High summer at Lakenheath Fen - 24 July 2022

Hello to all and welcome to the latest blog. As you will well know yourselves (especially thanks to last weeks' heatwave!) we've had some very warm weather in the southern half of the UK and we reached 40c here in the sunshine, as most did! What we sadly didn't see as it cooled off was any rain, which is what we really need- the reserve is incredibly dry. If you visit us soon you will see the Washland has only very little water on it- we have opened the sluice to allow water on to it but the river water level is so dry that nothing much is feeding into it. Large patches of open water at New Fen especially are dry, but there are still a few deeper pools around which the waterbirds are making good use of. In recent days, kingfisher sightings on the Visitor Centre pond have become almost daily- perhaps because his or her usual fish supply has dried up, or it could be a youngster from Mere Hide earlier in the summer. Kingfisher sightings from Mere Hide continue to come in, as have these beautiful photos, sent in by Cheryl Collier and Tushar Bala:





Photo credit: This image of a juvenile kingfisher at Mere Hide can be credited to Tushar Bala. It was taken on 23 June in Mere Hide.





Photo credit: More recently, these two images come from Cheryl Collier, again from Mere Hide, on 9 July 2022. In the lower image, the kingfisher is coughing up a 'pellet' of undigestible fish scales and bones- in much the same way as owls produce pellets.

Other recent highlights on the reserve include a record 19 great white egrets, which were loafing (resting; doing nothing!) on a vegetated island at Joist Fen on 20 July. One of our volunteers, Phil, noticed them whilst he was riding on the mower and cutting the paths for us. The next day another volunteer, Matthew, spotted 11 so there is a good chance you will see a few if you visit Mixed in with them is a good handful of little egret and grey heron too. There is a small heronry locally and at this time of year we see a few greyer, plainer birds boosting their numbers. Bittern sightings have been steady too and the most recent was two birds on 14 July, at New Fen, but it is likely that there have been many more sightings than this that haven't been reported to us- young birds will have fledged now so like the grey herons, we will have more birds than we did a few weeks ago and as they gain their independence and learn about their home they can be quite obvious- keep an eye on the vegetation at the edges of the riverbank as well as the edges of reedy pools such as at New Fen and Mere Hide.

Whilst the water levels are very low on the Washland, we have still had some sightings from up there- a family of four avocets- two adults and two chicks were joined by two ruff today (24 July). On 20 July there were 9 black-tailed godwits, a single redshank and 114 lapwing. Another wader present on the reserve recently was a common snipe, seen at Mere Hide on 21 July. Look out for shoveler, tufted duck, gadwall and mallard up there in small numbers, but their numbers should rise considerably when we finally do get some rain. Stonechat and reed warbler continue to show well in the vegetation either side of the riverbank footpath, and with stonechat in particular it can be quite obvious when they are feeding young. Fledglings resemble females but with less clear-cut markings, and of course when they beg for and accept food from their parents!







Photo credit: Three flowering plants looking spectacular at the moment- from top; great willowherb, hemp agrimony and purple loosestrife. Photos by Heidi Jones.

As well as our marsh harriers already mentioned, hobby, sparrowhawk, common buzzard and kestrel sightings have been regular and we have had regular red kite sightings too- some weeks we barely go a day without one flying overhead, resting on the thermals above the Visitor Centre. In May we are well known for the large numbers (50-60) of hobby that arrive at the reserve and use it as an early season feeding ground, but even when the number falls in June as the birds disperse, we keep a few pairs and hobbies are still seen by most visitors on their walk around the reserve. We should have them here until perhaps September or October; they tend to stay until the weather cools and the dragonflies disperse.

Keep an eye out too for barn owls- we have a couple of successful broods across the reserve and across West Suffolk this year it seems to be a year with plentiful rodent prey because our local ringer tells me there are several broods of four, five and six chicks in the County. We haven't seen much daytime activity on the reserve- the parents have been mainly catching food between dawn and dusk which indicates that they are finding enough during their favoured hunting hours, to not need to venture out in broad daylight.

For those of our visitors who love their insects, you will be pleased to hear that we have had our first red underwing moth on the Visitor Centre- one was spotted yesterday (23 July). These large and impressive moths are attracted to light, so they can often be seen under or near the spotlights on the timber cladding of the building. Painted lady, comma, peacock and red admiral are all species common here at the moment, enjoying what is left of the bramble blossom (especially along the hard track just west of the Visitor Centre) and of course the buddleia at the Centre. Meadow brown, gatekeeper, small white and large white love these flowers too whilst you will need to walk around Brandon Fen for a good chance of seeing smaller, heathland species such as small heath, brown argus and common blue. Further to the scarlet tiger mentioned in the last blog, a delightful surprise in the moth trap on 19 July was a second scarlet tiger moth. We now have two records for the reserve in a matter of weeks so we hope this is a tentative suggestion that they might be breeding here- a species not recorded here before but one which is on the rise across Suffolk in recent years. Also in the moth trap was a wormwood, a species of moth rarely recorded here.



Photo credit: The red underwing moth that came inside (briefly) on 23 July. Photo by Jacob Tancock.

On the dragonfly front, brown hawker, Emperor dragonfly, common darter and ruddy darter are all very common at the moment, along with four-spotted chaser, scarce chaser and black-tailed skimmer. A myriad of damselflies adorn the vegetation in sunny, sheltered spots too- because of the network of pools and channels no damselfly is ever far from water here. Common blue damselfly, azure damselfly and blue-tailed damselfly have been seen a lot in this past week, along with banded demoiselles and red-eyed damselflies (this last species is very strongly tied to slow moving water with vegetation cover, such as yellow water-lily leaves).

Some blogs don't feature any mammal sightings, but I can happily report the presence of two roe deer in Brandon Fen (who showed themselves well to three volunteers doing a butterfly survey this afternoon) and a single roe deer was seen crossing the entrance track on 21 July too. Tushar Bala, a regular visitor, photographed this stoat running along a track on the reserve recently too:



Photo credit: A stoat running along the path. Photo by Tushar Bala and taken in early July.

A boring but important message about roadworks

Since 21 July (and until possibly 27 July) there are signs warning of a road closure on the B1112 Station Road, which runs past the reserve entrance) near Lakenheath railway crossing (just south of us). These signs stretch from Feltwell in the north to Eriswell in the south. If you plan to visit us, please ignore these signs- the road is not closed- very short sections of each lane are closed at separate intervals, allowing you to drive through the works. We have had a very quiet few days here so we believe these road closure signs may have had an impact on our visitor numbers; there is no need to find a diversion- the road is open! If the situation changes, I will post on our social media pages.

Our Facilities (this may be useful for newer or unfamiliar visitors)

I hope you have enjoyed this blog and that it has been useful. As always, please give us a call on 01842 863400 or an e-mail using lakenheath@rspb.org.uk if you have any questions for us.

Our upcoming events can be found here, including details and booking for our upcoming Big Wild Sleepout 2022 and our Race for Wildlife in October.

Best wishes,

Heidi Jones (Visitor Experience Officer, RSPB Lakenheath Fen).