Good morning. It turned out to be an interesting day here yesterday. Things started well when a yellow wagtail flew over the visitor centre, calling as it went. A chiffchaff was also singing in the car park, which was nice to hear.
I went for a walk around the interior path of New Fen North, the first area of reedbed. This path is only ever open in the winter months, so it was good to reacquaint myself with it. I saw lots of garden spiders along the riverbank and a four-spot orb weaver by the stile
As I walked around the reedbed, I found this shaggy ink cap by the path:
Image credit: David White
A kingfisher shot low over the reedbed and several bearded tits were "pinging" in the south west corner of the trail. A treecreeper was also calling in West Wood.
As I walked back past East Wood, I found this lovely female common darter perched on one of my seasonal interpretation signs:
Shortly after I got back to the visitor centre, I got a phone call from Simon, our local bird ringer saying that he had caught a female sparrowhawk in one of his mist nets. I went and had a look and took some rubbish photos of it (I will spare you all of them this morning!)
Simon and Lee reported a green sandpiper over Brandon Fen earlier on in the day and a brown argus on the wing at the edge of the car park. Lee also spotted a blood vein moth resting in the long grass.
We had a pleasant surprise at lunchtime when a yellow wagtail perched up on a willow bush at the edge of the visitor centre pond. This was a very welcome "visitor centre window tick" for me! One lucky individual came back reporting a male goosander on the river near Joist Fen viewpoint which is a very early record for this species on the reserve.
Meanwhile, further down the reserve, bitterns were seen from both viewpoints and Mere Hide over the course of the day. There were also at least five bearded tits and three kingfishers showing in front of Mere Hide.
There were at least three hobbys showing from the Washland viewpoint and a yellowhammer was a nice surprise on the riverbank north of East Wood. There were also plenty of butterflies on the wing, with plenty of commas, speckled woods and red admirals around Trial Wood, the second poplar plantation.
The weather forecast for the coming week is pretty good so why not come and visit? We hope to see you soon!