Good morning. We have had an interesting couple of days here so here are some recent sightings. It was all a bit quiet on Friday but at least a water rail was wandering around at the edge of the visitor centre pond for most of the afternoon which brightened up things a little!
It was a mild and cloudy day yesterday and I went for my usual walk around the reserve before work. I saw a water pipit on the washland and several common woodland birds were showing well in East Wood. This included a treecreeper , a great spotted woodpecker and a small gang of long tailed tits. Shortly after I opened up the visitor centre, a water rail appeared at the edge of the visitor centre pond and a mistle thrush was perched up in front of the visitor centre.
It was then time for the Wildlife Explorer's Club Christmas Party. Before the mayhem started, we took the children down to Frederick the willow dragon to see how the willow that they cut during November's meeting had been used to make him look even more dragon like:
Thank you very much to Warden Emma volunteer Janet for their had work making Frederick look even more like a dragon than before!
The morning then well and truly descended into chaos with a game of pass the parcel. Yours truly had foolishly delegated the task of providing forfeits for each layer to some of my esteemed colleagues (mentioning no names!) This culminated in three things that trust me, you just do not want to see:
Oh well, at least the children enjoyed it which is the main thing!
After a well deserved rest at lunchtime, I went up to the Washland viewpoint and saw at least 60 lapwings swirling overhead. A marsh tit was making regular visits to the feeders behind the visitor centre and further down the reserve, a stoat was seen from New Fen viewpoint.
As I drove in this morning, four roe deer ran across the entrance track in front of me. I went up to the Washland viewpoint first thing and saw a great white egret. Two very vociferous adult whooper swans were also present along with a flock of around 150 lapwings. As I walked along the riverbank, I saw two stonechats perched up north of East Wood.
A flock of at least eight bearded tits were showing well near New Fen viewpoint and as I got to the viewpoint, I spotted two strange objects at the edge of the pool (I have taken the liberty of circling them to make them a bit more obvious):
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If you can't quite make them out, they are two of the Dartmoor ponies that have been grazing in New Fen North for the majority of the last year. If you are wondering why this is so significant, this is the first time that I have ever seen them grazing in front of the viewpoint so this was a real treat for me.
I walked along the interior path of New Fen North and was lucky enough to spot an otter sneaking across the track in front of me in the distance. I also photographed this bay that has recently been cut in the reedbed, which wasn't there the last timne I walked along this path around a month ago:
Image credits: David White
I took a walk around the back of Trial Wood and as I walked through the wood, I spotted three roe deer skulking in the wood which were nice to see.
If you are planning to visit this week, here are two things that you may be interested in. Firstly, from Wednesday afternoon onwards, local wildlife artist and reserve volunteer Rob Dyke will be displaying his artwork in the visitor centre daily until Wednesday 21 December. Please read this blog post from more information. Secondly, you may also be interested to hear that the steam locomotive Duchess Of Sutherland is due to be passing the reserve with its train on its way to York on Thursday morning. It should pass the reserve at some point between 08.45-09.15.
We hope to see you soon!