A noticeable change has taken place at Lakenheath over the past week or so – insect numbers are definitely on the up! This is good news for all those insect eating animals out there and they are of course fascinating individuals themselves, so I’m weaving some appreciation of the smaller creatures into my blog this week.
Last weeks volunteer party started with an early morning bittern survey, listening out for those booming males. At the moment we’re confident we have four booming males across the reserve with another possible two or three to try and pin down. I’ve been mainly listening at New Fen North reedbed so far and the boomer there isn’t the best I’ve heard I have to say – he tends to do one loud boom, which catches your ear so you listen to try and locate it properly.... and nothing else follows. He certainly likes giving us just one boom at a time! Maybe a grunt or two before or after if you’re lucky so you have to listen hard for that one. The male nearest the Joist Fen viewpoint is much more vocal! Further display flights have been seen which is great news too.
After the bittern survey we continued with the trail maintenance, laying down more limestone dust to top off our pot hole repair work. And what a beautiful day to be working outside – butterflies were the thing to see and while walking back from New Fen North I took a picture of a lovely green-veined white:
Photo credit: Ali Blaney – Green-veined white butterfly
The bank holiday weekend was extremely busy for us and during these peak times we all lend a hand in the visitor centre and out in the car park. The lovely weather and the arrival of the famous red-footed falcon meant we were a very popular place to visit and Monday was one of our busiest days ever, with Katherine on car park duty recording a peak count of over 140 cars. Volunteer Janet and I were manning the visitor centre and unsurprisingly ice cream was the big seller of the day – who could resist after a nice walk out in that strong sunshine!
Our work this week has been mainly focused on having a bit of a tidy up at the viewpoints (the grass is starting to grow very quickly now!) and over Wednesday and Thursday our time was spent looking after three groups of lovely people who kindly donated funds toward our land purchase at the end of last year. We took everyone over to the new land and talked about how we intend to revert it from arable to wet grassland. The groups on Wednesday were very lucky to see cranes including the one-legged individual, who we wintnessed being turfed out of a field by one of our resident cranes who was being very territorial! Back on the main reserve we saw bittern, marsh harrier, hobbies, swifts and even the red-footed falcon. Some guests had never visited Lakenheath before – what an introduction to the site! The hobbies were great to watch as they caught insects with their feet, there were St Marks flies around and plenty of small flying insects buzzing just above the water at the viewpoint pools – the fish were jumping and making the most of an easy feed. David saw his first common millipede of the year and although this picture isn’t of that particular individual, I too saw one today and managed a quick photo - you can just about see the 'waves' of the many feet moving along.
Photo credit: Ali Blaney – Millipede near the visitor centre
Yesterday saw a marked change in the weather and the wind was whipping up the peaty top soils of the fens – I think it’s the worst ‘fen blow’ I’ve seen so far. Our group braved the elements though and were treated to views of the one-legged crane again as well as hobbies, although the wind was keeping the insects down so hobby numbers were lower too. Despite returning from the excursions with a slight gritty taste in the mouth, wind-swept hair and a covering of fine, peat soil, everyone had a great time and as always we were more than happy to show off the reserve and talk about the work we do here.
Today the fen blow has thankfully died down, although there is still a stiff breeze around. Dave and I carried out our territory surveys regardless this morning and it was certainly worthwhile even in the wind. Cuckoos could be heard from quite a distance and I a witnessed a buzzard being chased off by a rook. Whitethroats were making themselves known and the wheatear was still present on the Brandon Fen grazing marsh. I also had a good count of robins today, a couple were carrying food so there must be hungry mouths to feed somewhere. Insects are lying low from the wind and we spotted this lovely cinnabar moth hunkering down right outside the visitor centre, staying put for the meantime anyway!
Photo credit: Ali Blaney – Cinnabar moth
Flowers are springing up all over the reserve, adding a splash of colour in amongst the grasses. Speaking of grass, my brushcutter is calling me away from the computer and out onto the reserve to start strimming our overflow carparking areas – if this weekend is anything like the last one then we’ll need all the space we can find!