Good morning. It’s been another busy week and there have been some interesting sightings out on the reserve. Over the weekend, a lucky couple saw a barn owl and a short eared owl hunting in the same area over the riverbank.
There was also a lovely sunrise on Sunday morning:
Image credit: Peter Sharpe
Thank you very much to Peter for sharing this great picture with us.
There was also some excitement on Monday afternoon when volunteer Nigel Taylor found a great grey shrike on the riverbank just west of Joist Fen viewpoint. Although it hasn’t been seen since, I suspect it is still around so if it reappears, we will let you know!
On Tuesday, Emma saw a water rail at the far end of the reserve and Suzanne saw the great white egret on the washland. A common snipe flew up in front of the Washland viewpoint and a common buzzard was hunting over Brandon Fen.
I returned from a couple of days off yesterday to find the great white egret in front of the Washland viewpoint along with 12 pintails, which is a very good count for this species here. A water pipit flew up in front of the Washland viewpoint and two stonechats were feeding in the same area.
It rained for most of the morning so our Wild Wednesday session of family activities was mostly indoors. We did get out for a little walk though in the end. After lunch, I spent some time carving a pumpkin for our Hallowe’en display under the close supervision of Emma. I couldn’t resist sharing these amusing photos of me:
Image credits: Emma Cuthbertson
Anyhow, being serious once again, I went for a walk around the reserve early this morning. The great white egret was showing well in front of the Washland viewpoint and a flock of around 25 lapwings were wheeling around overhead.
The washland pool north of East Wood was very productive. A group of 11 little egrets were feeding on the pool along with a couple of lapwings and a green sandpiper.
I walked around the interior path of New Fen North and saw a male marsh harrier being mobbed by two carrion crows. A male bullfinch flew south overhead which is a good record for here. A further three individuals flew south just before I got back to the visitor centre, so there must have been a little passage of this species through this morning.
The reserve celebrates it’s twentieth birthday on Saturday as it was on the 31 October 1995 that the first sod was dug to begin the creation of the reserve. We have a special twentieth anniversary 10 kilometre Long Walk around the reserve and there are still a couple of spaces available on it. Please follow this link for information about how to book places. We hope to see you soon!