I have just returned from a week away and it is amazing what has changed. Firstly, my uniform has changed colour from black to blue. This coincides with the launch of the Giving Nature a Home campaign, which you will be hearing a lot about over the next couple of years. Please click on the link above for more information about what you can do to give nature a home near you. Secondly, despite the fact that it is only a week since I was last here, a lot of things have changed on the reserve. In order to reacquaint myself with which species of wildlife are calling RSPB Lakenheath Fen home at the moment, I went for a walk before work. Here is an account of what I saw:
Things started well even before I got to the visitor centre as a muntjac deer was wandering around on the entrance track as I drove in. Our tame visitor centre jay was feeding on the peanut feeder in front of the centre, looking far too big for the feeder!
A kestrel was hovering over the washland and a cuckoo was calling in East Wood which struck me as being rather late in the year. There was some lovely yellow iris in flower alongside the path behind the visitor centre and there was an equally impressive display of charlock near the big willow.
The beautiful, creamy bells of common comfrey were widespread slightly further along the path and there was an impressive display of tufted vetch which looked something like this:
Image credit: Katherine Puttick
There was also plenty of goose grass out with its sticky stems. There was not much bird song as it was quite windy but I heard several reed buntings and common whitethroats singing. A treecreeper was calling in East Wood and a large splash in New Fen North may have indicated that an otter was nearby. However, I didn’t hear or see anything more of whatever it was so I couldn’t be sure.
There was plenty of bearded tit activity just north of New Fen viewpoint and I saw a family group whirring across the reedbed towards the viewpoint. A Cetti’s warbler was shouting away alongside East Wood and a female marsh harrier was perched up on a dead tree in New Fen North.
There was plenty of cuckoo activity near New Fen viewpoint and one flew right over my head. It then joined the original bird in East Wood and a loud “cuckooing” contest began which was lovely to hear. There was a lovely display of one of our Breckland specialities viper’s bugloss alongside East Wood. Here is a picture that I took of this pretty plant last year:
Image credit: David White
There was also some pretty pink yarrow alongside the wood and also some common toadflax in a sheltered corner which looked something like this:
A blackcap was singing in East Wood and I amused myself by rubbing a mugwort stem in order to smell its lovely aroma. This plant used to be used as an insect repellent so if you are struggling to fend of biting insects, this is what it looks like!:
My last sightings before I got back to the visitor centre were of a lapwing mobbing a sparrowhawk south of the railway line and some common hemp-nettle that was coming into flower near the bird feeders. I really enjoyed my walk to see what species were calling the reserve home so why don’t you come and do the same?!