a garganey was spotted and an otter showed itself briefly. It seems that it would have stayed for longer had it not been constantly harassed by the local black headed gulls! A marsh harrier was also hunting over the washland pool.
The great white egret has been around all week and it was still present on the washland this morning. It has been quite mobile though. On Monday, I saw it flying east along the river near the Washland viewpoint and also over Joist Fen viewpoint. If anybody has any photos of this impressive bird, we would love to see them! Please e-mail them to lakenheath@rspb.org.uk;
Talking about photos, yesterday morning I went out at first light in the freezing cold to get these pictures of Brandon Fen. I hope you like them:
Image credits: David White
In other news, we all stayed late on Wednesday evening for our end of season volunteer social. Several of us were up at the Washland viewpoint at around 6pm and were rewarded with superb views of two barn owls hunting. At one point, one of them flew right towards the viewpoint which was a real treat!
It was a lovely, mild day yesterday and there were plenty of insects on the wing. This included lots of migrant hawkers, a few ruddy darters and a small tortoiseshell outside the visitor centre. I sneaked out for a quick peak at the work on the new hide and I was amazed by how much wildlife had been seen from the new location. Phil had already seen a water vole and heard a water rail squealing away. There was also a big group of bearded tits pinging in the reedbed right next to where the hide will be. How exciting! We hope to see you soon!