Hello and welcome to the latest blog. We've had a good week for wildlife sightings here on the reserve and we have noticed a definite shift towards Spring and the behaviour and drama that goes with it for our wildlife. On Tuesday (3 March) we held our first bittern survey of the year, where we gather a few willing volunteers and stake ourselves out at different points across the reserve, between 06:30 and 09:30, to listen for booming bitterns and to record them. We are each connected by a walkie-talkie radio and in possession of a clipboard- we will record how many 'booms' in succession we hear, whether they were loud and forceful or quiet and meek, and roughly where we think the calls came from. By recording the exact time we hear them, and using the location data too, we are able to sit down and work out after the survey whether several people heard the same bittern, and therefore how many booming males (representative of active bittern territories) we have on the reserve. We had a quiet day on Tuesday for bitterns but that was expected; with our administrator Suzanne hearing one near to where she was stationed at West Wood, but not much else- which given that it's only early March, is about right! Next Tuesday we plan to do another count and then either weekly or fortnightly after that through the rest of March and during April too.

  Photo credit: A bittern in flight by Junita Davies, taken on 2 August 2020 on the reserve.

Then, we'll have a couple of weeks off surveying before a slightly different survey starts- this time counting behaviour that instead focusses on the female bitterns- feeding flights. Once the bittern pairs have mated, the females will go their own way and begin to build a nest. All the care of the eggs and chicks is done by the female, and to begin with she will bring the chicks food items (fish, insects, eels, amphibians, reptiles and rodents (anything she can catch really!) from the area immediately surrounding the nest, possibly to reduce the time the young and vulnerable chicks are left unattended. As the chicks grow, this local food supply runs low and Mum Bittern will need to look elsewhere- so she flies out to her old favourite feeding sites- which might be ditches or pools some way across the reedbed- and back again repeatedly to bring the food home. These flights in and out of the nest are what we will be counting for in the later surveys (mid-May through June) and this gives us a good idea of how many nests we have on the reserve. Whilst we're looking at the bitterns we'll also focus our attention on the marsh harriers- counting food passes from males to females in the air over the reedbed, and watch as the female takes the food down to the nest to feed to her own hungry brood. 

We have several volunteers to thank for their efforts during the cold and misty morning on 3 March for sticking it out for the full three-hour survey, and warden Emma too for getting to the reserve even earlier than the rest of us and for organising the survey itself. She kept us all in line and made sure we did the right thing at the right time! I was stationed on the riverbank footpath near Joist Fen and had one green sandpiper fly overhead, calling away, and this may be the bird that I have since learned has wintered on nearby Cowles Drove. About half a cold hour later it flew back west again.

These surveys are also a lovely opportunity to keep an eye on the other wildlife that calls the reserve home, such as little egrets, great white egrets, grey herons, water rails, bearded tits, barn owls and buzzards, all of which are easily encountered during the early mornings over the reedbeds. We are eagerly awaiting the subtle transformation of our great white egrets into breeding plumage- where for a few brief days their black legs develop a pinkish flush and their bills turn from yellow to black. It would be a sign that we had mature breeding-age adults on the reserve and it is not something we have noticed yet, but if it does happen it should do so around late March- in line with the time that the egrets at RSPB Ham Wall and the Holkham Estate in Norfolk also transform. We believe we have suitable nesting habitat here and between 5-7 adults on the reserve, so each year we cross our fingers and keep an eye out for them- if you see a black-billed great white egret on the reserve during this Spring, please do let us know.

Elsewhere on the reserve, the Washland has been busy with lots of duck action- up to 240 wigeon (this high count was on 22 February, although 50 is a more normal number), 8 shelduck on 5 March (10 on 3 March), a pair of pintail (3 March), 62 shoveler on 24 February and a dozen or so teal most days. Waders alongside the ducks have included 10 lapwing (5 March), 4 oystercatcher (3 March) and one redshank (3 March). Most days a few curlew drop by- if you hear their beautiful bubbling calls, do check the fringes and banks of the Washland, or the fields of Cowles Drove if you walk further up the reserve. They also like the pig fields south of the railway line! Curlew are a passage wader for us and early Spring is the best time to see them as they use us as a pit-stop on their migration north to breeding grounds in the uplands of the UK. We might also expect common sandpiper, more green sandpiper, avocet and black-tailed godwit in the coming weeks too.

  Photo credit: A couple of curlew in flight- look out for these overhead if you visit the reserve- photo by Les Bunyan.

Whilst Spring is beginning to creep into daily life, the redwings and fieldfares that have been with us during the winter are still here and often easy to see on a walk through Brandon Fen, calling from the poplar treetops whilst arranged along the branches, or rummaging through the leaf litter underneath the trees in big roving groups. Blackbirds and song thrushes often tag along too and you may see some of our small herd of roe deer (up to ten or so) especially in the early mornings or late afternoon as you drive along the entrance track. A lone male siskin is sharing our Visitor Centre feeders with plenty of reed bunting, goldfinch and a few chaffinches. We are also getting daily visits from a party of long-tailed tits, the odd marsh tit, plenty of blue tits and great tits and the water rail that visits the Photo Station is often there to pick up the leftovers, especially on cold days or in the mornings. Even if you don't see him or her, you can often hear it squealing or grunting in the reedbeds behind. 

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks' blog and I look forward to sharing the changes that take place in the coming week- with Spring upon us the reserve is changing day by day and this time next week we may even be able to talk about the first migrant birds having visited us. For now, we are open to our most local visitors for their daily exercise walks, and we encourage those of you who can visit us to tell us what you see- either in person if you see someone in a blue shirt out and about, or via e-mail (lakenheath@rspb.org.uk) or by telephone (01842 863400) or via social media.

With best wishes for the coming week,

Heidi (Visitor Experience Officer, RSPB Lakenheath Fen).