It was rather warm this weekend wasn't it?! As usual, shortly after I finished my blog post on Friday, we received reports of some great sightings from the reserve! A turtle dove flew over Joist Fen viewpoint and a honey buzzard flew south west over West Wood. Typical!
There was plenty seen over the course of the day and birds of prey were conspicuous. There were at least five marsh harriers over Joist Fen viewpoint along with four hobbys. Ali also saw five common buzzards over the far end of the reserve.
At least two cranes were seen from Joist Fen viewpoint and a lesser whitethroat was reported alongside Trial Wood. Several Cetti's warblers were blasting away their loud song and a female cuckoo was bubbling south of Trial Wood.
Meanwhile, closer to the visitor centre, a grass snake was hunting in the visitor centre pond, much to the indignation of the pair of coots that were trying to protect their chicks.
Local photographer Matt Walton was out and about and sent us these lovely photos that he took over the weekend:
Dawn over the Washland:
A barn owl on sentinel duty:
A cuckoo in flight:
A four-spotted chaser:
Image credits: Matt Walton
Thank you again to Matt for sharing these with us.
I went for a nice walk around Brandon Fen this morning and there were plenty of insects on the wing in the morning sunshine. There were lots of male banded demoiselles hunting alongside the riverbank and small tortoiseshells were very conspicuous. There were also several five-spot burnets resting on the vegetation:
Image credit: David White
As I walked back to the visitor centre, I could hear a garden warbler singing by the pond dipping area and a cuckoo was calling in the big willow.
The weather is looking fairly good for this week so why not come to visit? We hope to see you soon!