Good morning. I will start where I left off on Friday with some more sightings. Dave and Emma went down to the far end of the reserve and saw a treecreeper on Botany Bay and a bittern in flight near Joist Fen viewpoint. They also saw a sparrowhawk flash across the hard track near the visitor centre.
Meanwhile, closer to the visitor centre, two great white egrets were seen in various places throughout the day along with four little egrets. I went and counted the gulls in the sleet at lunchtime and there was an impressive count of 192 lesser black backed gulls. They were accompanied by an adult yellow legged gull, an adult herring gull and a couple of common gulls.
A marsh tit appeared behind the visitor centre during the afternoon and a merlin was seen near Joist Fen viewpoint.
It was absolutely freezing yesterday morning but myself and several others made the effort to get out for a walk around the reserve. As I reached New Fen viewpoint, I could hear the hubbub of a flock of "wild swans" and eventually located a total of 23 whooper swans on the washland which was lovely to see. A roe deer dashed across the frosty track in front of me and I saw two great white egrets in flight near the Washland viewpoint.
Local photographer Matt Walton was also out and about early and here are some of his pictures:
The misty river:
Two mute swans:
A kingfisher:
Image credits: Matt Walton
Thank you very much to Matt for sharing these great images with us.
As I mentioned in my blog post on Friday, there was the added bonus of two "Black 5" steam locomotives going past the reserve on their way to Norwich. Here they are:
Image credit: David White
While I was off gallivanting looking at steam engines (I have lost count of how much I have said this about myself over the years by the way!), I missed fantastic views of a sparrowhawk and a male bearded tit from the visitor centre window. Oh well, you can't win them all as they say!
As the day went on, a male stonechat was seen from the visitor centre window and a kingfisher was showing very well from Mere Hide.
I haven't been out yet this morning as it hasn't even got light yet but I did have a barn owl floating silently in front of me as I drove down the entrance track. What a way to start the day! We hope to see you soon.