You may have noticed the recent media interest in our wasp spider discovery! Katherine has already done two live radio interviews for BBC Norfolk and BBC Suffolk and we’ve had online articles by Newmarket News and BBC News. Lots of you are now getting in touch with us and telling us about your own encounters with wasp spiders which is great – folk from Cambourne and Salisbury so far today! If you have seen a wasp spider, you can submit your records online to the British Arachnological Society. A photo is requested to back up your record so get snapping – then you can impress your friends and family with your photo too.
Now to the bittern in the visitor centre! We've had an extremely kind donation from a very talented local RSPB member, Jon Winnan. Jon got in touch to say he'd created a life-sized wooden carving of a bittern, for a British Decoy Wildfowl Carvers Association (BDWCA) competition. The carving won a Gold Award at the competition and he wondered if we would like it for our visitor centre. We immediately said yes and Jon dropped off his creation this afternoon:
Photo credit: Ali Blaney - Bittern carving by Jon Winnan
The first thing I'll say is the photo doesn't do it justice - you'll have to come in and see the carving yourself because it's absolutely stunning! It also has feather texture burnt into it as part of the design which you can't see from the photo. Jon said it took about 60 hours over six months to create and involved studying bitterns firsthand here at Lakenheath Fen as well as the use of photos. We'll be creating a proper display home for it in our reedbed corner in the centre so come and have a look - we already love our new addition and it's such a kind donation from Jon. Thank you Jon!
In other reserve news, we’ve been busy strimming as usual in all corners of the reserve. Importantly, we’ve re-opened up the bays along the east side of New Fen North reedbed which gives you the opportunity to peek into the reedbed and hopefully spot wildlife within. We’ve had sightings of grass snake and water vole through these ‘wildlife windows’ so why not take a walk up that way and see what you can spot.
Work continues on our plant beds out the front of the visitor centre, mentioned in a previous blog. The first one isn’t quite finished as we need to line it before adding the final layer of sleepers, but while we’re waiting for the liners we’ve started on the next bed.
Photo credit: Ali Blaney - plant bed progress
Big thanks to volunteer Darren for assisting last Thursday, not only did we get more done out the front but we also got a lot of work done out the back, around the visitor centre pool. Lots of strimming and raking has opened things up quite a bit but we’ll need to get back out with the boat – even though our water levels are low it was still a lot deeper in there than I was expecting in my waders! Happily, the work has already made a difference - a kingfisher was seen making use of a newly resurrected perch over the weekend, we’re also hoping the water rails might start popping back out on the strimmed ground too.
On to some sightings and an osprey was seen just this afternoon over Joist Fen North reedbed and was also spotted hunting over the washland yesterday. Two cranes were reported flying west past Joist Fen viewpoint and landing just north of the railway line in one of our grazing marshes. Cranes haven't been seen for a few weeks so this is another good report to hear, it's possibly one of our resident pairs checking in on their territory after a time away. Hobbys are still being seen as are sand martin, house martin and swallow. The high count of mute swans continues with 81 being recorded on the washland on Monday. An otter was also seen on the river by the same lucky volunteer Paul who counted the swans. I do find that one of the exciting things about visiting the washland viewpoint is that when you pop up onto the bank, you never quite know what you're going to see!
We've had a few buzzards around the reserve over the past couple of days with four seen yesterday and three today. Despite the cloud and drop in temperature we're still seeing butterflies too, many small tortoiseshell are around and I saw a lovely comma on a blackberry the other day, it looked very fresh. The butterfly that is, not so much the blackberry! They're just on the turn here. Volunteer Roy saw a common lizard trying to soak up some rays on the pond dipping platform this morning and ex-site manager Norman encountered a young frog down in Botany Bay. Norman also reported 20 bearded tits in the washland reeds north of Norfolk Fen reedbed, so if you take a long walk along the riverbank listen out for those. Finally, a cetti's warbler added some warmth to my morning by singing loudly at me while I checked one of our sluices. It's always nice to hear birdsong but when it goes quiet at this time of year I think we all appreciate it even more!