Good morning. After yesterday morning’s mainly retrospective blog post, I thought I would post some more sightings from the last couple of days.
The little bittern had not been heard for a week until this morning. To be honest, we all thought that it had gone but it HAS been heard in New Fen North triangle, just east of Joist Fen viewpoint so it is definitely still here after all!
The reserve team did a bittern survey yesterday and there was plenty going on. As well as bitterns, volunteers Janet and Pete were based around New Fen North and saw plenty of interesting wildlife.
Janet was based at New Fen viewpoint and saw a kingfisher and a buzzard. Pete was based at the western edge of the same reedbed and saw some young bearded tits, an emperor dragonfly and a brown hawker.
Suzanne had a walk around Brandon Fen and we saw a large grass snake slither across the path in front of us. There were plenty of cinnabar moth caterpillars feeding on the ragwort and a cuckoo was calling nearby.
Volunteer Lawrence went up to the Washland viewpoint shortly after and saw two hobbys and five lapwings. He also saw a buzzard over the visitor centre.
I had a very pleasant walk around the reserve before work this morning. There were lots of five spot burnet moths resting alongside the riverbank:
Image credits: David White
A female banded demoiselle was resting on a bramble bush and two marsh harriers were over the washland. A barn owl also flew west along the river.
A blue tailed damselfly was feeding alongside the path between the riverbank and New Fen viewpoint and I had a surprise when I got the viewpoint itself: a bittern was perched up on top of the reeds at the back of the pool! It stayed there for a while before flying off.
As I walked back towards the visitor centre, a kingfisher shot through East Wood and I stopped to take a look at the common meadow rue that is currently “showing well” just off the main track:
Image credit: David White
This plant is very important as it is the food plant of the larvae of the marsh carpet moth. This rare moth is virtually only found in East Anglia and we have a good population of them here.
The weather is looking quite good for the weekend so why not come and visit? We hope to see you soon!