The first week back at work after the Christmas break can only mean one thing here at Lakenheath Fen – the start of our annual reserve year list competition!
As regular readers of the blog will know, staff and volunteers compete throughout the year to see as many birds as possible on the reserve. Strict rules are enforced, and with only a couple of exceptions, all birds must be seen not just heard.
The first few weeks of the year are always the best for listing, pretty much every bird is a new one and the numbers rapidly add up. Even seeing some of the commoner species out on the feeders leads to a little excitement for us all. In fact, the highlight of my drive down the entrance track the other morning was seeing a magpie and being able to add one more to my list!
It does create a bit of healthy competition between us all and, at the moment, leads to the regular question of “did you see any new birds?!” whenever someone heads out on the reserve.
Thankfully this week the birds have been playing ball, allowing us to make a good start to our lists and have plenty of sightings to report in time for the weekend...
Early morning visits to the washland have been great for catching swans leaving their roost, with four Bewick’s and 15 Whoopers seen on the 3rd. As we were enjoying our lunch break during Thursdays work party, we were treated to 16 Bewick’s flying high and calling over New Fen North.
To add to the collection of swan species, these two mute swans were skating on rather thin ice earlier this morning..
(Image credit:Emma Cuthbertson)
Other sightings from the washland this week include great white egret, two little egret, four shoveler, kingfisher, water pipit, two shelduck and two redshank. Gull highlights have included herring gull, common gull, lesser black-backed gull and caspian gull (3rd Jan).
Brandon Fen has also been a good spot this week for adding a sneaky few birds to the list such as brambling, redwing, fieldfare, buzzard, stonechat, goldcrest and chiffchaff!
Heading further down the reserve, three cranes were spotted from Joist Fen viewpoint over the weekend. They are very elusive at this time of year, spending much of their time out in the wider fens area, but it shouldn’t be that much longer until they’re back with us on a more regular basis.
Bearded tits have been reported from both Mere Hide and Joist Fen viewpoint, along with good numbers of marsh harriers coming in to roost on an evening.
The feeders outside the visitor centre are busy with regular visits from blue tit, goldfinch, great tit, chaffinch, greenfinch, coal tit, robin and reed bunting. It’s a great spot to practice bird identification in preparation for the upcoming Big Garden Birdwatch.
Blue tit checking out the feeders (Emma Cuthbertson)
However, top spot from the visitor centre has to be our extremely showy water rail, which is being seen on a daily basis, just metres from the decking!
(Image credit: Emma Cuthbertson)