Good morning. I have returned from two extremely busy weeks working at RSPB Bempton Cliffs as part of my sabbatical to find that summer has come to RSPB Lakenheath Fen.
I will begin with a couple of interesting sightings from last weekend. A great white egret in breeding plumage was seen from New Fen viewpoint on Friday and an osprey flew over on Friday.
I returned on Monday and I had a walk around the reserve before work. A male marsh harrier was hunting over the washland and a cuckoo was calling in East Wood. As I walked along the riverbank, I saw a selection of butterfly species. This included a small tortoiseshell, a comma and a large skipper. I also found an impressive looking scorpion fly.
As I walked back along the track back towards the visitor centre, I saw a blue tailed damselfly feeding alongside the track. I also took this photo of the white campion that is currently in flower at the edge of East Wood:
As the day went on, two kingfishers were seen on the washland and several meadow browns were on the wing in Brandon Fen.
I walked around Brandon Fen on Tuesday morning and saw two cuckoos chasing eachother. A male marsh harrier was hunting over the washland and four common terns were feeding aerobatically in front of the Washland viewpoint.
I also managed to photograph a couple of my favourite invertebrates while I was out and about:
Banded demoiselle:
Scorpion fly:
Image credits: David White
It was a nice morning yesterday and local photographer Matt Walton was out about on the reserve:
Common tern:
Kingfisher:
Image credits: Matt Walton
Thank you very much to Matt for sharing these great images with us.
As the day went on, an oystercatcher flew over the visitor centre and several individual bitterns were seen in flight from Joist Fen viewpoint. We had out annual volunteer BBQ in the evening. Whilst we were out enjoying the cloud and biting insects, a grey wagtail was calling nearby and a hobby flew over the visitor centre.
I just about have enough space to give you an update on our cranes. As regular readers and visitors will know, one of our pairs currently have two young. They are due to fledge any day so fingers crossed they will soon! The other pair are a couple of weeks behind so we still have a couple of weeks to find out whether their chick will fledge successfully. Fingers crossed for both pairs!
There is plenty to see at the moment so why not come and visit? We hope to see you soon!