Although it is only mid-July, several species of birds are already on the move. This especially includes wading birds, that nest up in the Arctic. We have had a few "travellers" passing through this week. Two green sandpipers were flushed out of Brandon Fen on Thursday morning and a greenshank was heard flying over the visitor centre later on that day. Sadly, it was too high for us to see. This morning a group of six whimbrels flew over Joist Fen viewpoint.
There are now plenty of young marsh harriers "on the move" around the reserve although they won't be thinking about heading south again quite yet. The latest estimate is that there were 18 nests on the reserve that have produced 37 young so far. Some of the youngsters and two of them, "LA" & "LC" were seen from Joist Fen viewpoint this morning. If you see any of the tagged individuals, we will be very grateful if you could report them to us as it is interesting to see whereabouts they are getting on the reserve.
As Ali mentioned in her blog yesterday, there has been plenty of bittern activity recently and one was seen in flight from Joist Fen viewpoint this morning. The local cranes have been out and about and four were seen near Joist Fen viewpoint this morning. This included one pair alongside the railway line and another pair in the fields north of the river. The latter pair may well be a visiting pair but we can't be sure. They always keep us guessing!
There are still a few warblers singing and a grasshopper warbler was reeling near New Fen viewpoint this morning. There was also an interesting singing competition going on in East Wood between a garden warbler and a blackcap. Although the blackcap was louder, the garden warbler's song was just a bit sweeter in my mind. Kingfishers have been seen in several places this morning including one that shot along the river near Joist Fen viewpoint.
The reserve is now awash with colour and there is now plenty of purple loosestrife to be enjoyed:
Image credit: David White
There are also plenty of butterflies on the wing including lots of meadow browns:
And plenty of dragonflies, which can be quite challenging to identify such as this newly emerged common darter:
We hope to see you soon.