Good morning. We have had some interesting weather over the last couple of days so here are some more recent sightings:
I will start off where I left off on Thursday. Suzanne walked around Brandon Fen at lunchtime. She saw a treecreeper and a marsh tit. In the afternoon, a female blackcap was feeding in front of the visitor centre.
On Friday, several different bitterns were seen in flight from Joist Fen viewpoint over the course of the day. Presumably the same juvenile common redstart from last Saturday was also seen at the edge of the car park.
I walked around Brandon Fen before work yesterday morning and I saw two roe deer. A redshank was calling on the washland and a male marsh harrier was hunting overhead.
As the morning went on, a juvenile nightingale was feeding behind the visitor centre and a lesser whitethroat made a brief appearance in the same area. There were at least three little ringed plovers on the washland and a sparrowhawk was soaring over the car park.
Volunteer Dave was lucky enough to spot an otter feeding in the river and Roy spotted several common lizards basking near the Washland viewpoint. A hobby was also feeding over the Washland viewpoint
I photographed this gatekeeper butterfly feeding on the buddleia near the visitor centre at lunchtime: (apologies it has just been pointed out to me that this is a meadow brown!)
I found out this morning that a wasp spider was photographed was photographed somewhere on the reserve yesterday. A picture can be found on our Twitter feed, which is RSPB Fens. Please follow this link to check it out.
This record is really rather significant as it is the first confirmed record of this species on the Suffolk part of the reserve. The only other record came in September 2013 when Katherine, one of our Wardens found this individual on our land north of the river:
Image credit: Dave Rogers
I led a 10 kilometre guided walk yesterday afternoon which was dubiously entitled "A celebration of summer". Although it poured it down with rain for the first hour, it did thankfully clear up by the time we got beyond Joist Fen viewpoint.
We were treated to fantastic views of a bittern that was feeding in front of Mere Hide and I saw a couple of bearded tits just west of Joist Fen viewpoint. We saw a couple of hobbys over the far end of the reserve and once the sun came out, several marsh harriers were hunting over the reedbed. We also saw at least three roe deer near the railway line.
It was a lovely start to the day this morning and here are some of my pictures:
The washland:
Redshank (the plant not the bird!):
Image credits: David White
There were two green woodpeckers feeding at the edge of East Wood and there were plenty of small birds feeding at the edge of the visitor centre pond. This included two juvenile reed warblers, a juvenile nightingale and a goldcrest.
The juvenile common redstart has been seen at the edge of the car park in the last hour. A kingfisher has also been making fairly regular visits to the visitor centre pond so far this morning.
If you are planning to visit the reserve, please note that there are still cattle grazing on the riverbank between the Washland viewpoint and Joist Fen viewpoint.
We hope to see you soon!