Good morning! Just in case you are wondering, I still haven’t recovered from last weekend’s wild camp out and dawn walk! I have now processed my photos that I took so here are my favourite two. They were both taken before 4am on Sunday morning:
The moon
Sunrise over Brandon Fen
We have also been sent in some fantastic pictures that were taken by visitors over the course of the week:
Male bearded tit carrying food. Photo credit: Neil Hughes
A lovely male cuckoo. Photo credit: Ian Goodall
The weather has been lovely this week and we have seen our fair share of sunshine. I went for a walk with Lizzie, our work expereince pupil around the Brandon Fen family trail on Monday. There were plenty of butterflies on the wing including several peacocks and small tortoiseshells. My personal highlight though was a single brown argus that was feeding on some common storks-bill at the side of the path. Why oh why did I not have my camera with me?! We also saw a common buzzard over the car park and heard a mistle thrush singing.
The long staying male red footed falcon was seen hunting over the west end of the reserve with around six hobbys.
The warm weather on Tuesday encouraged a grass snake to slither across the path near New Fen viewpoint on Tuesday morning. A bittern was booming in front of Joist Fen viewpoint and at least one crane was seen in flight from the viewpoint. There were at least 14 hobbys over the west end of the reserve and Ali founded some pretty ragged robin in flower alongside New Fen North. The Savi’s warbler was also still buzzing away from its favoured spot just east of Joist Fen viewpoint.
In amongst the mayhem of our first school visit of the year on Wednesday, there was still plenty going on wildlife wise. A cuckoo flew over my head when I opened up the visitor centre and there was a good selection of birds and prey in front of Joist Fen viewpoint. This included over the course of the day: The male red footed falcon, 15 hobbys, four marsh harriers and three common buzzards. Another flyover honey buzzard was also reported. Not bad at all! As Ali mentioned in her blog on Wednesday there were also three little terns over the washland during the afternoon which was a “Lakenheath Fen tick” for me!
I went our for a nice walk before work yesterday morning and heard a turtle dove singing in Brandon Fen. A barn owl was hunting over the washland along with two sand martins. A smart male marsh harrier was also hunting over the visitor centre.
I was also armed with my camera and took a few mediocre pictures:
The new trail around Brandon Fen (which now looks very difficult with all of the poplars in leaf)
Fungi sp. (If anyone has any ideas what this is let me know, because I don’t!)
Later on in the day, there were good numbers of dragons and damsels out and about in the sun yesterday including several scarce chasers and blue tailed damselflies. The Savi’s warbler fired up again mid-afternoon and a little egret flew over.
This just leaves a quick word on our golden orioles. The situation is still shrouded in mystery as the birds are not calling or singing much at all. Your best chance of hearing or seeing them seems to be from East Wood or Trial Wood (the first two poplar woods that you get to.) If we get any updates on what is going on with these rare and elusive birds, we will let you know. We hope to see you soon!