This reserve never ceases to amaze me. It seems that the amount of birds of prey roosting on the reserve seems to be going up and up. It was a lovely day on Thursday and there were plenty of visitors enjoying the sunshine. Joist Fen viewpoint was definitely the place to be in the afternoon with at least 19 marsh harriers and seven hen harriers. This included four "grey males" and three "ringtails". A merlin shot over the viewpoint before disappearing again shortly after and a barn owl was also hunting nearby. The evening was made complete by a lovely, long flight from a bittern.
Incredibly this impressive count was bettered last night when there were 29 marsh harriers and seven hen harriers once again. At one point, all of the hen harriers were in the air together! The excitement didn't end there though as an otter was showing well in front of the viewpoint and two cranes flew over!
Its not all been about amazing afternoon roost counts though. There was definitely a case of "the one that got away" on Saturday afternoon when John, regular Saturday volunteer found what looked like a first winter male scaup on the washland. Unfortunately, I don't have access to a picture of one in this plumage but here is an illustration of an adult male:
Image credit: Mike Langman (rspb-images.com)
Sadly, by the time the bird was found the light was fading and the bird was not seen yesterday. If it reappears, we will let you know.
I went for a walk around Brandon Fen this morning. There were three shovelers and a little egret on the washland and there were plenty of small birds around. A flock of 10 lesser redpolls flew over my head and a marsh tit was calling at the end of the new trail. There were also several bramblings in the poplars near the car park.
While I was walking around, I kept hearing a familiar call in the distance that I had not heard for a couple of weeks. The sound in question was a (or some!) cranes bugling. Given that the sound was likely to be coming from around a mile and a half away, it never ceases to amaze me how far it carries. When I returned to the office, I found out that the source of the commotion came from two of our "regulars" that flew from south of the railway line into Hum Its great news that the cranes are around again, it gives me an excuse to head down to Joist Fen viewpoint before work one morning soon to try and see them. We hope to see you soon.