The autumnal feel has been in the air again over the past few days, although I did manage to get slightly sunburnt arms yesterday so the sun is still about! I think we were all working so hard we didn’t notice the rise in temperature, but more on that hard work in next weeks mid-week blog.
The osprey has not been seen for a couple of days, although we’re keeping our eyes peeled still. The birds stealing the show at the moment are hobbys, who are making their presence known vocally as well as visually. I was up on the washland this morning and I could hear them calling over East Wood and making quite a racket. I’m guessing this is the same family group that has been about for the past week or so. I also counted 10 little egrets on the far side of the washland from the viewpoint, four were perched up in trees then another six flew in and caused a bit of a kerfuffle as well as putting up three grey herons. Mute swans seem to be the most numerous bird of the moment, with a grand total of 75 on the washland.
Photo credit: Tim James – mute swan
Kingfishers are still keeping our visitors happy, with views from the visitor centre and New Fen North viewpoint. I moved on to New Fen North from the washland this morning and a kingfisher was waiting for me at the viewpoint pool, a visitor already there informed me it had been sat in a particular clump of reeds for quite a while. The fish were jumping all over the place in the pool and eventually the kingfisher must have spotted the one he wanted - with a quick flash of vibrant blue and a small splash, he was in and off again with his catch. Bearded tits were also pinging away around the same pool and flying back and forth between the reeds.
I’ll finish with the happy appearance of a whinchat, which was spotted yesterday from the Joist Fen viewpoint. Volunteer Roy was very pleased to have this particular bird pointed out to him by a nice couple already at the viewpoint. I didn’t manage to see the whinchats when they were here earlier in the year, maybe I’ll have better luck this time around although not today it seems – I’ll put that down to it being Friday 13th!