Yesterday was a lovely day and there were plenty of "blues" out and about. The bluest of the blue kingfishers were definitely out in force as these great photos show:
Image credits: Les Bunyan
Many thanks to Les for sending these over. The hovering individual was taken at Joist Fen viewpoint and the images of the bird with the fish were taken by the visitor centre pond. One of the individuals was perched there for most of the day on and off which was fantastic to see. They have also been very active this morning and I saw two flying along the river earlier on. One of the visitor centre pond individuals has also been entertaining us with its antics.
Now, I know that hobbys are not quite as startling blue as kingfishers but they were still showing incredibly well yesterday. They were seen from both New Fen viewpoint and Joist Fen viewpoint over the course of the day and one individual kept appearing over the visitor centre. Incredibly, as we were sitting having our lunch out in the staff car park, one stooped down and caught a dragonfly almost right over our heads! We will all miss their fantastic, seemingly death defying antics when they leave for Africa in about a weeks time
On the subject of dragonflies, there were loads on the wing yesterday including good numbers of electric blue emperors and migrant hawkers. They obviously had to stay very alert, with all of the hobbys tearing around!
In other news this week, we found this monster on the riverbank during the Long Walk on Sunday:
Image credit: David White
Its a goat moth caterpillar, which is one of the largest caterpillars that you are likely to find in Britain. It gets its name from the fact that it smells of goats. It was also rather vicious and kept spitting at us! Goat moths are actually Britain's heaviest moth. You can see why when the caterpillar is this size!
There was much excitement on Tuesday when somebody phoned us from nearby Feltwell saying that seven cranes were heading our way. One of our regulars saw six at Joist Fen viewpoint shortly after so goodness knows where the other one ended up!
A grey wagtail was seen from New Fen viewpoint on Wednesday and our first spotted flycatcher of the year was seen in West Wood. It was a beautiful morning this morning and I went for what turned out to be a very productive walk. The highlight was a red kite flew north over the washland being pursued by three carrion crows. I also saw my first brambling of the autumn which flew south over East Wood. There were plenty of spiders around including plenty of marbled orb weavers:
We hope to see you soon!