Good afternoon. We have had our fair share of April showers over the last couple of days so here are the latest recent sightings. On Wednesday afternoon, Katherine, Emma and Suzanne found an early female whinchat in the area behind Mere Hide. This may be viewable distantly from the path that runs alongside the western edge of Trial Wood, the second poplar plantation. We had a volunteer social in the evening so before we started, Emma went up to the Washland viewpoint and saw a male garganey.
There were at least five roe deer grazing alongside the entrance track as I drove in on Thursday morning and a pale common buzzard was perched up. A willow warbler was singing by the pond dipping platform and I saw my first RSPB Lakenheath Fen swallow of the year over the Washland viewpoint.
As the day went on, a bittern flew over the visitor centre pond and a red kite drifted over East Wood. Suzanne saw a stonechat up on the riverbank and volunteer Lawrence saw a male garganey from New Fen viewpoint.
At the end of the day, Emma put together the very first RSPB Lakenheath Fen birders map, which will hopefully become a regular feature of our blogs and social media posts:
There were some interesting sightings on the reserve yesterday. The female whinchat in the area behind Mere Hide was joined by a wheatear. Katherine was also lucky enough to see a rough legged buzzard circling over the far end of the reserve along with five common buzzards.
The Washland viewpoint was the place to be this morning with a great white egret and three garganeys showing well nearby. An unidentified wader was also feeding at the far end of the pool, which looked most like a spotted redshank. Unfortunately, it was too far away to confirm it’s identity and the light was pretty poor.
I took the RSPB Lakenheath Fen Kingfishers Wildlife Explorer’s club down to Mere Hide this morning and on the way down, we saw two roe deer in East Wood and a muntjac deer just west of New Fen viewpoint. There were several sedge warblers singing, including one that was displaying near the Trial Wood viewpoint.
As we walked up the boardwalk to Mere Hide, two cranes flew up from behind the hide and when we got into the hide, a pair of bearded tits were showing well. A male marsh harrier flew over and a bittern was booming very close to the hide. A chiffchaff was also singing in West Wood north of the hide.
I will leave you with a picture of the marsh marigold that is coming into flower in the bog garden in front of the visitor centre:
Image credit: David White
P.S. I have also attached our list of first dates of migrant birds to this post. I hope you find it interesting!
There is plenty to see at the moment so why not come and visit? We hope to see you soon.