Moths and monsoons

It has been a busy week and a very wet one here at Lakenheath Fen.  So here is a little recap on what has been going on.

We have had 34mm of rainfall in the last 4 days and half way into June we have already had slightly more than the average rainfall for the whole month and boy has it tipped down at times!  We had a visit from some of the Birdlife International council  members this week so we wanted the reserve looking in tip top condition.  Emma was out with the brushcutter and I took the mower out to cut back some of the paths.  All the rain helps the plants grow even quicker than usual and the heavy rain we have had knocks the vegetation down across the paths.  Our visitors arrived on Thursday and I got to show them around the reserve and most of our keys species including bittern, crane and marsh harrier.  I got to talk about conservation with visitors from Bulgaria, Italy, Lebanon and Singapore.  It was very interesting discussing the different challenges facing conservation across the world.

Whilst I was showing the visitors around Katherine and Emma along with our trusty volunteers were surveying the reserve for bitterns.  Nesting females are proving difficult to pin down at the moment, not helped by the inclement weather.  New Fen North saw most of the bittern action, as it seems to have done all week.  Earlier in the week visitors were treated to the sight of 3 bitterns clustered close together in New Fen North.  These birds had climbed up the reeds and may have been newly fledged young waiting to be fed by mum.  We are hoping for additional photographs from the visitors who saw them to see if we can establish that they were indeed young birds.  I have spent a bit of time both before and after work this week trying to see what these bitterns have been up to.  I went down to the New Fen viewpoint last night after work and again this morning and saw bitterns from the viewpoint each time.  Last night there was a bittern preening itself on the far side of the pool in front of the viewpoint.  This morning a bittern flew in to the same patch of reed. This morning I also had good views of two male marsh harriers hunting across the reedbed.

Image credit:  Dave Rogers

There were also a couple of common terns fishing in the pool.

Image Credit Dave Rogers

The kingfishers are very busy at the moment and this morning both parents were flying past the viewpoint like little emerald and orange missiles  going out to seek food for their young or coming back with a fish in their beaks.  There was also a whitethroat singing well at the viewpoint and lots of reed warblers chirping away and flitting around the reedbed.

This weekend Emma has been running a moth trap overnight and then showing visitors some the wonderful species we get on the reserve.  Highlights of the species caught on Friday and Saturday night include burnished brass, poplar hawk-moth, eyed hawk-moth and swallow prominent. 

Here is a burnished brass from this morning.

Image credit Dave Rogers

Finally two of our more challenging to see species have been on display this week.  Firstly distant views have been had all week of one of our crane families.  The pair we call Little and Large are visible (with some effort) from Joist Fen viewpoint.  We believe they are looking after one chick which is now just over 4 weeks old.  Large numbers of breaded tits appear to have fledged in the last week, so if you are in the right place at the right time you may get good views of these little gems.

So lots of lovely wildlife to see.  We hope to see you soon.

Dave Rogers

Site Manager