As I write this it is a beautiful sunny morning and we are finally beginning to see more butterflies! The stalwarts of summer- Peacock, Red admiral and Comma are increasing in number here, as are Large and Small Whites. There are plenty of flowers dotted around the trails that attract them down for visitors to see- such as the buddleia by the Visitor Centre, as well as natives such as Hemp Agrimony in wetter places, and Common Ragwort and Viper's Bugloss in drier areas. We have also been catching lots of moths in our traps overnight, and were very pleased to catch plenty of Fen Wainscot last week, along with our first ever Festoon. This unassuming little brown moth is listed as 'Nationally Scarce B' meaning it is currently only found in the range of 16 and 30 hectads in the UK. A hectad is a 10 x 10km square, into which the UK is divided up for ecological recording purposes. The caterpillars feed on English Oak, but thankfully the adult moths can be attracted to light, so we get to see them without climbing the trees! Photo credit: Festoon by Haydn Fox. Caught on 18-19 July 2024.In today's trap (26 July) we saw a few early Autumn moths such as Canary-shouldered Thorn, Dusky Sallow and Ruby Tiger. In fact we had more Ruby Tigers than anything else- 56! I'm not sure we have ever had this many. Other common species included 44 Dingy Footman and 30 Mother-of-Pearl. In total we had about 63 species of around 200 different moths. We even caught a couple of day-flying species like Latticed Heath and Silver Y, which you can often find in a flowery meadow on a sunny day. The largest moth was by far two Pine Hawkmoths, both of which were quite worn but they are beginning to come to the end of their flight period now.On the wider reserve, visitors are still seeing plenty of Bitterns in flight- and yesterday (25 July) one lucky visitor saw three flying together in New Fen reedbed, indicating a mother with her two fledglings. Look out for them anywhere with reedbeds, but New Fen does seem to be a hotspot for nesting females so a bit of time spent at the viewpoint should reward you with one or more sightings. All of our Marsh Harriers appear now to have fledged, making them fairly easy to see. From our early morning surveys, we believe we have had around 12 Marsh Harrier nests, producing a minimum of 15 young. As for Bitterns, we think we had 7 nests and the number of fledglings we are not yet certain of because they have not finished their nesting season. Because of their skulking and secretive nature, it is harder for us to get a picture of how many youngsters will be on the reserve- with harriers, they fly well above the reedbed and can be quite noisy too, as well as looking visibly quite different from their parents.Other sightings this week include Kingfishers both from the Visitor Centre and from Mere Hide- and on 21 July we had a juvenile who spent a couple of hours perched by the balcony at the Centre- and because he was a youngster he didn't seem to mind people watching him! Mere Hide was a very good place to be yesterday as visitors reported not just Kingfisher there but also a Bittern and a Hobby flying over. Although we are well known for our high numbers of Hobby in May (sometimes up to 60!) we do have a few breeding pairs on the reserve so it should still be quite easy to spot one on a fair weather day into September. They feed mostly on dragonflies, damselflies and other large insects such as chafers, butterflies and craneflies. The Washland is always a good place to look for a Hobby or two, and yesterday (25 July) it was clear that egret numbers are beginning to build, with 5 Great White Egret and 1 Little Egret fishing for food in the shallows. Herons and egrets are fairly early breeders so it is around now that they begin to congregate socially instead of keeping to separate pairs, especially in lagoons and floods. Our volunteer Paul also found 1 Grey Heron, 24 Mute Swan, 50 Lapwing and 141 Coot on the Washland this morning. Keep an eye out too for hunting Kestrel and Marsh Harrier up here.When you arrive at the reserve and park up, you may well hear the noisy calls of one or more of the fledgling Green Woodpeckers that have emerged from Brandon Fen recently. Earlier in the week, our administrator Suzanne carried out her CBC (Common Bird Census) survey in Brandon Fen and her Merlin app picked up the song of a Spotted Flycatcher. The habitat there is ideal for them- an abundance of flying insects and sunny clearings amongst the trees. They will use fairly high perches in the trees next to these clearings to fly in their characteristic 'figure of eight' loops to try to catch the insects. Hopefully they will find enough food to raise some youngsters, especially given that they are the fastest declining of all British songbirds- their population declined by 92% between 1967 and 2020.Upcoming EventsPreparations for our Big Wild Sleepout on 3-4 August are well underway- we are organising a range of activities for those booked on and busy getting the campsite ready. At the moment, we have 20 guests booked on but we can take more, so if you're interested, please visit this link to find out more and book your place. All ages are welcome, and we are hoping to have pond-dipping, bug-hunting on offer on the afternoon of the Saturday. We will also set our moth traps overnight and have two guided walks- one in the evening on Saturday and another early on Sunday. Then, we will serve breakfast to our guests, go through our moth traps and have our 'build a bug hotel' activity in the morning, as well as a bit of bug-hunting! It's always a lovely atmosphere, where nature-loving families can come together to enjoy a wildlife-themed 24 hours! We also welcome adult-only groups too so if you fancy taking part but don't have children- don't worry- all are welcome!Once the Big Wild Sleepout has passed, we will focus on our Autumn/Winter event schedule, likely including plenty of lovely guided walks. Our monthly pond-dipping sessions will continue into September (this one is on Saturday 7th) and our moth mornings will be ongoing, certainly until November. After this time, it is likely to be cold and possibly wet whenever we set the trap, so we won't catch much- so we tend not to publicise these winter dates to avoid the disappointment for visitors of a near-empty trap!To see our full range of events, and to book tickets, please use this link: https://events.rspb.org.uk/lakenheathfenTo finish off this blog, here's a few photos of today's moth trap for you to enjoy. As usual, if you want to speak to us or have any questions about the reserve, you can call us on 01842 863400 or e-mail us at lakenheath@rspb.org.uk. Pebble Prominent Least Carpet (left) with Swallow Prominent (right) Iron Prominent (top) with Ruby Tiger (bottom) Silver Y Dark Arches (top) with Buff Footman (bottom) Buff Footman and Red-legged Shieldbug (left), Ruby Tiger (middle) and Dingy Footman (right) Ruby Tiger (left), Dingy Footman (middle) and Drinker (right) Sallow Kitten. Photos taken by Heidi JonesWith best wishes,Heidi Jones (Visitor Experience Officer)