Good morning. It’s time for my last recent sightings blog post of 2015 so without any further ado, I will begin.
I will begin with some late news from 26 December. One of our regular visitors was down at the far end of the reserve and had great views of an otter. He also saw a juvenile peregrine.
I was out armed with my camera yesterday morning and took a couple more pictures of the fungi growing outside of the visitor centre:
Image credits: David White
I went for a walk down to New Fen viewpoint before work yesterday morning to see the progress that had been made on the reed cutting. On the way along the very muddy riverbank Public Footpath, I saw a great white egret and four shelducks on the washland. A redshank flew across the large pool and a song thrush was singing in East Wood.
I stopped briefly at New Fen viewpoint and was there long enough to see a water rail scuttling across one of the channels and a female marsh harrier hunting over the reedbed.
As the day went on, a brambling was seen on the visitor centre feeders. A kingfisher was seen from Mere Hide and bitterns were seen in flight from both New Fen viewpoint and Mere Hide. Three water pipits were seen just east of the washland viewpoint and a good count of six green sandpipers flew over. A small of bearded tits were also seen near Joist Fen viewpoint.
There was plenty to see during the afternoon including a mixed flock of siskins and lesser redpolls feeding in the alders behind the visitor centre. At least two stonechats were seen on the riverbank and volunteer Nigel had a very close encounter with a barn owl near New Fen viewpoint.
I went for a walk around Brandon Fen in the dawn gloom this morning. Hopefully, these photos will show just how dark it was!:
As I walked around Brandon Fen, I could hear a song thrush singing in the distance and there were also some whooper swans calling from the washland. A Cetti’s warbler was also singing loudly from the edge of the grazing marsh.
There was plenty to seen over the washland including at least two water pipits and a great white egret. There were also four shelducks and a diving duck that I couldn’t conclusively identify. Although it was most likely to be a tufted duck, it could well have been a scaup so if it reappears, we will let you know!
Shortly after I opened up the visitor centre, a kingfisher dashed across the visitor centre pond and a coal tit was on the visitor centre feeders.This also coincided with the sun coming out, which was also lovely to see!
The reserve is open at all times as ever and the visitor centre is open daily 9am-4pm so why not come and visit? That just leaves me to wish you all a very Happy New Year from all of the team here and look out for my first recent sightings blog post of 2016 on New Years Day!