27 February recent sightings: So much to say, so little time!

Good morning. This week has been great as there has just been so much to see! I will start with some photographs that have been taken in the last week:

Firstly, we have these lovely images of a long tailed tit that were taken by eight year old Amber Wallis:

Image credits: Amber Wallis

Secondly, here are one of our resident pairs of cranes, Little and Large, coming into land in Humphrey’s Paddock:

Image credit: Matt Walton

Thirdly, here are two species of herons...

A great white egret:

... And a bittern:

Image credits: Ron Smith

Thank you very much to Amber, Matt and Ron for sharing these wonderful images with us.

I will start off by returning to Sunday. A red kite flew low over the visitor centre and a male sparrowhawk was perched at the edge of the visitor centre pond.

Meanwhile, further down the reserve, four cranes were showing from Joist Fen viewpoint and a bittern was seen in flight. There were also at least five marsh harriers hunting in front of the viewpoint.

On Monday, a pair of cranes flew over the visitor centre and there were 46 tufted ducks on the washland.

On Tuesday, a red kite flew over the visitor centre and a common buzzard flew over Brandon Fen.

As Dave mentioned in his blog post on Wednesday, everybody (apart from me) went down early to listen for bitterns. As well as the bitterns that Dave mentioned, Katherine was lucky enough to see two otters playing near New Fen viewpoint.

Meanwhile, Suzanne was stationed at Joist Fen viewpoint. She saw at least 10 bearded tits and two barn owls. I popped down later on in the day and saw an oystercatcher on the washland just north of New Fen North. I saw a great white egret in flight heading north of Joist Fen viewpoint and a common buzzard was perched up close to the viewpoint.

On the way back through the reserve, a cheeky stoat was squaring up to me on the hard track near Mere Hide and I was following a barn owl that was hunting between New Fen viewpoint and the visitor centre.

I saw seven roe deer alongside the entrance track as drove in yesterday morning and a muntjac deer was skulking around in Brandon Fen. A barn owl was hunting over the grazing marsh and a great white egret was showing well in front of the Washland viewpoint. 

Emma and I went down to listen for bitterns early this morning and we heard probably two birds booming west of Joist Fen viewpoint. I also saw two individual birds in flight.  One of the pairs of cranes flew over and seven whooper swans flew north across the river. Emma saw 51 lapwings in one of the areas of grazing marsh at the west end of the reserve.

As you can see there is plenty to see on the reserve at the moment so why not come and visit? We hope to see you soon!