The last couple of days have been really rather good here. It certainly seems like October is now in full swing. Ali saw a bittern at the west end of the reserve on Friday and there were a family of five hobbys over New Fen viewpoint. Two kingfishers spent most of the day whizzing around in front of the viewpoint and two common buzzards were also seen over the reedbed.
Yesterday turned out to be full of surprises. I went for a walk around the Brandon Fen family trail and had an incredibly close view of a female barn owl that was hunting nearby. Shortly after, a yellowhammer flew over, which is quite a scarce bird on the reserve:
Image credit: Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
There was plenty to see from the washland viewpoint. Simon, our local bird ringer came in shortly after reporting a juvenile black tern on the washland. This is a late record for this species, so it was lovely to see. It stayed around for a while and was seen on and off throughout the morning. There were also two species of chats present nearby. This included a late whinchat and an early stonechat:
These two little characters also spent most of the day near the viewpoint which was nice.
Although it wasn't a surprise for us who were "in the know" about this kind of thing, some of our visitors were very surprised to see the steam engine Oliver Cromwell steaming past the reserve at around 11am:
Image credit: David White
While I walked down to take my picture, a grey wagtail flew over New Fen viewpoint and a little egret flew into the reedbed nearby. There were lots of ruddy darters and migrant hawkers on the wing and a red admiral was gliding around near the washland viewpoint. There was also plenty going on down at Joist Fen viewpoint. Two cranes were seen in flight along with four marsh harriers and three hobbys.
This morning was freezing cold but it was lovely and sunny. I had a walk around New Fen North (the first area of reedbed) and spooked two roe deer that were grazing on the path. A hobby flew from Trial Wood to West Wood and a female marsh harrier was hunting over the reedbed. I heard kingfishers calling at least twice and there were lots of bearded tits pinging in the reedbed.
Its a lovely day today so why not come and visit? We hope to see you soon!