News from the reserve - 15 September 2023

Hello and welcome to the latest blog. In this one we'll cover our latest wildlife sightings as well as a round-up of what our weekly work parties have been up to, and some events that are on the way which readers might be interested in.

But first thing's first- the wildlife- and today we can report a new record for Great white egrets- the number on the Washland continues to climb steadily, and is showing no signs of stopping. Volunteer Paul Holness counted 21 this morning, as well as 24 Little egret, 10 Grey heron, 13 Mute swan, 21 Teal, 51 Gadwall, 6 Mallard, 3 Snipe, 1 Ruff, 69 Lapwing and 1 Greenshank. Not a bad list, is it? You may notice that Hobby is missing from this list, but early in the morning we don't often get reports. Hobbies tend to get going once the day warms up a bit and dragonflies take to the wing- and on 13 September we were very pleased to record a juvenile with an adult, flying over the reserve. This is our first known youngster of the 2023 (they are late breeders) and so gives us some encouragement that they have bred on the reserve somewhere this year.

Also on 13 September we had a little group of 9 Common sandpiper pass through, stopping briefly on the Washland. 9 is a very high number for us- normally we spot these in ones or twos, and not very often either. Kingfishers continue to delight visitors on a regular basis, with one fishing on the Visitor Centre pond this morning, at around 10am (15 September). He or she visited on 14th too, and we received the beautiful images below from visitor Hannah Harvey on 11 September. Hannah took them from Mere Hide.





 Photo credit: A juvenile Kingfisher from Mere Hide, by Hannah Harvey on 11 September 2023.

Earlier in the month, we had an unusual record of Red-crested pochard on the reserve, first spotted by Eddie Mallett- he saw and photographed two females on the small pool north of East Wood, between the public footpath and the river. Later that day, a second report came in- this time of a male and female on a pool in what we call 'New Fen Triangle' which is the wedge of reedy scrub south of West Wood, carved into a triangular shape by the hard and grass tracks which both head westwards towards Joist Fen. There are a couple of well-vegetated pools there which took the ducks' liking. You can see Eddie's photos below:





 Photo credit: Red-crested pochards (two females) by Eddie Mallett on 5 September 2023.

For those of our visitors who are interested in insects, there's a wealth of treasures out there to enjoy- just now we've had a late Brown argus butterfly laying her eggs (in between sunning herself!) on the Dove's-foot cranesbill outside the Visitor Centre, and Comma, Red admiral and Green-veined white butterflies spotted today. Large white, Peacock and Small tortoiseshell are still common and easy to see too. Early autumn is the climax of the season for many large and impressive insects, and common species to look for here include Roesel's bush-cricket, Short- and Long-winged coneheads, Field grasshopper, Speckled bush-cricket and ladybirds too:

 Photo credit: Roesel's bush-cricket by Richard O'brien

 Photo credit: Long-winged conehead by David & Liz Knowles

Spiders such as Marbled orb-weaver, Common orb-weaver and Nursery-web spider are easily found dotted along the hedgerows, and on 2 September our volunteer Jacob Tancock found our first Wasp spider of 2023- in Brandon Fen. She was suspended in her web around 30cm off the ground, in some nettles near one of the benches which border the paddock in Brandon Fen. It's quite likely she is still there as when their webs are proving profitable, they'll stick around. They suspend their webs deliberately low to the ground as their main food source is grasshoppers, and a low web catches more. When I went to see her a couple of days later, she had a moth wrapped up in silk as well as a grasshopper!

 Photo credit: Wasp spider by Michael Andrews

What the Humans have been doing

Our work party volunteers have been busy bees lately. Our mower man Phil has been busy cutting the paths and keeping the sward short and easy to navigate- and he did a fine job in last weeks' heat of keeping on top of it. Today (15 September) warden Katherine is out with Phil and others cutting the reedbeds- this is a task recently begun and is quite a mammoth job- we have to start in September if we want to cut all the necessary areas by February. It's a lot of work but the reason we do it is to provide a diversity of reedbed. Patches of different lengths and densities provide not only places for reedbed birds like Bearded tits and Bitterns to nest, but also areas more suitable for hunting, foraging and roosting too. A mixture of habitat attracts a greater variety of wildlife. Whilst the cutting can cause some disturbance to visitors, it is a necessary part of reserve maintenance and we are thankful to all of our visitors for understanding our need to get out there and make a bit of noise sometimes. This work only really happens on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so if you visit on these days we can let you know in the Visitor Centre where the work party will be on that day.

