Good morning! As you can probably imagine, having Suffolk’s first little bittern since 1979 on the reserve has meant that we have been really rather busy recently! However, there has been plenty of other things going on as these great images show:
Dawn over the washland on Friday:
A pair of variable damselflies oviposting:
A drake shoveler:
An action shot of a hobby:
Image credit: Jon Winnan
I lead a very successful dawn chorus walk on Sunday morning and we had a marvellous view of a bittern in flight from New Fen viewpoint. A male marsh harrier was also perched up in front of the viewpoint which was lovely to see.
There were cuckoos calling everywhere and the little bittern was barking intermittently in New Fen North triangle. A kingfisher was fishing in front of Joist Fen viewpoint and a barn owl was hunting along the river just west of the viewpoint.
As we walked back along the river, a common sandpiper was flying around over the riverbank. A crane flew up behind us and we met some lucky visitors who had just seen an otter fishing on the washland.
The little bittern was seen in flight at around 10.20am and three bitterns were seen from Joist Fen viewpoint. At least six hobbys were feeding over the viewpoint and a painted lady was on the wing nearby.
We went down for another little bittern vigil yesterday morning and we could hear it barking almost constantly. The most exciting thing that happened while we were there was a fly over hobby that caused the little bittern to run a considerable distance through the reeds!
As the day went on, four bitterns were seen display flying in front of Joist Fen viewpoint and a kingfisher was seen from Mere Hide. A grass snake was also seen near New Fen viewpoint and a stoat was seen in the same area.
The little bittern was seen in flight at around 5.50pm and it even got up on the top of the reeds and barked for around 10 minutes! Mark Brown, one of our volunteers managed to get a picture of it:
Image credit: Mark Brown
Thank you very much to Matt, Jon and Mark for sharing their photos with us.
The little bittern was still barking away this morning and I had a walk around Brandon Fen before work. A common tern was fishing over the washland and two cuckoos flew over the grazing marsh. A kingfisher was also fishing in the visitor centre pond.
There is plenty to see at the moment so why not come and visit? We hope to see you soon!