Although the mornings an evenings are now feeling quite autumnal, we have had plenty of summery, warm weather to enjoy in the last week. Starting where I left off on Sunday, I went for a walk in the afternoon with a colleague and there were butterflies everywhere! As we walked along the riverbank, we kept seeing small tortoiseshells and there were one or two painted ladys on the wing as well. Here is a lovely photo of one that was taken here by Tim James a couple of weeks ago:
Image credit: Tim James
We were hoping to see a clouded yellow, as there has been a few around recently. Unfortunately, we were out of luck this time and had to be content with marveling at another of Tim's photos that he took recently here:
We returned to the visitor centre to find out that there had indeed been one feeding on the riverbank about the time we were walking along it. Oh well! We did see a lovely hobby tearing through the sky over the first area of reedbed and a lovely comma resting alongside East Wood. There were also lots of dragonflies on the wing including one particular bench that was almost covered with common darters. Sadly, we didn't get any pictures as whenever we got close to them, they started flying around.
Although we weren't lucky enough to see it, the osprey was still around and was seen several times over the course of the day from Joist Fen viewpoint. As it has been so photogenic, here are two more pictures that Dave took a week or so ago:
Image credit: Dave Rogers
It was last seen on Tuesday afternoon, perched up in West Wood (the furthest poplar plantation.) Lets hope it sticks around for a while longer. Also of interest on Sunday was the sighting of a garganey on the washland on Sunday. This particular species has been particularly scarce here this year so this was a good record. It was in eclipse plumage though so it wasn't a particularly easy bird to identify though!
As well as the osprey, hobbys have been very obliging over the last couple of days with up to three birds hawking over the washland pool for dragonflies. They should stick around until the end of the month so you still have a bit of time to enjoy their dramatic antics before they head back down to Africa for the winter.
The local kingfishers have been very active recently and there have been regular sightings from both New Fen & Joist Fen viewpoints recently. One was also seen fishing in the visitor centre pond earlier on today. This bodes well for our kingfisher quest guided walk on Sunday. There are still a couple of places available so if you would like to come along, just click on the link to find out how to book. We hope to see you soon!