Good morning. A lot has been seen on the reserve in the last week but a full recent sightings post will have to wait until tomorrow. The reason for this is that a very significant species of bird was heard and seen on the reserve yesterday and in order to do it justice, I have decided to devote a blog post to it.
An interesting debate has been brewing here at RSPB Lakenheath Fen over the last couple of weeks. It involves two species, marsh tits and willow tits. The former species is now a familiar sight on the reserve and is seen regularly on the reserve. Unfortunately, the latter species is now not only a reserve rarity, but also a county rarity as well.
There have been several reports of the much scarcer willow tit near the visitor centre in the last couple of weeks. However, as they look so similar to marsh tits, none of these records have been confirmed... until yesterday that is!
All of the fuss began when bird ringers Simon and Lee heard a willow tit signing near the visitor centre. It was then seen flying into Brandon Fen. This was very exciting indeed. What was even more exciting was that later on in the day, it was making regular visits to the peanut feeders in front of the visitor centre. Fortunately, regular Wednesday volunteer John Wightman got some photos of it:
Image credits: John Wightman
Thank you very much to John for sharing these pictures with us.
This was the first confirmed record of this species on the reserve since November 2008, when I was lucky enough to find one feeding at the eastern edge of East Wood.
You may ask at this point why this record is so significant: The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) published the latest version of the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) results last year. Among other things, it highlighted that the willow tit had declined by a frightening 77% as a breeding bird in Britain between 1994-2007. Of all of the species surveyed in the BBS, the willow tit showed the greatest decline of any British breeding bird which is really worrying news.
After taking all of that consideration, it was great to hear that a willow tit was ringed on the reserve this morning by Simon and Lee. In order to hopefully make identification slightly easier, they have placed the ring on the bird’s left leg. All of the marsh tits that have been ringed on the reserve have rings on their right legs, so if we see the willow tit again, it will hopefully be obvious what species it is!
I will return tomorrow morning with some recent sightings so until then, we hope you have a great day!