One thing I love about this time of year is the beautiful light in the mornings. Although it is very difficult to capture, as photos never do it justice, here are a few pictures of Brandon Fen and the washland from this morning:
Image credits: David White
These stunning views provide a perfect back drop for a lovely morning walk. There was a marsh harrier behaving rather oddly this morning as it hunted over the washland. It kept hovering over several of the local cormorants that were fishing in the washland pool. The cormorants didn't like this one bit, as it seemed that the marsh harrier was trying to steal their food. These raptors are not known to eat fish very often, but maybe this bird was looking for an easy meal. Unsurprisingly, it didn't get it! It did manage to pluck something off the surface though. Whatever it was though, it couldn't have been much of a substantial meal!
As I walked further along the bank, I almost trod on a small bird that shot up and crashed into the vegetation at the edge of the bank shortly after. Some of you may have guessed what this was. If you haven't, it was a jack snipe and that is a very typical experience of this species. It definitely "hit the road" when it saw me (sorry, I couldn't resist!) Hopefully, it took the hint and stayed hidden for a while, as that hungry marsh harrier was still on the prowl nearby!
It was really rather mild so there were plenty of plenty of invertebrates out and about. A large leopard slug was resting on the riverbank and there were lots of dragonflies on the wing. This included a late common blue damselfly was on the riverbank and several migrant hawkers were whizzing around over the staff car park.
In other news, kingfishers have been showing very well this week and two were in almost constant view for half an hour on Sunday afternoon in front of New Fen viewpoint. One was also seen in the visitor centre pond yesterday. There are still several hobbys around and we saw a bittern from New Fen viewpoint on Sunday afternoon.
Despite the fact that the wind is in the wrong direction for lots of winter visitors to arrive at the moment, a trickle of "northern breeders" have passed through this week. This has included several redwings, one or two siskins and a large female peregrine that was south of the railway line near the visitor centre yesterday morning.
Last but not least, there are still several places on the bearded tit bonanza guided walk on Sunday. If you would like to book places, please click the link for details on how to do so. We hope to see you soon!