Good morning. I will get to "who" made a welcome return to the reserve yesterday below, but before that, I will post some pictures of this day last year and tell you a bit about what what was seen on Thursday.
I took a photo for this blog post this morning and while I was trying to save them, I found these photos that I took exactly a year ago today:
As you can see, the weather wasn't exactly great! I fear that by the end of today, we will be seeing similar scenes here judging by what the weather forecast says unfortunately!
On Thursday morning, I went up to the washland and I saw three greenshanks, one green sandpiper and a kingfisher. I walked around Brandon Fen and I found a skylark feeding close to a yellow wagtail. I also found a pair of marbled orb weavers near Wilton Bridge.
A kingfisher was fishing in the visitor centre pond shortly after we opened up. Volunteer Lawrence went up to the Washland viewpoint and saw a common sandpiper, eight common snipe and a garganey. Two hobbys were also hunting overhead.
Yesterday saw the return of an old favourite when a great white egret was found in front of the Washland viewpoint. A green sandpiper was also seen in the same area.
I spent some at the Washland viewpoint this morning and I saw:
Great white egret: 1
Egyptian goose: 5
Greenshank: 2
Common snipe: 4
Green sandpiper: 2
Great created grebe: 2
Common sandpiper: 1
Kingfisher: 1
A juvenile marsh harrier was hunting nearby and a Cetti's warbler was singing in Brandon Fen. A chiffchaff was also singing by the big willow near the visitor centre.
When I got back to the visitor centre, I spotted a kingfisher perched at the edge of the visitor centre pond.
I photographed this rather impressive fungi that has recently appeared near the visitor centre:
While I was out and about, I found a large leopard slug emerging from a crevice in the Brecks raised plant bed. There were also several small tortoiseshells feeding in the morning sunshine.
There is plenty to see at the moment so why not come and visit? We hope to see you soon!