Well, the last couple of days have been very seasonal. We have had a bit of sun, a bit of wind and a bit of rain! It was unsettled for most of the day on Friday. As I was opening up the visitor centre, I spooked a female sparrowhawk that was perched on the veranda behind the visitor centre. There was also a pair of stonechats showing well in front of Mere Hide.
I was pleasantly surprised when I got to work yesterday morning: the sun was shining! Things started well when a muntjac deer wandered across the entrance track as I drove in. I had a walk around Brandon Fen and had fantastic views of five bearded tits from the riverbank. There were four males and one female and I spent a good amount of time watching their antics.
As I walked along the riverbank, a water pipit flew up in front of me. There were at least three little egrets visible from the Washland viewpoint. When I got back to the visitor centre, there was a mixed flock of finches feeding in the staff car park. This included at least 12 siskins, eight lesser redpolls and a good number of goldfinches.
Meanwhile, further down the reserve, a bittern was seen in flight on the approach to Mere Hide and two stonechats were again showing well from the hide. As the afternoon went on, a kingfisher appeared in front of the visitor centre window which was lovely to see.
It rained a lot overnight so I made sure I wore my wellies for my walk this morning. I walked along the riverbank as far as East Wood, the first poplar wood. It was really rather muddy so I'm glad that I was wearing appropriate footwear! A flock of six little egrets were feeding in the second washland pool, just north of the stile.
I decided to walk around New Fen North to try and get some pictures. It was so gloomy that none of them are good enough to be shared here! A female marsh harrier was perched up on a post in the middle of the reedbed and there were plenty of bearded tits pinging. Three Egyptian geese also flew north through the gap between Trial Wood and West Wood.
As I walked back towards the visitor centre along the hard track, there was some fungi growing in East Wood so I got one photo that I was moderately pleased with:
Image credit: David White
The weather forecast for the coming week is mostly dry so why not come and visit? We hope to see you soon!