As the sun was shining this morning, I decided to walk down to Joist Fen viewpoint before walk. It been so long since I've done it, so it was such a treat for me. On the way down, I got a couple of pictures of the rising sun:
Image credits: David White
In the warmth of the early spring morning, I was completely blown away by the sound and the volume of the birdsong. As I walked along the riverbank, good numbers of reed buntings were singing their simple but pleasing song from the reedbeds.
I could also hear a bittern "grunting", albeit very faintly, from the first area of reedbed. It was so quiet that I had to keep convincing myself that was what I was hearing! As it is such a low frequency sound, its definitely time to retune my ears in advance of the coming breeding season.
When I got to West Wood, a song thrush was blasting out its loud song and the sound filled the air for quite some time after I had moved on. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to stop at Joist Fen viewpoint but I could hear plenty of bearded tits pinging near the path between Joist Fen viewpoint and Mere Hide.
When I got to Trial Wood, the middle poplar wood, I was treated to an absolute cacophony of song from the local wrens. This was interrupted intermittently by a single Cetti's warbler that kept blasting out its machine gun like song (and drowning out all of the wren song while it was at it!)
By the time I got to East Wood, the closest poplar wood to the visitor centre I could hear lots of rooks grumbling from the top of the trees and the cackling calls of the local jackdaws. The penetrating song of a treecreeper was also surprisingly prominent amongst the racket that the corvids were making.
Although its only 09.30 as I write this, several of the "early birders" are back from their morning walks. So far, they have reported five whooper swans from the washland viewpoint and plenty of bird of prey activity from Joist Fen viewpoint. This included lots of marsh harriers "skydancing" high over the reedbed, two "ringtail" hen harriers and a barn owl.
I will finish with some news from the last couple of days. Dave, our Site Manager saw our first grass snake of the year near the visitor centre on Friday. Yesterday afternoon, both pairs of cranes were feeding north of the river near Joist Fen viewpoint and two stoats were gambolling along the path alongside Trial Wood.
Its a lovely day today and the lovely weather looks set to continue so why not come and visit?! Also, please take a look the RSPB Suffolk Facebook page for more news about this reserve and the other great reserves in Suffolk. We hope to see you soon!