Good morning. It is really rather wet today so this morning’s blog post is more going to be about the breeding season that was rather than recent sightings. Dave did mention some recent sightings in his blog post yesterday and I will post some more recent sightings later on in the week.
It is that time of year when we have to submit the results of our breeding season here. I will therefore use this opportunity to tell you about some of our successes this year.
If you read our blog posts recently, you will know that the two pairs of cranes that call the reserve home have had their best breeding season yet. Not only was it the first time that we have fledged three young in the same year, it is also the first time that we have fledged twins here. This is actually a fairly unusual occurrence for cranes. If you have been following our posts recently, you will know that our birds have gone on their holidays out into the Fens so hopefully they won’t be away for too long!
As most you know, this reserve was created for bitterns. So, how have they got on during the year that the reserve celebrates it’s twentieth birthday? There were five booming males in the spring and there were at least four nests on the reserve. That sounds like quite a good year to me!
Although our marsh harriers have not done quite as well as they have done in previous years, there were still 14 nests that produced 23 young. Some of the young birds were fitted with green wing tags. This was done by our local bird ringer Simon Evans and is part of a project that is co-ordinated by the Hawk and Owl Trust. Here are a couple of pictures of the birds being tagged:
Image credits: David Capps
Image credit: Simon Evans
At this point, you may well ask what kind of results we get from tagging some of our juvenile marsh harriers. Well, in the past young birds from here have been seen at exotic locations such as Spain and WWT Martin Mere in Lancashire. This year, “LS”, a bird that was tagged here during this breeding season, was seen at Titchfield Haven National Nature Reserve in Hampshire on 20 August. That is around 150 miles from here as the marsh harrier flies!
Some of our scarce species of warbler have also done well this year. Cetti’s warbler numbers have (quite literally if you know how loud their song is!) exploded on the reserve. Despite the fact that they only nested on the reserve for the first time in 2007, there were 42 territories here this year. Our local grasshopper warblers have also done well, with six territories on the reserve.
I will finish with news about the kingfishers that call the reserve home. There were at least six nests on the reserve this year, which is great news!
Overall, we have had a great breeding season here at Lakenheath Fen. Let’s hope that next year is just as good if now better!