In other news, our Planning Application for modifications to the new land on Cowles Drove has now been approved by Kings Lynn and West Norfolk Council. This means that we can begin to make plans for the conversion of these 54ha into land more suitable for wildlife- especially wetland birds like waders and ducks. We plan to re-wet a lot of the new land and to raise the water table. Owning the new land we now have- thanks to the Morgan Sindall Construction Group- also allows us to make our previous landholding more suitable for wildlife too, as purchasing the connecting land gives us more freedom to adjust the water levels when before we were surrounded by other landowners who we may have affected.

Upcoming Events

In recent weeks, I have been beginning to organise our events for the Autumn/Winter season ahead, with help from Suzanne, our administrator, who has been putting the listings I write online, ready for visitors to book onto. This Autumn, as well as our usual offering, we'll be trialling an accessible alternative to the 'Raptors in the Reedbeds' guided walks (which will still run!) to hopefully enable less mobile visitors to witness the spectacle of dusk in winter over the reedbed. For this event, myself and a couple of volunteers will site ourselves at New Fen Viewpoint, just a short distance from our accessible car park. We'll have flasks with us to make hot drinks, plenty of biscuits and we'll watch dusk fall and see what turns up. This cuts out the walking involved in the usual event, which is an obstacle for some of our visitors and so we hope this new events makes things a bit fairer for all. So if you know of anyone with reduced mobility, do spread the word about this event. 

A brief overview of our events in 2023:

For events with a * next to them, we will hold one or more dates in early 2024 for these, but due to some technical issues with our booking system, we can't yet advertise them. For booking for any of our events, please click here where you can also find out more information about any of them. The Night Shift at Lakenheath Fen is a new event aimed at all ages- we'll be out looking for bats, moths, birds and any other nocturnal wildlife we can find as dusk falls across the reserve. We won't walk too far, so it's suitable for little legs, and we'll take our bat detectors with us in case we hear any.

Morgan Sindall Group Open Day

On Thursday 28 September (in two weeks' time) we are having an Open Day for employees of the Morgan Sindall Construction Group- the company who gave us the money to buy the 54ha of arable land that was up for sale last year. Thanks to MSG and also the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, we've now at the stage where we can start to make plans for how to turn it into wetlands for wildlife. On the Open Day, employees will come along to hear a talk from Dave, enjoy a guided walk from one of the staff team, a buffet lunch and a prize trail around Brandon Fen too. It should be a fun, full-on day but it does mean that parking will be very limited that day- as we will have up to 100 cars here for the event. Our total capacity is around 150, so there will be some space for our regular visitors. The Visitor Centre will be quite hectic on that day too, and we will be closing the roadside gate overnight on 27/28 and 28/29 September too. They'll close at 5pm and open at 9am on both days, and from 9am on 29 September the gate will be open again for the foreseeable future. During the event we are lucky to have the support of several of our amazing volunteers as car parking stewards, helpers in the Visitor Centre and back-marking the guided walks.

I hope this blog has been useful. I'd like to take a moment to thank all of our visitors who have sent in their photos, and told us of their sightings, after their visit here- they really help us to build a picture of what is here for future visitors. Sometimes it can be hard to find the time to get out on the reserve as often as we'd like, so your records really help. Thank you. It doesn't just need to be unusual sightings either- knowing we have 15 Goldfinches on the feeders is just as important to us as a record of a Goshawk flying overhead!

With best wishes for a happy weekend,

Heidi (Visitor Experience Officer, RSPB Lakenheath Fen).