Good afternoon. Although the weather hasn't been great recently, I will start by sharing some lovely images that have been taken on the reserve recently:
Bittern:
Great crested grebe family:
Blue tailed damselflies:
Image credits: Steve Moore-Vale
Thank you very much to Steve for sharing these lovely images with us.
As you can seen from the images above, bitterns have been showing very well recently. This includes regular sightings from Mere Hide and Joist Fen viewpoint. A kingfisher has also been showing well at the edge of the visitor centre pond over the last couple of days, which has been nice to see. Warden Katherine saw a red kite over the far end of the reserve on Friday.
Suzanne and I did our last Common Bird Census (CBC) of the year around Brandon Fen this morning and there was plenty of cuckoo activity. We saw at least two males and a female. I also saw spotted flycatcher feeding opposite the reserve entrance which is a good record for here.
We saw at least two Muntjac deer on our travels and a smart female scarce chaser on our travels. Suzanne saw a roe deer and a fawn at the edge of East Wood on Monday and a smooth newt has been showing well in the raised plant bed in front of the visitor centre on a regular basis.
If you have been reading our blog posts regularly recently, you will know that there is a currently a job vacancy in the team here. If you would like to work at this wonderful reserve, please click here for more information.
This leads me neatly on to announce that I will be leaving the RSPB in the near future and my last blog post as a member of staff will appear here on Sunday. I am hoping to carry on as a volunteer though so it may not necessarily be the last time that you hear from me!
If you are planning to visit the reserve, please note that there are still cattle grazing on the riverbank Public Footpath.